My name is Mrs. Eilertsen

Student: "Is this worth points?"
Mrs. E.: "Yes. Everything we do is for points. Now that you asked I'm doubling the points and the length of the assignment. I don't want to waste your time. You must think I'm wasting your time by how short the assignment is, so I'll add more to it."

Mrs. E.: "Please describe yourself to the class."
Student: "I'm chill"
Mrs. E.: "Chill. Can you expand on that choice of word? What do you mean by it?"
Student: "I'm chill."
Mrs. E. "Yes, we've established that. What are you trying to say?"
Student: "It means I'm chiiiilllll"

Student: "Teacher!"
Mrs. E.: "I have a name. What is it?"
Students: "Mrs. (mumble mumble mumble)
Mrs. E.: "My name is Mrs. Eilertsen. If you can't say it, then call me Mrs. E. One or the other. I don't call you student. I call you by your name."
Student: "Do you know your name is misspelled everywhere else?"
Mrs. E.: "Yes. I am. There's nothing I can do about it. Spell it like you see it in my room."

2 Students: (whispering, talking)
Mrs. E.: "Seriously?! First day of school? Do I have to move you?"
1 of 2 students: "What, me?"***
Mrs. E.: "Yes, you. No one else is talking!"

***I would like to add a grammatical correction. The student's real response should have been, "Who, me?"

Those above conversations were excerpts for your reading enjoyment. Real life quotes!

And so it begins. I got my students Monday, and I have to say it is going very well. Of course the first week of school you have to be so much more strict and emphasize procedures. For example, I've noticed my classes are all messy. So that means tomorrow I have to lecture, then check the room before they leave. Ugg. Teenagers.

Anyway, I have 4 sections of freshmen English and 1 section of sophomore English. So far, so good. I forget though, how entertaining (and alien-like) teenagers can be. Today, we had a student orientation in 3rd hour-which meant I had to drag my class across campus, lecture them on behavior, take attendance there, and listen to an assembly. Like teenage boys can actually focus for an hour on lectures about student parking, dress code and consequences. Hormones running everywhere. Since I don't know all of the students really well yet, I wasn't sure the name of these two boys that seemed to keep talking during the assembly. I got annoyed. So, I got up, gave them THE FINGER POINT and moved both of them. One had to sit by me (EWWW gross!!!!!). HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I will admit, the first time I taught (at the age of 21), I would NEVER have done that. I would have been too intimidated to point at a student and finger-wiggle him over to me to then lecture him on his behavior and move his seat. This time today, I don't know what took over, but I did it. I moved them. Then, when I got back to class, I discovered the two boys weren't even in my class at all!!! I have authority over all...

In a later class, glimpsing a hint of maturity in their responses to a question, I then asked, "how do you handle someone disrespecting you?" (Of course thinking they will answer something wise and thoughtful). My bad. The answer I got was "egg their house. It's fun."

Seeing their writing skills is somewhat funny and horrifying at the same time. For example, did you know you can now use the word "chill" to describe yourself (as referenced above)? What does that mean?!?! I also learned "baller" (kind of afraid to know the real meaning of this one), and "sexy" (yes, that really was on a paper. This word would never have crossed my mind in high school but okay....1 point I guess...she also described her mom as sexy, so maybe 2 points?). Eeesh....