It has been a really calm week. In my line of work, I find that awesome. How many calm weeks have I had since school started? A total of 1. Some of the staff are joking that since we've had a calm week so far, tomorrow is going to be hectic. But I am going to be optimistic and hope not.
As for the missing students, they aren't really missing. I just liked that title. No, the 7th grade got to go to Medieval Times today. We have around 20 seventh grade students who stayed behind and they get to have a weird schedule. They spend the whole day together and then they get to eat 8th grade lunch. I wish I could chaperone some of these field trips. These kids get to go to a lot of cool places. Who wouldn't want to go see some jousting?
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Fright Night
Weekly Pondering:
This Friday is Fright Night. My school's first SGA Dance. I won't be going since it's my partner who gets to do all the overtime, but hey, I get to keep my Friday nights to myself. Most of my kids want me to show up. For some reason they think seeing me in a dress would be awesome.
I'm having quite the hard time keeping a balance between caring for these kids and being professional. It's a very fine line. They want me to be their friend so badly but at the same time I have to be the authority. I'm young and I don't feel all the much older than these kids. In recent news, I've had to fight the children when it comes to them calling me by my first name. I've got kids who call me Maggie, Rosie and Mrs. John Wall. But I refuse to let them call me by my real first name. When they ask me why, I say it's because it implies a personal relationship that isn't there. I am Security first, friend second. Forever and always.
This Friday is Fright Night. My school's first SGA Dance. I won't be going since it's my partner who gets to do all the overtime, but hey, I get to keep my Friday nights to myself. Most of my kids want me to show up. For some reason they think seeing me in a dress would be awesome.
I'm having quite the hard time keeping a balance between caring for these kids and being professional. It's a very fine line. They want me to be their friend so badly but at the same time I have to be the authority. I'm young and I don't feel all the much older than these kids. In recent news, I've had to fight the children when it comes to them calling me by my first name. I've got kids who call me Maggie, Rosie and Mrs. John Wall. But I refuse to let them call me by my real first name. When they ask me why, I say it's because it implies a personal relationship that isn't there. I am Security first, friend second. Forever and always.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Theme of the Week: Parents
Parents are the first and last authority on what their kids become. Parents can blame the environment, the child's peers or their bad lot in life, but in the end, it is the parent who determines what kind of life their child has. This is what has been bothering me this week and many weeks before this.
There's a child at this school, who doesn't want to be in school and has no respect for authority. When we call his mother every time he gets suspended, all she does is make excuses. Now, I know. The mother does care about her son. She works 60-70 hours a day to make ends meet. And I'm pretty sure she's a single mother. But when it comes down to it, there is NO need to lie for your child. There is NO need to make excuses when your child is messing up inside and outside school. In the end, It is her fault that she is letting her child become a juvenile delinquent.
People tell me, how can the mother control her child if she's always working? I say, parents should be instilling the values that make a child controllable from birth.
People say, what do you know? You're not a parent! I say, I may not be a parent but I was raised well and I grew into a respectable and responsible human being. Thank God for that. I also have seen in the short time that I have been a middle school security guard, that there are many ways of good parenting and many ways of bad. What the bad parenting all have in common are excuses and too much freedom given to the kids with not enough responsibility. What I see in common with all the GOOD parenting, is all good parents hold their children responsible for their actions in some way or another.
Now there are exceptions to every rule. The homeless girl who went to Harvard for example. She practically raised herself and her support system was mostly herself with a little help from a generous hometown. But she's one in a million.
My point is, love your kids enough to say no. To be there when they need you and not only when they want you. Love your kids enough to teach them to live the good life. And by good life, I mean one that keeps you out of trouble and alive. That's all I'm asking, is that too much to wish for?
There's a child at this school, who doesn't want to be in school and has no respect for authority. When we call his mother every time he gets suspended, all she does is make excuses. Now, I know. The mother does care about her son. She works 60-70 hours a day to make ends meet. And I'm pretty sure she's a single mother. But when it comes down to it, there is NO need to lie for your child. There is NO need to make excuses when your child is messing up inside and outside school. In the end, It is her fault that she is letting her child become a juvenile delinquent.
