Sigh, same nonsense

Ok, today felt so much like déjà vu. Sigh, students and cell phones, meeting with principal? Sound familiar? Yeah, except that this time the incident took place in my other collège.

Well, I have been trying to fight a cold this entire week, but today it got the better of me. Fortunately, I had made some copies of Valentine's Day crosswords to do with my classes - thinking "that should be fun and keep the students occupied." The second hour of teaching didn't go too well though. I couldn't speak because of my sore throat and headache, so I let two students write the answers to the crosswords on the board, ask the other students if they weren't sure of the answer, and well if no one knew the answer I told them. However, one side of the class was particularly rowdy - listening to music on their cell phones and taking pictures. Since the students with the music were next to me (??!!...) I told them that I was hearing them and that they needed to stop. Oh well, that didn't work as they just lowered the volume. Some students even threw paper planes during the lesson. I just didn't have the energy to stress myself out this morning.

Soon the bell rang and the students left. I stayed in my room a bit because I was really feeling sick. After a while I got up and went to the staff room. There, the English teacher and another teacher told me that they heard that students did not behave in class this morning. (Two students told them what took place). The teachers and I went to the principal's office to tell him what took place and who were the students involved. Well, of the five students involved three of them are the usual trouble-makers, and apparently there was a meeting with their parents recently (like a week ago?). I'm not sure what action is going to be taken though. Well, the principal and teachers told me that I'm trop gentille (too nice) with the students. Ok, I got the point...I'll have to try to be firm once school reopens (in two weeks - yay for winter break!).

Well, because I was feeling ill (still not feeling 100%), I decided not to stay the day at the school. I have six hours of teaching on Fridays (from 8:00am to 5:30pm!), but today I only survived from 8-10am. Before leaving though, the English teacher and I wrote a report each of what took place (what I saw, and what the students told her).

Why is teaching getting so stressful?!