losing my mind

i swear the semester should be over already. it feels like SO LONG AGO since august 14. the kids are dragging their feet and so am i. it's hard to be upbeat every day and not get mad when they are STILL poking and hitting each other.

there are funny moments. i was trying to teach them how to correctly use parenthetical citations for their final papers, and they were lagging, so i said:

"okay, you put london, where it was published, and then?"

*silence*

i say: "okay, so then you put the colon, and then what comes after the colon?"

*giggle*

and then a whispered "caca."

and there is the most immature 10th grade class in the history of mankind, ladies and gents. funny as hell, but incredibly immature. on top of that, i have instituted the "mrs. satake huhu meter" with that class. huhu, the one word i picked up in hawaii, means "angry" in hawaiian, a feeling oft employed at the end of long block period with my seventh period. so every day, they come in and check in with a "are you huhu today, mrs. satake?" and if i say i am, then they know not to TOTALLY piss me off and just giggle and say poo-poo under their breaths. if i'm "not so much," they may start playing musical chairs and relocating themselves until i get huhu. if i'm actually pretty cheerful that day, then they'll start tagging each other with highlighters and writing "i loves penises and buttsex" in each other's homework planners. it's like chasing puppies.

and then there are the hard classes. i actually don't totally mind the poking and hitting, within reason. but i have one class that is pretty much totally comprised of all repeaters, delinquents (read: spent time in babyjail, stabbed someone, and is going to have a baby in january), and morons. and now we've got three new kids. one is a delinquent (read: i just got locked up not too long ago and had straight F's at my last school) and the other two are the kinds of girls that i just want to kill. no propriety. barely dressed. do no work and crib off besotted boys with a "come on, what's the answer, handsome?". came into my room on the first day dropping f bombs and kicking back on my couch without ever having met me. it's CRAP. it's like a battle for control of the classroom with them, since they've got the looks AND the racks to pretty much have every drooling XY wrapped around their fingers. it does NOT help that they're bitchy with me. i NEVER thought that the delinquents would be the most functional members of the class. SERIOUSLY. they do more work than everyone else. (this could be because their probation depends on it) but i am at a loss with the new class heathers. if anyone out there has a thought on how to love them better instead of resorting to kicking them out before i bitchslap them, please pass on the wisdom.

so who would you rather have? the colon kids or the barely-there-bitches?

me? colon kids. hands down. the homework planner tagging almost killed me. if i start regressing to poo humor, call me on it.