My Worst Nightmare

So I consider myself an early childhood educator. I'm good at dealing with younger children and I have a lot more patience and tolerance for little kids. I don't really know how to deal with high school kids so much. Mostly in the sense of discipline and keeping them in line. With little kids the "I'll call your mommy" still works or when you try to confiscate something they still give it to you.

The thing that irks me the most with high schoolers is everything is about being cool and "frontin' on somebody" or embarrassing the teacher or whoever you can and most of all proving how little you care about any and everything.

As much as I feel like I can't handle high school kids, I accepted a substitute teaching position for a day at a high school... for emotionally disturbed children with behavioral problems... If I could show you the face I was making inside my head when I realized that's where I was. When I accepted the position it didn't have a grade level on it and the name of the school didn't give way to the fact that it was a high school.

When I tell you it was slightly not as bad as my worst fears... yet really it almost was. I was a teacher assistant and the main teacher told me she had a few of her worst kids suspended at the moment so I guess I lucked out?

The kids that I was there with were pretty bad too. This one kid was high out of his mind and eating the whole day, talking back and disrespectful as hell. The teachers couldn't get the kids to put away their phones or take out their headphones. This one girl actually did her work... then when she started playing music on the laptop she was privileged to use and the teacher was asking her to turn it off so he could continue with class... she tore up her completed work and threw it in the teacher's face. Then there was a girl who walked in and looked like she was older than me! Apparently almost 19 and not even close to graduating.

And lastly the kids were being basically spoonfed the answers for their work and just don't do it because they don't want to. The teacher was giving a test and to study she gave the kids a study sheet which was the test but she took the word test off the top. Then when they came to class the day of the test she gave them time to study again and they were still too lazy to want to do the test. Shaking my head.

I understand having emotional and behavioral problems means that their behavior isn't 100% attributed to laziness but... it was a rough day I'll just say that.