strong words in the classroom

I am writing and posting more because people were complaining about the lack of posts during the great Internet drought of 2008. I went for more than a month without the Internet at home. This limited my time for social purposes on the net since I usually spend most of my time at work researching or writing things that I need for my employment.

I wrote everyday the whole time I didn't have the easy access to the online road to ruin. I tried to work things out in my head by writing. I am still doing that but now I am posting most of it and exposing myself to the ridicule and scrutiny of my students, colleagues, friends and family. Part of the reason I do this is discuss in this recent New York Times article.

I love the picture of John Houseman that accompanies the article. I used to watch "The Paper Chase" with my dad when I was a little girl. I loved the idea of going to college and having gruff but gentle professors who wanted to teach me how to think because that's what the process of law school does. It teaches you how to organize your thoughts and research into viable arguments. Most lawyers I know are good thinkers despite having some organizational issues.
I'm interested to check out 'The Professor Strikes Back" show. I will have to try to see if I can record it off of the school's MTV2 feed.

I had a horrible day in the classroom today. I couldn't control my disruptive students. I could not hold anyone's attention worth a shit. A student misinterpreted what I said about an assignment and took offense. Sometimes I just feel like why am I even trying? What the heck are some of these people going to do when they graduate? They are definitely not used to the whole idea of 'show up and shut up" when it comes to work or school. Some of these people can't  concentrate for more than four minutes at a time.

Not everyone is like this but I just took it to heart today because I had a phone call recently from one of the folks who employs quite a few of our students. They wanted to talk to me about why one of these  folks has an  'attitude' problemor in other words why the hell was this person behaving like spoiled,  lazy, and over privileged diva.  He also wanted to know why someone they employed in a different department who was related major here at the workplace couldn't write their way out of paper bag. He said another department head  was disappointed with that particular hire because the person in that department thought WSC grads could write based on the skills that the people that I had taught displayed. This person they hired did not have any journalism or broadcasting classes but the department head thought they were getting a known quantity when they hired a WSC grad. Now they know that nothing is guaranteed unless my name is somehow attached to the resume.

I am just worried that people like this are going to make it more difficult for students to get their foot in the door. I am trying so hard to infuse my curriculum with practical stuff like writing and editing for electronic media but I don't think any of these people are listening. They rush through their assignments or don't take them seriously. When do they think they will put together a resume reel? When they graduate? Why do they want to make it harder on themselves?
Isn't the world going to be hard enough?

Maybe I was being over sensitive but people sleeping, texting, and talking during class is starting to get to me. It didn't used to be this way. I think part of it is that I have lost my ability to control the classroom since I came back. I have the material but I feel like no one is listening.

This huge pity party I am on lately isn't helping nor is the consistent amount of pain I am in everyday.

I have got to figure out how to get these people back into the game and do their work.