Tuesday, March 11, 2008
According to this recently released study, one in four teenage girls has some form of STD. I suppose this isn't surprising. I generally find teenage girls to be a little sluttier than they should be... I think it would have been nice if they reported the same statistics for teenage boys. I guess people care more about girls being sluts than boys being sluts. Oh well.
My new SAT class is thousands of times better than my previous SAT class at that school. They actually listen and don't have their own side conversations in class, which is nice. In my last class, there was a really dumb kid who pronounced the word "whom" as "wahm" (rhymes with bomb) the first time he read a question out loud. It made me want to kill myself. Luckily for me, the kid was the loser of the class, and it didn't take the "cool kids" more than half a second to make fun of him non-stop for it. I could have done something to stop them from taunting him...but I didn't. I think he deserved it.
I've adopted what I think is a good philosophy with my SAT classes: if you give a fuck, I give a fuck; if you don't, I don't. In general, I would say only about 10% of the students give enough of a fuck to actually do the work, participate in class, and ask the necessary questions to actually benefit from the class. About 40% want to do well, but they don't realize that until the last class or two, at which point it is too late for them to benefit. The remaining 50% don't give a fuck, and are only enrolled because their parents are forcing them. To these last 90%, I used to feel bad that they weren't improving noticeably in their practice tests...then I realized that they didn't care, so I didn't either. It has made the teaching experience much more enjoyable.
In general, though that top 10% of kids are usually the most obnoxious (asking a million questions in class, emailing me after class with questions, staying late after class for extra help), I find that they are actually my favorite students because they actually want to do well. But this isn't to be confused with the over-achiever, who I have no tolerance for in class. The prime example of this is the girl who, when you tell the class to just READ the passage, will read the passage, and then skip ahead and try to answer all of the questions based on that passage in the time I have given just to read the passage. I hate this girl, and she knows it.
Also, as a general note about class dynamics: I tend to prefer the rowdier, less "well-behaved" kids, personality-wise at least, to the quieter, shy, yet more intelligent kids. I find the latter group to be boring. At least I have some fun with the rowdy dumb-dumbs. I wonder if high school teachers feel that way... hmm
My new SAT class is thousands of times better than my previous SAT class at that school. They actually listen and don't have their own side conversations in class, which is nice. In my last class, there was a really dumb kid who pronounced the word "whom" as "wahm" (rhymes with bomb) the first time he read a question out loud. It made me want to kill myself. Luckily for me, the kid was the loser of the class, and it didn't take the "cool kids" more than half a second to make fun of him non-stop for it. I could have done something to stop them from taunting him...but I didn't. I think he deserved it.
I've adopted what I think is a good philosophy with my SAT classes: if you give a fuck, I give a fuck; if you don't, I don't. In general, I would say only about 10% of the students give enough of a fuck to actually do the work, participate in class, and ask the necessary questions to actually benefit from the class. About 40% want to do well, but they don't realize that until the last class or two, at which point it is too late for them to benefit. The remaining 50% don't give a fuck, and are only enrolled because their parents are forcing them. To these last 90%, I used to feel bad that they weren't improving noticeably in their practice tests...then I realized that they didn't care, so I didn't either. It has made the teaching experience much more enjoyable.
In general, though that top 10% of kids are usually the most obnoxious (asking a million questions in class, emailing me after class with questions, staying late after class for extra help), I find that they are actually my favorite students because they actually want to do well. But this isn't to be confused with the over-achiever, who I have no tolerance for in class. The prime example of this is the girl who, when you tell the class to just READ the passage, will read the passage, and then skip ahead and try to answer all of the questions based on that passage in the time I have given just to read the passage. I hate this girl, and she knows it.
Also, as a general note about class dynamics: I tend to prefer the rowdier, less "well-behaved" kids, personality-wise at least, to the quieter, shy, yet more intelligent kids. I find the latter group to be boring. At least I have some fun with the rowdy dumb-dumbs. I wonder if high school teachers feel that way... hmm
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