I'm only one person.

Most of us, when we're in grade school, learn a very important lesson, "If the teacher is helping someone else, although you can raise your hand, you have to wait." I have this one group of student who just can't seem to wait. And it's not just one or two individuals, it's more than 75% of the group.

The other day, I was helping three students (all at the same time), and it's obvious that I'm helping them. This one student (let's call her "Mugg") starts to call me "Teacher... Teacher... Teacher... Teacher... Teacher... Teacher... " NONSTOP After, the second time, I turned and said "I'll be there in a minute, let me finish here." She didn't stop. She just kept on calling me. After the 7th or 8th time, I turned and said "Hold on. I'm helping these students." (very firmly). Then she said "See how he's ignoring me? I can't believe this." Then she proceeded to call me again. Teacher... Teacher... Teacher... " I was just about to say something (even more firmly), when another student said "DAMN! Can't you see he's busy?! Can't you wait?!"

I felt like an angel came to my rescue. I felt such a feeling of relief. Then Mugg said (in spanish. I suspect because the student who called her out didn't speak spanish), "Come here." I just ignored her. When I was done, I walked over to Mugg, and asked what she needed help with. She wanted to know why Yahoo didn't let her into her e-mail! Even though it clearly said (and she read it to me) that the password was invalid! I just wanted to scream, or laugh, or say "GOOD!" The problem ended up being that she didn't even know her own e-mail address.

ARRG!

Sometimes we have problems with the server and can't print. So I tell the students "Don't print. Your computer will probably crash and you'll lose your unsaved work." And everytime, EVERYTIME, someone raises their hand and says "Excuse me, teacher, but my computer froze." And it's ALWAYS because they tried to print, WITHOUT saving first. Then another one. It's like with Jedi knights, there are always two. The one who doesn't learn by instruction, and the one who doesn't learn by example (usually IMMEDIATELY after the first).

Then, after seeing the first few test monkeys obviously fail, another student tries to print and their work goes through (the server briefly started working again). This irks me for two reasons:

1) they tried to print after I told them not to

and

2) without a doubt, WITHOUT A DOUBT, another two "jedi" students will try to print and the server will be down again, and they lose their work.

Damn Jedi!

I hate the complainers.

I don't mind helping a student to do some work, even if they're very slow. But I hate it when someone comes in and complains on and on. "I can't find my disk. Oh, Hell no! Somebody stole it. Why is no one helping me find my disk? I'm going to kick someone's ass. I swear I'm going to quit this shit!" Then, when I find the disk right where it was supposed to be, the student is totally non-apologetic, "Good!"

And to top it off, she constantly asks for help. Maybe she's never heard the saying "You attract more flies with honey than you do with vinegar". If you're the type of person who always seems to need help, wouldn't you naturally develop a pleasant personality? Oh, and on top of that, when she asks for help, she wants it now! If I'm helping someone else, she'll say something like, "Why are you not helping me?" or "See? This is why I can't do my resume, I don't get any help!"

The other day another student got mad at me because I wasn't helping her. I told her that I wasn't teaching that class, I was just there to help with computer problems. She gave me a dirty look, then said "I see how it is. You only help your favorite students! You're helping her, but not me." I then made it perfectly clear that I can't tell her not to do her classwork, because I'm wasn't the teacher for that class. That I was only helping resolve computer problems. She still acted indignant and told me that I wasn't being fair. Meanwhile, she wouldn't ask her question to the instructor, who was maybe 5 feet away. I called the instructor over, but she said "No, I don't need help." Sometimes you just can't win.

Wow!

While I don't think I'm a jaded person, or that I've seen everything, I believe that I have seen a lot and am not some "innocent, naive baby". But today... Wow! I overheard one student telling another about an experience she had this past weekend with her man (boyfriend, husband, or what... I'm not sure).

She said they go into a fight. A real fight. She said she took off her jewelry and told him to take off his rings, and they got into it, a fistfight. Right in the street! She said they went blow-for-blow, punching and hitting each other. That at one point they heard the police, so they took the fight upstairs to their apartment to finish. They fought all over, knocking stuff down, breaking furniture and dishes, etc.. The term she used was "crazy sick".

