Freshmen, 1: Mrs. Camp, 0

I think they're winning. I'm about to give up on my freshmen. I am not exaggerating when I say that there is never, ever even one second that passes in 3rd period where at least one of the students isn't talking. It's like I'm not even there. I can stand right in front of a student waving at him and basically yelling for him to please stop talking so I can speak, and he will look right past me and keep on talking. They also seem to have trouble staying in their seats. I got stepped on today by a fairly rotund young man who had already been asked to sit 3 or 4 times. He could tell it hurt me, and he sincerely apologized, but was out of his seat again 5 minutes later. Of course, it doesn't help that we have one hour of class, a 25 minute break for lunch, and then 20 more minutes of class time. Every day when the bell rings for them to come back from lunch, I seriously consider crawling behind a desk and hiding until 4th period. I really don't think they would notice if I was missing.

This is my cart. Top level: Auburn cup with pens and pencils that the students steal, folders of handouts for both classes, lesson plan notebooks for both classes, and the overhead projector for those days when I'm feeling old-school high-tech. Middle Level: Trays to hold work from each class, extra paper, 3-hole punch, stapler, hand sanitizer to protect me from germy teens. Bottom Level: extra textbooks, boxes of school supplies which the students also steal.

In this picture, my cart is parked in my department chair's room. It used to be a science room, which is why there are lab tables instead of regular desks. I don't teach in this room, but consider it my home base in the mornings and afternoons. My department chair is kind enough to give me some storage space, the use of his computer and printer, and the secret hiding place

for the key to the locked storage closet.

The overhead projector in all its glory. There is something nostalgic about the fuzziness of the images it projects combined with the smell of vis-a-vis markers. It usually sits atop my cart, but sometimes I give it the day off. Even overheads need a break from freshmen every now and then...