People tell me, how can the mother control her child if she's always working? I say, parents should be instilling the values that make a child controllable from birth.
People say, what do you know? You're not a parent! I say, I may not be a parent but I was raised well and I grew into a respectable and responsible human being. Thank God for that. I also have seen in the short time that I have been a middle school security guard, that there are many ways of good parenting and many ways of bad. What the bad parenting all have in common are excuses and too much freedom given to the kids with not enough responsibility. What I see in common with all the GOOD parenting, is all good parents hold their children responsible for their actions in some way or another.
Now there are exceptions to every rule. The homeless girl who went to Harvard for example. She practically raised herself and her support system was mostly herself with a little help from a generous hometown. But she's one in a million.
My point is, love your kids enough to say no. To be there when they need you and not only when they want you. Love your kids enough to teach them to live the good life. And by good life, I mean one that keeps you out of trouble and alive. That's all I'm asking, is that too much to wish for?
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Befriending the Tough Chick
There's those girls in every grade. You know them well, and probably hated them or were them in school. The tough girl. The biggest and baddest girl in the grade. I hated those girls when I was in middle school and avoided them in high school.
Now, It's my job to befriend her. In the 8th grade, we have 2 girls who are the biggest troublemakers of the grade. One, is actually a pretty nice girl, but has to have this front up in order to survive. The other, is plain trouble.
The real troublesome one, has decided recently to hate me again. She tried to get past me for being late to lunch by writing a fake pass in her agenda book and trying to say that her teacher made her late. I only knew it was fake because the Lunch Aide saw the girl write the pass. I mean seriously? She wouldn't confess until I threatened to walk her around the school to find the teacher. And then she had the nerve to think that lying to me and forcing me to threaten her would give her a free pass. She also convinced another student to do the same thing she did.
Lesson: Do not make the sercurity guard mad. She will take you to the office and give you over to the Admin.
Result: Lunch Detention.
The other girl, the...I'll call her the nice one. She was walking in the hall today, with an open cup of water. Another young girl came racing down the hallway and smashed into her. So, because she was in front of all her friends, she started yelling and making a ruckus. She threatened the younger girl that she was going to smash her face in after school. She said this in my presence and then again said it to me in the presence of one of her friends while in the bathroom. I do bathroom checks. I had to report her to the Admin. If I had not done this, the "nice" girl would have really waited after school to smash in the other girl's face.
Result: Being dragged to office, given a warning. The girl got on her bus and went home. Crisis averted easily.
Now, It's my job to befriend her. In the 8th grade, we have 2 girls who are the biggest troublemakers of the grade. One, is actually a pretty nice girl, but has to have this front up in order to survive. The other, is plain trouble.
The real troublesome one, has decided recently to hate me again. She tried to get past me for being late to lunch by writing a fake pass in her agenda book and trying to say that her teacher made her late. I only knew it was fake because the Lunch Aide saw the girl write the pass. I mean seriously? She wouldn't confess until I threatened to walk her around the school to find the teacher. And then she had the nerve to think that lying to me and forcing me to threaten her would give her a free pass. She also convinced another student to do the same thing she did.
Lesson: Do not make the sercurity guard mad. She will take you to the office and give you over to the Admin.
Result: Lunch Detention.
The other girl, the...I'll call her the nice one. She was walking in the hall today, with an open cup of water. Another young girl came racing down the hallway and smashed into her. So, because she was in front of all her friends, she started yelling and making a ruckus. She threatened the younger girl that she was going to smash her face in after school. She said this in my presence and then again said it to me in the presence of one of her friends while in the bathroom. I do bathroom checks. I had to report her to the Admin. If I had not done this, the "nice" girl would have really waited after school to smash in the other girl's face.
Result: Being dragged to office, given a warning. The girl got on her bus and went home. Crisis averted easily.
Monday, August 27, 2012
First Day of School
Today was the first day of school! Things went quite well!