That it ended with them having sex, "crazy, angry sex that got a bit scary at times" is how she put it. That the next day, she almost ended up in the emergency room, because her side hurt, but decided not to go because she "didn't want to deal with all the questions and shit.". And she ended her story with "Yeah, that's my man... My man."

And, as if that weren't enough, the friend who was listening to the story said, "Tell me about it! A few weeks back I caught my man in bed with this little bitch from downstairs, I pulled her weave out and kicked her ass. I left the bitch right there on the floor, naked, and so she could watch as I sexed my man! Let her see how it's done right!"

All I could think was "Wow!"

STOP ASKING AND TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT! JUST ONCE!

I have a couple of students who tell me that they "know computers", but they ask so many questions, it makes me wonder. Most times it's one right after another. A few of my friends don't believe me when I say it's stressful sometimes. They think teaching adults is easy. Here's a typical dialogue with one of the students who "knows computers":

her: "Can you come here, I think this is messed up."
me: "Let me finish this class, and I'll help you out."
her: "But I think the computer is broken."
me: "Ok, let me see."
her: "It's not going to the internet. See?"
me: "You're in Microsoft Word. Open Internet Explorer."
her: "I was clicking on Internet Explorer! It must be broken."
me: "Let me see. Nope, it opened fine."
her: "Okay, so how do I go to that website?"
me: "Just type in the address and hit Enter."
her: "Type it where?"
me: "In the address bar."
her: "Oh, you made it seem like I was supposed to do it somewhere else."
me: "Okay, let me get back to the class."
her: " Wait, it's not going."
me: "Hit Enter."
her: "I did. It's broken."
me: "Well, hit Enter again."
her: "It's still not going."
I walk over and hit Enter.
her: "Oh 'ENTER'! I thought you said something else."
me: "okay then."
her: "It's not coming up."
me: "Give it a minute, the network is slow today. That's why we can't print."
her: "It's still stuck."
I walk over.
me: "See the bar? It's just going slow. Give it a couple of minutes."
her: "Okay, it came up. Now what?"
me: "Do what you did last time. sign in."
her: "Do I put in my whole e-mail?"
me: "Is that how you signed in last time?"
her: "No, I just put me account name."
me: "So just type in your account name."
her: "Do I type in the '@' symbol?"
me: "Did you do that last time?"
her: "No."
me: "Then don't."
her: "What's my password?"
me: "I don't know. You don't remember your password?"
her: "Yeah, it's the same as last time, right?"
me: "Yeah."
her: "Can you help me with this? I can't find that job listing I was looking at?"
me: "Just repeat what you did last time."
her: "But that was at a different website!"
me: "So go to that website, sign in, and search for it there."
her: "I don't remember the website."
me: "What was the name of the site?"
her: "Hotjobs.com"
me: "That's the web address."
her: "Well, then I guess I don't remember the name."
me: "Type in 'Hotjobs.com' and it'll take you there."
her: "I know how to do that."
me: ".... ! Okay, but the printer isn't working, so don't try to print."
A short while later.
her: "It's not printing."
me: "I know, thre's a problem with the network. That's why I said not to print."
her: "Even off the internet?"
me: "Yes, even off the internet."
her: "When will it be working again?"
me: "I don't know. The network people have to fix the problem."
her: "Can't you go there and fix it? I need to print this, so I can e-mail them."
me: "If you're going to e-mail them, you don't need to print anything."
her: "Then how am I supposed to get the e-mail address to send to?"
me: "Write it down on paper."
her: "Why can't I just print it?"
me: "Because 1. you'd be wasting paper, 2. it's just an e-mail address, it's short, write it down, and 3. the printer is not working, remember?"
her: "I thought computers are supposed to make things easier. Now I have to write this myself. I'll just do it tomorrow. The printers will be working by then, right?"
me: "... !!!!" (internalized cursing)

Now imagine actually working in Word or Excel with this person.

