Some days the sheer volume of toxic emotional effluvium that high school students produce can overwhelm one's sense of chill.
Today I was beset by rampant assholery both within and without my classroom. My room is right off the courtyard, in an inadequately patrolled region. Being so poorly monitored, the ravening hordes descend upon this area in order to engage in their simian behavior far from the eyes of administration. As far as I can surmise, a cult has sprung up within this population solely dedicated to disrupting my 11th grade English class, and I honestly don't think I have ever brought more joy into anyone's life than I provide to the adherents of this malign faith.
The little pricks INSIDE my class are another post...
Well today, as I was again the impotent, star-less sheriff of the new wild west, I lost some of my fabled cool, and found myself becoming flappable. But I persevered, and showed due restraint.
I didn't use the word "motherfucker" even once.
But time moves on, and I continued my day with only the merest of facial ticks and the sound of the ocean pounding in my ears (tingling arms are usual in such situations, right?) And so I had no choice but to get to work with the rest of my teacher stuff. This included making my vocabulary worksheets, which I use with my weekly SAT vocabulary notes, using the new format of the redone SAT. But I was in a bit of a state, as I said before, so it is possible this oozed out ever so slightly in my usual format of creating a story using all ten of that week's words in context.
Either way, I felt a good bit better when it was finished, and now present this lesson for your own educational edification.
Enjoy!
Vocabulary Unit 5 Worksheet
Bellicose Obsequious
Critical Placid
Dismay Quizzical
Exultant Undermine
Hollow Wanton
Some days it can be really hard being a high school teacher. You watch all those movies where a young
teacher starts working at some school in a lower socio-economic neighborhood,
and through sheer force of will and determination, the protagonist is able to
win the hearts and minds of the students in the end, and when the big test they’ve
been working on rolls around, the kids do amazing, and our hero is ____________
with their joyous victory over those who were ready to write these kids off.
But it’s not that easy.
New teachers have to learn to deal with a wide array of challenges. Pointless meetings, needless extra duties,
and humiliating reviews rob you of the time you need to plan lessons. This is made even worse by the fact that
these wastes of time are only there to serve the needs of ____________ county
officials who only attained those positions through flattery and sickening
simpering.
But such things are found in nearly any job. The unique challenge comes from the students
themselves. It can be tough to face
nothing but ____________ looks when you ask the students a question about what
you just taught them a week, a day, or even five minutes ago. Many are outright ____________, and will
argue with you at every opportunity.
They will challenge everything you say in order to try to ____________
your authority, not to mention your very sanity. Others turn their aggressive tendencies towards
inanimate objects, causing ____________ destruction wherever they go; trashing
bathrooms, hallways, and classrooms in their campaign of mindless ruin.
This will threaten to crush your spirit, but you cannot give in to ____________; you
must keep your spirits up and smile. You
must always appear to be completely ____________ in whatever you do. This ability is ____________; if you cannot
do so, you will be destroyed.
And that great victory at the end of the year? After all you have given of yourself, locked in a
constant war against apathy, you may just find that victory to be ____________, and
you ask yourself if it was even worth it all.
And every year, you have to tell yourself that the answer is yes.
