Beauty school dropout, go back to high school.

Whew! A whirlwind week, so I guess some updating is in order...

I got involved in teaching for the Upward Bound program. For those who don't know, it's an educational program for high school students that encourages them to attend college. It's geared toward students who wouldn't otherwise consider college as a possibility.

I say I got involved. At the moment I feel like I was suckered in to it.

The first day was last Monday. Has it only been a week? That kind of makes me want to cry.

Monday was horrible. Worst classes ever. The students were rude and disrespectful, and only with difficulty was I able to get them to do what I wanted.

I stewed and steamed all afternoon. I was really upset.

Tuesday I went in and set the rules. In addition to setting rules, I set the punishment. Push ups. 10.

They just started at me.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

Tuesday went so much better. We had a good class, they sat at the front, they talked, they did what I asked them to. It was so much better.

The rest of the week continued to go well. Until I had to tell the one rowdy and rude child to do push ups. She did them, and was furious at me. She chose to punish me with silence. What a boon!

Yesterday, I had to threaten her again with push ups. Again she is "punishing" me with silence.

Today, I threatened another student with push ups. Silence is his usual gig, so maybe he'll try a different punishment for me.

Although things have been much better than the first day, and I hope I will survive, the thing that I have noticed, more than anything else, is how whiny these students are. They whine nonstop. Every sound out of their mouth is a whine, or to make a whine. It's so annoying.

Today, I took them outside. At first they were thrilled, "We're going on a field trip?!" Then we took about 10 steps outside. "I'm hot." "I'm tired." "I want to sit down." "There are rocks in my shoes." "There are bugs out here." "They are cutting the grass."

I'm so mean though. I made them walk the 0.25 mi loop around the soccer field. Whining the whole way.