Remember Pat from Saturday Night Live?

Pat was the androgynous character that know one knew what his/her gender was. Anyway, I was teaching this class the other day and someone was waiting for me. At first I thought it was a women, the I wasn't sure, then I thought it was a man, then I wasn't sure, then I REALLY wasn't sure, then I realized it was a man when I saw the name on my attendance list.

Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy, but I was just thrown off by his appearance. He's an older man, but you can tell he's had plastic surgery, which gives his face a strange, artificial appearance. Also his hair is a little "off", it's looks like either it's a really good hair piece, or he goes to the salon a lot. Plus he wears small hoop earrings. He talks a little weird, kinda like a combination of an old woman and Fenster from "The Usual Suspects". When he sat down, he moved a little slowly, like a normal older person who doesn't want to get hurt, and you'd expect an older man to move slower and have a little less strength, but this guy walked out of the class fast and gave me a hard pat on the back! Add to that, the fact that he's really tall, and you have a totally weird combination. It's like he was "thrown together" or something.

A job well done is it's own reward.

Compliments are great. In a staff meeting, someone mentioned how someone else (an employer, i believe) was surprised that the students knew so much about using a computer (MS Word, Excel, Internet, mail merge, etc..). So I much-appreciated "good job" from the boss.

Some people always seem to "know".

I have a student who alwyas has an answer, even for the questions she asks me. She'll tell me that there's something wrong with her computer, then when I go to fix it, she'll say somethng like "I was going to fix it, but I just wanted you to see what the problem was. I could have done it." or "It said the same thing last time, and I saw you fix it, but I didn't want to get blamed for messing it up in the first place." The other day she asked me to help her adjust her document so it would print on one page. As I did it, she said "Oh, I thought you had a better way to fix it. I knew how to do that. I didn the same thing on my computer at home." Maybe once, she just said "Oh, that's how you do it. Thanks."

Can you not smell yourself?

One of my students smells bad, VERY BAD. She smells like she urinated on herself, and has been wearing the same clothes for a few days, in the middle of summer. Nasty, just nasty. I don't know what it is, everyday she wears different clothes. They look clean. If I was someone else, I'd say something to her. But I try to make everyone feels comfortable in my class. Even if you smell.... BADLY. I'll act like I don't smell anything. But with this lady... whew! There are times I thought I would gag, but I held it in. It wouldn't bother me so much, except that when she asks for help, it's always a bunch of questions right after the other. DAMN! Give me a break between questions or something. Let me get a nice lung-full of clean air, and then I'll be right back to help you.

I just hope it's something that she can correct, not like that's her "normal" body odor. Maybe I'll talk to her one of these days.

You don't always get what you think is your's.

Yesterday, a lot of the students were on the computers working on their resumes, and there weren't any available computers. This one student (Who I'll call "Tough Girl") starts to complain, "You people get a lot of money for us being in this program. You should have new computers here for us! I shouldn't have to wait for someone to finish." I try to explain that just because we get money for teaching her, it doesn't mean we can buy anything and everything. We have a budget we have to stick to. And that we don't all get a million dollars for just teaching.

Tough Girl is funny sometimes. She connects totally unrelated topics and expects you to see her point. For example, another teacher told her to go see the job counselor to work on her resume, but he had stepped out for a few minutes. So when he didn't answer his door, she got upset. "This is crazy. She's supposed to be our teacher, how she gonna send us to see someone who isn't here!" I told her, The counselor hasn't gone home yet, she just stepped out, and to just have a seat and wait. She replies, "But do you understand what I'm saying? She's supposed to be our teacher. How is she going to send us to see someone who isn't even here? What are we supposed to do now? I don't want to sit around all day. I got things to do." So I reiterated, "She just stepped out for a few minutes. I think she went to the bathroom. She'll be right back. Just hang on. You can't go home yet, you're supposed to be here anyway." She didn't seem to get it.

Got caught once, shame on you. Got caught again, just give it up.

