sometimes you just shouldn't ask

i am burned out. exhausted. overwhelmed. frustrated. annoyed. every day i struggle to get through my classes. i am challenged by the desire to use explatives to describe and deride the students. luckily spring break is coming up shortly.

i do just have to survive the next few days...and that is the hard part. the other day was a perfect example of where my frustration is coming from. . .i was prepping the kids to do an experiement. reviewing procedures and answering questions. i had diagrams drawn on the board. i had them reading aloud. i thought it was going great. aparently not. once i was finished, i turn them loose on the lab and told them to get to work. given that i thought i was good to go, i took a seat at my desk to take attendance while they got started. it was of course too good to be true. i was immediately under siege by questions from students. all of which i had covered in my intro to the tasks.

and thus i made my mistake. i turned to a set of 5 students who were doing something completely incorrect and i asked them "what do you hear when i speak to you?" three of the students looked down at the table or away from where i was, one of them gave the profound "uh" as his answer...but the 5th student was the one who gave the most honest answer he turned to me, shrugged, and said "we don't"

so aparently i sound like Charlie Brown's teacher....gotta love it.