Teachers, how do you guys DO it? I just got ridiculed and called stupid by a room full of eighth graders for fifty minutes. It was really thrilling. I'm sure it is easier when you are actually their teacher and they know you - although right now I'm thinking things would be so much easier if the kids weren't all taller than me.

Did anybody else see Pelosi on TV yesterday? I only mention it because the more she talks about fighting, the more Baltimore she got. Mostly, I don't really hear it when she talks, but last night, about halfway though it was like "Hello, Charm City...Mommy's pissed."

I used to teach 8th graders and they can be brutal. One opening and they will eat you alive. You have to lay down the law FIRST THING and be really strict. I would not make it personal--my rule was no negative comments about anyone in the room. If one was made, I would stop the person. And I would keep stopping them until they realized it was an inflexible rule. Of course with one class situations, it's really hard.

I've only been working at this middle school for a few days, but all the 7th grade classes I've had have been rambunctious but sweet, and my 8th grade classes have made me want to lock myself in the closet. What happens to them between those two grades?

I fully understand that substitutes have always been given a hard time, and that it's not entirely personal, but I can't help but think that I am just not cut out for this job! Oh well; it's Friday.

Hormones, baby.

Speaking of Rio, I just yesterday figured out who Bob Saget is/was!

Did anybody else see Pelosi on TV yesterday?

I did. The thing I heard her say that I've not heard elsewhere, and that I think would be a good campaign point for most if not all Democrats, is that, in the first eight months of 2010, more private-sector jobs were created than were created in the entire eight years of George W Bush's administration.

That is sort of misleading, IMO, but a good talking point I suppose.

I remember one time we had a substitue for our english class in HS. The assignment was to quietly read a Scandinavian absurdist play, but we convinced her that is was to be read aloud and we assigned parts and read them as hammed-up as possible. Our teacher was not amused on her return.

Halloween Cat in Banana Split Costume Eats a Banana