I have student (I'll call her Sneezy - she has HUGE nostrils and seems to blow her nose a lot), who always, ALWAYS, says she already knows whatever I'm trying to teach her. If I'm teaching Word, she'll say she already learned it. If I'm teaching Excel, she already learned it. The problem is, she doesn't. She always gets things wrong.

Yesterday, I was going over computer basics and she said already knew "all about the basics", but she tried to insert her floppy disk in backwards. When I asked everyone to open WordPad, she said "Oh, I know this program, it's like that other program... whatsitsname." So I decided to test her, "Windows?" I asked. "Yeah dats it!" she said. So said, "No, Windows is the operating system. This is nothing like Windows." She tried to cover, "No, no, I meant that other program. The one with the nice buttons." So I tested her again, "You mean, Excel?" "Yeah! that one.", she blurts out. "But this is totally different from Excel." I say. Again she tried to recover, "OH! I got confused, I know Excel. I meant that other program, you know." I go for one more test, "Internet Explorer?" "No, I got the internet at home. It's that one everyone uses." I say "PowerPoint?" "That's it!" she blurts out. So I decided to end our little sparring session. "No, that can't be it. You must mean Microsoft Word." "Yeah, yeah." she says. ("What...ever!" I say to myself)

She's also one of the students who goes online to sites she knows she shouldn't go on while in class. And then she gets caught because she always seems to end up at one of those sites with the neverending pop-ups, and she can't seem to get them all closed. So she moves to another computer, and she tries to be slick by saying "Excuse me, someone left the internet on over here. I don't know who, I just found it like this."

ANother day, another aspirin.

Same old, same old.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I have this one student (the loud sidekick from a previous post, let's call her "sidekick girl"), who just doesn't want to learn, and is always getting caught doing something else. I personally think she's on something. Maybe crack.

Anyway, I always catch her doing something else when I'm teaching. If we're doing word processing, she's on the internet. If we're on the internet, she's playing a game. If we're in Excel, she's "practicing" her typing while reading a magazine. She didn't do any of the assignments I gave out to be done over the break. It doesn't really bother me because she doesn't get credit for that time and loses out on any benefits (daycare, car fare, etc..).

But it's funny to see her try to avoid answering why she doesn't have it. I asked her for her work, and she said "Oh.... isn't it on your desk?" I replied "No. Did you do it?" She said "Um.... (LONG pause) lemme see if I saved it." And she starts checking her floppy disk. Mind you, this is the floppy disk all the students keep in the lab, so unless she snuck into the lab sometime in the last two weeks, there's ABSOLUTELY, NO WAY it's going to be on that diskette. She then keeps this charade up until she thinks I lost interest.

In the middle of class (actually well before the middle of class), she gets up and mumbles something about "bathroom" and leaves the classroom. She never comes back. At the end of class, I have the students sign out like they ALWAYS do. Another student that was sitting next to "sidekick girl" says "Oh, you have us sign out too? I guess someone is in trouble." Yep. I had to put her down as absent from the whole class. That more class time she's missing.

What do you do when you're a toadie and no longer have anyone to cling to? You say your little comments, but they just come across as pathetic. It's just a sad sight to see. Like a sidekick without a main character.

Just one more day.

You know when you come back from a break, no matter how long it was, you'd be happy if it could be extended one more day. Well, I got my wish. The day we came back, we had a problem with rooms, so the break was extended one more day. AH! How sweet it is!

The sun can't always shine.

As I was on my way to class, I saw one of my students. She had been very quiet lately, and today she seemed more quiet than usual. I noticed she was teary-eyed. My first instinct is to ask what's wrong, but I hesitated because I wasn't sure what the "proper procedure" for handling this type of situation was. I asked anyway.

She told me that she's depressed and scared. She had been attacked some years ago, and her attacker is back out on the streets. She knows that he follows her every now and then. I thought that this was the reason she was feeling the way she was. I had only scratched the surface.

She has a long history of being victimized, coupled with feelings of inadequacy because she's not working, plus she feels that her children don't love her. Also, she has abandonment issues, because her husband left her recently. Whew! I almost feel overwhelmed just listing all her problems.

