You're not mean, you're just fiesty

Today was a very interesting day. When I got to work today the new schedule was still not announced, books had not been numbered, pretty much everything for the day was not ready. If you know me, you know I do not do well with chaos and confusion. The new teacher started today and she is a lot like myself so I do feel really great about the new team that is being formed. I just hope we can find some stability and consistency. The new textbooks, however, are a pain. You never really think about the quality of a textbook until you become a teacher. There are so many things that can turn me off from a textbook. Size of print, wording, examples, pictures, accompanying materials are all important features that can make a text worth purchasing. We have the misfortune of having the worst Algebra book known to man. The print is small, the book isn't user friendly, nor does it have any pictures. The book merely has a lot of numbers scrunched on a page. There is no way for a student to pick up the text and begin to even attempt to teach themselves. Luckily, I have lots of other materials due to the many teacher friends I know to help me out.

On another note, I didn't realize how tough I can be to deal with as a teacher until I thought back on some of the things my kids hear me say. For example, I am notorious for ignoring complaints or negligence. One of my kids came into class and says "Mr Stanley, I don't have my homework". Now I am pretty understanding but my kids should know better at this point to think I am going to feel sorry for them first. So naturally my response is "So what do you expect me to do about that". He says "You saw me do it yesterday, its just not here". My response "Well that was yesterday, I need it today". SMH. I going to do better one day but they have to learn responsibility so while I may make a few exceptions here and there, generally I just point them to the large display of what excuses are. Its so funny to watch them point each other to the Excuses poster in my room because that is always my first response if not sarcasm or lack of empathy. One of my kids told me today that I wasn't mean, just fiesty lol.