Aggravating Belligerence

I know, I made up a new word with Belligerence...

I was so exasperated today. How can classes go so well one day, and be so awful the next?

Exhibit A:
Yesterday was great. One class was amazed I was a Mrs.

"You're married?!?"
"Yes, I am."
"Wow!" and "You look too young to be married."
"How old do I look?"
"Like a teenager." and "You can't be married (trail off, mumble mumble)"
"What did you say?"
"You're too young. You're pretty. When your old, you're not..." (This last sentence, I could tell, this girl knew as it was coming out of her mouth was wrong, like she wanted to swallow her words after she said them.)

I told them that was not true. My cooperating teacher, Charlotte, is beautiful and married for longer than I have been, for example.

How can such a lovely class, that all thought I was young and pretty go to what happened today?


6th graders. They know they are the top of the food chain. However, I still am older, and the authority figure in the classroom. So I thought...

Majority of them were good. They listened. They cleaned up. But the minority made today so awful! They made a disaster of the room, and then ran to their real class. I ended up having to go to their teacher and tell her that I needed the boys to come clean up their mess, because they left the room in shambles. She didn't look too pleased. I hope she chewed them out after they came and cleaned up.

There was more to what made them so awful for the day. The lack of cleanliness was just the last problem of their class. But it the start of a headache day. And I got to wondering, can I even handle older students? Maybe I'm only good with elementary students younger than 5th grade. Does that mean I'm going to fail at my student teaching at the high school? And if so, does that prove Miranda (that one teacher...) right in any way?


Anyway, I found this picture and wanted to share:

The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
(I know the balance is off somehow... But it's a pretty building even if it isn't a pretty picture. )