So I talked to her for a few minutes, and listened for a few, then talked for a few, etc... She wasn't even going to my class at that time, she just wanted someone to talk to. She was already talking ot one of the counsellors here, but I think she just needed to tell someone new.

In the end, I think I might have allowed her to unburden herself a bit, and let her know she had another ear to talk to.

The Key is Cooperation

I'm laid-back, easy-going and fun. Those also happen to be the qualities of my favorite childhood teachers. I tell this to my students right off from the beginning.

"I'm here to teach. You're here to learn. If we work together, we can have fun while you learn. If you want, you can try to take advantage of that, by goofing off and not paying attention. Either way, i still get paid. The only one that loses out is you, because you will have left here in the same situation as when you came here. And don't think that you can learn everything in the last week, because if it were possible, that's how the program would be run. So please, for yourself, not for me, pay attention in class."

So far, most of the students I've given that little speech to have paid attention in class and learn a lot. Today, my last class learned the basics of MS Excel in about an hour and a half. They now know how to make a finished spreadsheet for a payroll budget. And they learned because they paid attention. We even made jokes along the way. They had fun while learning.

And to think that when I started here at least three other ("older") instructors told me "don't cut them any slack, Give an inch, they'll take a foot.", "You got to be tough with them.", "If you let them lose respect, they'll run all over you."

"Excuse me, Mr Teacher..."

Seems my "difficult" student has decided to make a change. I didn't have to yell at her, or act preachy, or report her, and I did it "myyyyyyyyyy waaaaaay" (ala Frank Sinatra). All I did was 1) make her aware of her behavior, 2) point out the consequences of not paying attention, and 3) treat her as I would like to be treated. Only took a few days, but I persevered. It wasn't a total 180, but her attitude is much better than it was last week. It's real hard to teach someone when they do their best to dismiss you.

Now I hope this change in attitude sticks. I'd hate to see her go back to being difficult.

The Shrimp

There's this teacher that works with me. I've dubbed him "The Shrimp", not only because of his height, but because of his personality. My view on the other teachers is if they can teach, and the students learn, good. Some people seem to think that there should be some sort of heirarchy, not based on seniority, but on their evaluation of you.

I was asked to work with this certain group of students, alongside The Shrimp. We each had half of the group to work with. I was told that he would give me any assistance I needed. Although he seemed helpful at the beginning, I soon realized that he wasn't really being helpful. He told me that there was no real course outline, or lesson plan, that I "just needed to go over the basics with them." (computer basics, the internet, word and excel) When I asked him what exactly they had to learn, he said "Don't kill yourself, just teach the very basic stuff you teach in the basic classes. Most of these students have never touched a computer and they probably won't retain much anyway." I thought "Poor attitude". All he told me was that I had to test them atthe beginning and at the end of the program to show that they had learned something, "any little improvement would be enough."

After about four weeks, I was going good. I had showed them computer basics, taught them about the internet, we were breezed through Word, and were starting Excel. I patted myself on the back, for doing a good job. The Shrimp then gives me a course outline, THE course outline. When I asked him why he hadn't given it to me earlier, he said he thought he did. BS! Then I started to realize that he either disliked me, or felt threatened by me (I was popular with my students, they bragged to his students that they had learned so much more). I didn't really care, it's not like he's my boss or anything.

I'm friends with a lot of people in our office, and some of them have told me that they've overheard him talking bad about me. "He's never prepared.", "He doesn't know the material as well as he should.", "He makes us look bad.", etc... So instead of confronting The Shrimp, I had decided to keep a mental note of everything people tell me, and just ignore his crap.

Last week, The Shrimp found himself in a bind. he had a scheduling conflict and would have to miss a few classes. He couldn't find anyone to teach those classes, so who does he come to ask to help out? Yep, me. When he asked, I thought about just having it out with him, confront him with all the crap I've heard he's said about me. But then I thought about it, and thought the students would be the only ones to lose out. So I decided to be the bigger man, do a great job and just be the best teacher I could. That if I did a good enough job, someone would realize. "Hard work is it's own reward." Today was the first of classes I'm substituting for him, and the students loved me (at least I hope they did). They told me that I was definitely friendlier and helpful than he was. I hope he finds out, and curses me.

