Sometimes squirrels behave better

Today was trying...for a variety of reasons, not least of which may be: my students are ill-mannered, obnoxious little monsters?

Okay, maybe not. But I was out for trainings a significant portion of last week and, while I wrote detailed instructions concerning homework and due dates on the board, today when we came back, less than half the class had done the work. Now, I understand the attraction of blowing off the sub's words of instruction and having a good time, difficult to resist to tell you the truth, I get that. But you'd think they'd remember that I'm gonna come back on Monday and mention the homework...in a "Let's review and grade the homework" kind of way.

So today, I got to do the whole yelling and glaring thing because now we're even further behind. Plus they were chatty and disruptive which I hate more than anything else. I could say I don't know why I hate it except that I do know why - it's rude and disrespectful. And it's not just one or two kids, it's a whole class . One kid says something stupid and the whole class suddenly has to pipe up and respond, next thing I know they're all chatting about some ridiculous thing or another despite my efforts to keep the class on task. Then I have to yell and berate and all of a sudden class isn't fun anymore, for them or for me.

What makes it worse for me is that I feel like I'm being a total bitch and mean to them but they have no memories, or attention spans, to speak of and forget that I even said anything to them at all the day, weak, month before.

It's aggravating.