Poof... a whole year?

I can hardly believe that I am almost officially half way through my first full year of teaching. This is a snowy Friday afternoon, and my last student just walked out of the door, so I thought I would revisit some of my highlights so far...

1.) Breaking up a wand dual?
Yes, I said wand dual. You probably read the first two words and thought perhaps I was going to say fight. Although we do have fights at our school, on occasion, I have certainly never found myself in the middle of one. Unless of course you consider two freshman, pens raised and pointed at one another, frozen in a death glare, hands shaking, muttering spells, a fight. My witty response? "Gentlemen, drop your wands. Take this up on the quidditch field, not in the classroom." Snape probably would have been meaner.

2.) Me: "This is going to be really hard for some of you." Student: "That's what she said."
Now truth be told, I was expecting this to happen at some point. I mean, I teach high school: let's be honest. I did, however, prepare a response in advance. Mostly I just tried to act upset that anyone would even interrupt our class with such inappropriate nonsense. Then I used my friend Jill's trick-giggle in your elbow when no one is looking.

3.) A struggling student not wanting to drop into lower classes because they would lose me as a teacher.
OK, I consider this one of my bigger victories of the year. This student was from another district, transferred to F-M at the end of October, and could really care less about school. On the other hand, as I got to know him, I learned that he was a perfectly capable student and just lacked the confidence to act like one. I offered him a comfortable place to read after school and he took advantage of it. He was able to catch up on homework, before he even left the building, and slowly began to raise his hand and participate in class discussion. He added depth to the conversations, and was able to connect with a lot of the characters. He was recently asked to move to the ILEX program, which deals with alternative students who may be in danger of not graduating, but I was later told that he hesitated to make the move because he didn't want to leave my class.

4.) Me:"This looks like an important meeting, perhaps you should all get back to work." Male Student: "Well someone is pregnant, it is important...but don't worry Ms. Redmond, it isn't me. My vagina is fine."
Something that they do NOT teach you in teacher school is how to deal with THAT statement. Sometimes I just can't help but laugh, and not worry about the small stuff. Perhaps I just took comfort in the fact that he was not, in fact, preparing to bring a child into this world.

5.) Student: Well, maybe sometimes you can be forgetful. Me: Cindy, I am not forgetful! I take offense to that! Student: My name is Sherry, Ms. Redmond.
Riiiight. Well, what can you say to that? Sometimes, even teachers need to be called out on stuff. Trust- students will be the first ones to let you know that they have noticed something. Whether it be the hair color you used to cover up your grays, or your gravity-fearing zipper- nothing is sacred.

So hard to believe that a year has gone by since I have graduated from my M.A.T. program at Cortland, but what a year it has been! This reflection has been a great opportunity for....

...wait... what was I talking about again?