I don't really wish him harm, just that he contract a nice case of oral hemorroids.

When playing "Follow the Leader" the key thing is to follow the leader.

I've noticed that whenever you tell a group of people to follow you as you go step-by-step through something, there's always one (sometimes more) that will skip ahead. Which isn't too bad. The problem is that 97% of the time they'll mess up and ask for help, which you can't answer because you're not at that step yet. What is more amazing is when it's someone who thinks they're smarter than they actually are, and usually ends up asking questions A LOT.

I had this one student who would always, and I do mean always, skip ahead, mess up, and ask a question, out loud.

student: "Excuse me! I don't have that on my screen!"
me: "Oh, you went ahead again."
student: "No I didn't. It just happened. The computer has been acting screwy all day."
me: "No, you went ahead, this screen is part of the next step. See?"
student: "OH! I thought I was doing something else. Sorry."
me: "Try to stay with us."
student: "I was, my computer is acting funny."

------ less than a minute later ------

student: "Wait! I'm lost!"
me: "Click 'previous' on that screen."
student: "that's not it!"
me: "Oh, you went ahead two steps this time, that's why."
student: "I didn't do that."
me: "Ok, just stay with us." (kill me)

Advice: If you skip ahead, shut up and wait. Oh, and shut up.

Have you ever offered something to someone, then ended up wishing you hadn't?

My class came in asking (more like "telling") me if I was letting them go early ("Like in ten minutes!") to avoid the thunderstorm. I told them we have a lesson to do, and that takes priority. They moaned, and hemmed, and complained, so I offered them an alternative, "The lesson should take 45-60 minutes. If we all work together, and everyone pays attention, when we all (keyword here "all") finish the lesson, we can leave." I consented because there are more pregnant women in this group than in the others, and I imagined then tripping and falling in the thunderstorm. They were ready to go, People even got off the internet. I was surprised.

There were a few problems here and there, someone's computer froze, another forgot to copy a file, etc.. But we were marching along. Thirty-five minutes into the lesson, a few of them start to "just mention" how were getting close to "the forty-five minute deadline". I know, when did it become a "deadline"? So I reminded them that we ALL had to finish. Someone said "I can't believe this! Why do I have to stay late? If I'm done, I should be able to go." This was one of the first people in class to have a problem with her computer. She also complained about how I wasn't fixing it fast enough. Anyway, someone printed a bunch of copies, so we ran out of paper. And some complained about how they had to "wait so long" for me to find some more. In the end, they left after sixty-five minutes (of a two hour class), complaining how I "went into overtime". Give an inch, they take a foot. Give a foot, they take your whole friggin leg! You just can't be nice to some people.

Next time, I don't care if it's the Apocalypse, they're staying until the end of class. No mercy.

When someone is offering you a hand, take it.

One of my students told me that she had didn't have her assignment to hand in, because she left it at home. So I told her that I had to submit it today, and suggested that she re-write it quickly in order to get credit for it. So she starts to complain about having to do "double work", how I'm "unreasonable" and asked why she should have to do it over again. So I suspected that she hadn't done it in the first place, and asked her to tell me a little about what she did. She didn't even have a good story, and it kept changing. So I told her that my hands are tied, and I have to have something to submit. She then proceeds to "ask" me "So why don't you stick up for us? Why are you just leaving us blowing in the wind?" First, I don't know who this "us" is that she was talking about, she was the only one without her assignment. Second, what makes her think I should (or would) stick up for her when for the last two classes, all she's done is be difficult in class? So, now I'm offering her a chance to do the work she hasn't done, and she not only doesn't want to do it, she wants me to "stick up" for her. Sometimes all I can say is "WOW!"

It's funny how the mind works.

