Words

So, there are words that sometimes I don't see coming. There is a joke in my class that I use a barbie doll to help me teach. I do this because I ended up always being like 3 people and acting it out was hard-so I enlisted the help of another "person."
Anyway, a girl brought me her Justin Bieber doll the other day, and I thought it was hysterical that it could sing. So, during passing times, I would stand out in the hallway, pressing the button to make the song play.
Some of the kids now apparently hate Justin Bieber (they start out loving and then it turns to hate!) and I happened to say, "What do you have against Justin Bieber". A kid right out loud said, "Well he's homosexual."

UGHHHHHHHH.

I hate these situations. I hate them because I won't and can't tolerate this. I hate them because I'm never actually quite sure what to do.

I don't think these situations are office referral worthy, mostly beacuse I feel it's more of an education time than anything. So, I asked him to go in the hall so I could talk to him. Left my class to go out there. He was mad at himself. He told me he doesn't think gay people are bad. We talked about words. How words hurt. How using a word as an insult is so derogatory. I told him I wasn't sure if I should give him an S.O.S or not.

Then I let him back in class and we went on with the day.

Then I contacted the guidance counselor and asked for her help. She pulled him, had another discussion, told him that if anything like that happened again, he WOULD be getting an SOS.

Sometimes it helps so much to have a little backup!

That time of year again

The thing I like least about my job might be the fact that it is an elective. That I "compete" with other teachers to have students enroll in my class. Whenever this time of year rolls around, stress comes along with it.
I find that a student telling me, "I like French better than Spanish!" is not the kind of compliment I want to hear. Sometimes, they'll tell me things they don't like about other teachers. It makes me extremely uncomfortable and I never know what to do. I hate that feeling, I hate that sometimes the kids think my class needs to be "fun." I do try my hardest to make it as fun as possible, but it's because I think learning is better fun :)