Anticipating the end

I am counting down the days.  Thursday was one of those days that 20 years from now I am going to recount it and laugh as a foible from my first year of teaching, but I really lost it. 

It's funny how the worst class at the start is your favourite class by the end, and that you hate you favourite class and can't wit to see them walk out the door, knowing - dreading - that you will see them again next year.  So my favourite class turned "I-hate-you-all" class is 3rd period.  A bunch of delinquent ninth graders, of which no less than 5 have been arrested this year. 

We were beginning to watch a movie.  They've just finished reading excerpts from "The Odyssey" and I was going to show the movie - assignment-free - for 4 days so they could have a picture and review before the test.  The movie hadn't been running 10 minutes when the power goes out in the portable.  I send a good kind over to a few of the other portables to see if they have power, and when they do, send him out to get maintenance.  When the maintenance guys get there, they tell me someone pulled the switch on the circuit breaker.  I look at the 2 sitting right next to it that it could have been. 

They both deny, and since I had already started them on questions in the book because the power was out, I told them all to continue working.  Two boys on the other side of the room begin laughing.  Not laughing because something is funny, but laughing because it was disruptive and loud.  When I threatened them with removal, they began farting; a time-honoured way to guarantee a disruption and attention.  Next, the two boys I stared down next to the breaker switch start loudly complaining that they have to do work instead of watching a movie.  I tell them and the rest of the class that because they cannot handle the simple task of watching a movie, they will have to take the test without it. 

Then my little thug starts talking to the kid next to him about how he's taking 4/20 off, getting high that afternoon, "Sure, I know where you can get whip-its," and then when I stand over him telling him that kind of conversation isn't welcome in my class, he says, "Miss you know what they be?"  (The English teacher in me shuddered.)  But when I restated, he told me that "it was his constitutional right to say whatever I want," to which I replied, "It isn't your constitutional right to disrupt my classroom with talk about illegal activities."

His retort: "Miss, some kids throw chairs at teachers......I'm just talking."

I stopped and looked at him, and I must say that I've felt a bit intimidated by students who were mad and larger than me, but this kid was threatening.  So I asked him point-blank, "Are you threatening me?"

"I'm just sayin', Miss."

Can you see this in your head?  It's all grainy and black and white?  Okay, not really.  In fact, I doubt this will be the only time I come up against threats I can't prove, but there it is.  I wrote him up, and hopefully won't have to see him for a few days. 

Friday came, and my AP told me that I had a few presents in my mailbox, so I go look.  BOTH farters, BOTH kids who I suspected could have flipped the breaker switch, AND the kid who left w/o permission to go to the restroom: 3 days OSS.  Thank You, GOD!  And Mr. AP.  Thank you, too.  Now that I know I've gotten rid of them, I may show the movie anyhow.