Once I was teaching computer basics (use a mouse, parts of a computer, use Windows, etc..), and I told the students to move their mouse up and to watch the pointer move. I heard someone say "It's not moving!" When I looked over, she had the mouse in the air, lifting it. I held back a giggle, then said, "No, forward." She leaned forward in her chair, mouse still in the air.

Funny thing is, that's happened a few times over the years.

Today my head almost exploded.

It's so hard to teach a class when someone decides to be difficult. Doubly so, when that student gets a sidekick. I was trying to do today's lesson, which was going over some material that the class didn't quite get the day before. Plus a few students were absent the day before. So this was really for their benefit, not mine.

The student (the one in my previous post) decided to ask a bunch of questions, not questions to understand something, just questions. And by the time I was halfway to her desk, she'd have already answered her own question. "What did you say? Nevermind." "Where is that? Forget it, I see it." "Say that again! Forget it, I heard you." "Where? Oh, I found it." "I don't see that! Oh, I was looking at the wrong place." "Speak up!" "That's not what it says on my screen! Oh, yes it does." "What did you say? I wasn't paying attention."

Now throw in her sidekick, who can never follow what we're doing in class and is always laughing and making bizarre little jokes. Her: "Come here and show me that." Me: "Okay, just give me a sec." Her: "HA! You buggin'! One second! HA HA HA HA! You funny, Teacher! You crack me up." Yes.. just like that. Plus, when class is over, they're two of the first ones racing to leave.

I'm trying to see if I can get them to settle down before making a big stink, reporting it to the office, but there are times when they really disrupt the class. Between them and other legitimate questions being asked in the class, I couldn't finish the lesson. It took more than an hour and fifteen minutes to get as far as we did. I did the exact same lesson with the next class, and we were done in about thirty minutes.

If they don't learn to settle down, I'm going to have to report them. I'd rather not because in the end they don't learn anything, but I can't let the rest of the class suffer for their issues.

It's really pleasing to see one of your students really learning and asking questions.

I have one student who comes in everyday and she asks questions. She sincerely wants to learn, not to just know, but to better herself. She wants to get a decent job, so she not only comes to learn, but she also tries to comport herself in a professional manner.

Students like these make the teaching experience fell "nice", but they're not the ones that make you feel fulfilled. It's the students who think they can't learn, or that they're wasting time, that really challenge you. Getting one of these students to "see", to understand the material, that's what makes you feel like a teacher. That's when you understand why people become teachers for crappy pay.

Today was a frustrating one. I was teaching a class of students in a public assistance program. It's pretty nice, they get carfare and daycare paid for as long as they attend classes, in order to be better prepared to find a job.

I gave the students an assignment to do on friday, and hand in on monday. They have no classes on friday, but they still have to go out and do an assignment. I tried to make it something that was simple and they could do in a short while (maybe 30 minutes) and they complained, that's okay, no likes to work on their day off, I completely agree. But I have to give them an assignment, or they don't get credit for that day.

So one student wanted me to stop the class so that I could help her to do the assignment right there and then. Even as I was trying to explain what the assignment was, she kept saying that A) she couldn't do it, B) that she didn't understand it, C) why wasn't I helping her do it, and D) why do I have to give them work to do on their day off. Now, keep in mind that they have to go out, because they are still getting their daycare paid for. I told her that I'd help her after we finished the day's lesson. Her reply: "No, I don't think so! Then we'll be on MY time, and I ain't wasting MY time sitting in no classroom!"

I explained that I had to do the lesson, and somehow managed to calm her down. But afterwards, I helped her do the majority of the assignment, and she was still upset! "Why couldn't you just do that in the first place? And you still didn't help me finish! Now I gotta go home and write this shit up!"

Somedays, I just want to scream.

At the suggestion of a friend (don't they all start like that?), I decided to start a blog of some of my experiences as a computer teacher in New York City.

This isn't meant to make fun of anyone, just to share my experiences with whoever reads this.

Every now and then, I'll be posting some stories about previous experiences (to fill in some of the blanks).