something happens to 7th graders so that when they become 8th graders, even the sweetest child has become a little monster. i don't like subbing 8th grade. in fact i like it less than subbing high school, believe it or not. high schoolers can get quite snooty and get an attitude, but most of them generally know when to back down. 8th graders are flexing their muscles and the words 'back down' just aren't in their vocabulary. even my snotty 10th grader doesn't much like 8th graders, and her attitude really isn't that much different!

yes, i had to sub 8th grade today. and i have to sub 8th grade again tomorrow and friday. and i highly suspect that when i do get my own classroom, god will have a sense of humor and i'll get 8th graders. i'd really prefer 6th graders or the more borderline 7th graders, but it's the 8th graders that seem to cause the most trouble in any school i've been in. granted, it might just be the population of the schools i've been in over the last year, but it really seems to be across the board.

and a lot of these kids, i just don't get. 8th grade is about 14-15 years old. maybe a 13 year old thrown in every now and then. but a lot of the 8th graders i've been running into are older and still not doing what they need to do to move on. now, if you were 16, wouldn't you want to get the hell out of middle school and into a school with kids your own age. forget just graduating, it's just gotta suck to be the oldest kid in class and the one kid everyone knows didn't pass last year . . . and possibly the year before that.

and then there's the detentions a lot of these kids. they don't care. one of the kids today said he's already gotten 30 of them just this year. and he acted like it was nothing. like the possibility of getting tossed out on his rear was no big deal. and for a lot of the trouble makers, this is the attitude they carry around. one more detention, big deal. i can't even fathom that. my father would have killed me if i got a detention.

and, i suppose, there's the problem. for a lot of these kids, their parents aren't there. they sign the detention slips and that's it. it's rare for one of the parents to actually come in and find out what's going on, why their kid is always in trouble, and with the few who do, most of them blame the school or the teachers, not their kids! like we ask the kids to have smart mouths and bad attitudes and to refuse to do anything.

tomorrow, 8th grade. that means another exhausting day for me. another day when i have to keep such a close eye on trouble makers that the good kids don't get their due, that my break is spent writing up detentions and referrals, and that there will be no peace and quiet even when they're supposed to be working because someone will find a way to disrupt the class. another day when bringing my writing with me will probably be pointless. a day where i better be sure to have something extra in my pocket for them to do because they will claim to get to the end of what the teacher has and i'll need to cover them.

really, i hope i don't get an 8th grade class when i go full time. i'll take it if i have to, but i really hope not. 8th grade subbing sucks. 8th grade teaching probably won't be much better.

okay, too pessimistic. sorry. today wore me out and im not looking forward to tomorrow. 8th grade just makes me not look forward to going to work.