Mrs. H 1, Student T 0

My freshmen were writing an essay this week. It's about Romeo and Juliet. From what I've seen of them, these essays are not going to be fun to grade. Not fun at all. Even less fun will be the three extra days I've decided we are going to spend revisiting these essays when we get back from Spring Break.

Ick.

I'm not sure why these essays are so bad, but they are. It might be because it's the week before Spring Break and none of my kids wants to be writing an essay right now. Well, it's too bad they don't want to, because that's the lesson plan.

And we don't deviate from the lesson plan.

Actually, sometimes we do. But when we do it's because I want to, not because they want to. It's AWESOME to be the one in charge! I don't think it ever gets old, does it?

But, I digress. (I do that a lot, don't I?)

On Tuesday, students were supposed to come to class with a completed first draft. Those who did were dismissed to the computer lab right outside my door to type their essays. Those who didn't have a complete draft were not allowed to leave the room. They had to stay in the classroom and finish their drafts (for half credit, by the way - if I say it's due on Tuesday, I mean it's due on Tuesday!).

I spent the hour moving between the computer lab and classroom monitoring students. One boy, who was stuck in the classroom because he wasn't prepared, was not very happy with me. When I ventured back into the classroom with C to look up his grades on the computer for him, T loudly complained.

He said, "Mrs. H! I DON'T want to write this essay!"

Without thinking I responded, "T! I didn't want to hear you complain today. I guess we both lose, don't we?"

Oh, man. One day my mouth is going to get me into trouble.

The kids thought I was being funny, though, especially C. He said, "OH! Mrs. H 1, T 0!"