6th graders are so cute! At least on the first day they are. My post between classes is in the 6th grade hallway and they would swarm me every time to ask where each classroom was. What was even funnier than the 6th graders was having to give directions to 7th and 8th graders who should know where all the classrooms are.
Lunch time was fun too. Unfortunately I had to get stern with the 7th graders because they were up to their silly antics again just like last year. Some kids never learn. I had to threaten an entire table that I would separate them for the entire year at lunch if they didn't behave. That got their attention. 8th graders decided they were going to run around the cafeteria and fight over a hat. On the first day of school. Sigh. Got to love kids, they just don't know any better sometimes.
The only real incident of interest today was my former 8th graders from last year thought they could still run the school. They showed up before our school let out and just ran rough shod over me, ran into the building and caused all kind of ruckus. I had to write my first incident report of the year. I feel sorry for them that they are going to get in trouble tomorrow at their High School so early in the year, but they need to learn manners, rules and respect. They obviously didn't learn that in Middle School, so they will learn it now or never.
6th graders are so cute! At least on the first day they are. My post between classes is in the 6th grade hallway and they would swarm me every time to ask where each classroom was. What was even funnier than the 6th graders was having to give directions to 7th and 8th graders who should know where all the classrooms are.
Lunch time was fun too. Unfortunately I had to get stern with the 7th graders because they were up to their silly antics again just like last year. Some kids never learn. I had to threaten an entire table that I would separate them for the entire year at lunch if they didn't behave. That got their attention. 8th graders decided they were going to run around the cafeteria and fight over a hat. On the first day of school. Sigh. Got to love kids, they just don't know any better sometimes.
The only real incident of interest today was my former 8th graders from last year thought they could still run the school. They showed up before our school let out and just ran rough shod over me, ran into the building and caused all kind of ruckus. I had to write my first incident report of the year. I feel sorry for them that they are going to get in trouble tomorrow at their High School so early in the year, but they need to learn manners, rules and respect. They obviously didn't learn that in Middle School, so they will learn it now or never.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
A Never Ending Year of Middle School
Did you have a good time in Middle School? I sure did. It was a very interesting 3 years of my life in which I learned to become independent and figured out that I hated my life as it was up until that point. I started to learn just what type of people I liked to hang out with and I learned some hard lessons about people.
School starts up again tomorrow, I can't wait to see the new young ones and see my old young ones. I saw some of them at the County' Back to School Fair. It was great! It's always wonderful to see kids getting active and volunteering. Especially because 2 of the 3 kids from my school who were here have some very active personalities. It heartens me to see that they are putting their activeness to good use.
I'm really exited for tomorrow. I think that's a good thing for someone who's still pretty new at her job right?
School starts up again tomorrow, I can't wait to see the new young ones and see my old young ones. I saw some of them at the County' Back to School Fair. It was great! It's always wonderful to see kids getting active and volunteering. Especially because 2 of the 3 kids from my school who were here have some very active personalities. It heartens me to see that they are putting their activeness to good use.
I'm really exited for tomorrow. I think that's a good thing for someone who's still pretty new at her job right?
Monday, June 4, 2012
Final Exams etc
Today is review day in my school. We start final exams tomorrow. I fully expect today to be a rowdy day. All the troublemakers are in school today, but that's no garuntee that they will stay in school. They like to leave after 3rd or 4th period. Children think that there will be no punishment to themselves but they never realize until they have 20/20 hindsight that they've hurt themselves. Their friends don't realize they've messed up their lives either until much later or they blame others. The success or ruination of your life starts the minute you know right from wrong. You cannot blame someone else for your choices or blame your parents. In the end, you make your own choices and your own life, make good choices and learn from your mistakes.
On another note, the kids at this school seem to think I have cute smile. Being female, I always have to be careful how I interact with the kids. It's alright for them to think I have a cute smile as long as that's it. I always have to keep in mind that I am the Adult and I have to treat these kids professionally and carefully.
On another note, the kids at this school seem to think I have cute smile. Being female, I always have to be careful how I interact with the kids. It's alright for them to think I have a cute smile as long as that's it. I always have to keep in mind that I am the Adult and I have to treat these kids professionally and carefully.
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