The flu

The seasonal flu kept me busy these last two weeks, making my free time for college a little hectic. I spent the last four days last week at one middle school in town hard-hit with the flu.

I've gotten better as a teacher, compared to my rough start last year in Bisbee. I met another teacher at the school, also a retired army person, who's working on her master's right now. She hated the high school and declined that place for the middle school, saying that her years as a drill sergeant did nothing in the classroom.

"I thought it would be easy being a drill sergeant, but I had no control over them!" she exclaimed. I felt the same way. It took over a year to relearn how to treat students not like exploitable young soldiers, but as young impressionable minds.

The highlight of the day was Friday afternoon, filling in that last hour for a 7th grade class. Of all the students I have had, one of the worst ones from Bisbee was in that class, now sporting a mouth stud and colored black hair that shimmers blue in the light. She was a hellion last year and she hasn't changed much in the past year. I'm wondering if she got expelled from Bisbee and sent to this town?

I do feel sorry for the girl as she doesn't have a father at home, but her careless ways about her education do get to me. In the end only her mother can teach her the importance of a good education, not any teacher.