Teaching is Never Boring

Yesterday my ninth graders started working on a drafting unit. I have them use drafting tools to draw simple geometric shapes with specific measurements. Eventually we get to the point where they are able to do scale drawings. Then when we start studying maps they have a better understanding of map scales and what they are showing. The first assignment involves drawing a 2” x 3” rectangle in the lower corner of a sheet of paper to be used for the student name, date, class, and assignment title. Then a 4” x 6” rectangle was to be drawn in the exact center of the same paper. All sides of the rectangles were to parallel the sides of the paper.

You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus. I had to baby them through the assignment. Eventually most of them completed the assignment with various stages of accuracy. In my last period of the day the students were getting their equipment together to begin work. I was helping some students get started when I heard a loud CRACK. Upon investigation I discovered one of the boys standing with his equipment and blood running out of his nose. He threw his drawing board across the room and started calling one of the girls a “fucking bitch’ followed by an interesting string of obscenities. Meanwhile the girl was just sitting at her desk trying to ignore him.

It turns out that he had used his board to push her board part way across her desk. She told him to stop and she stopped his pushing. He held his board in front of his face and she pushed it into his face, catching him across his nose, thus the blood. His response was to slam his board across her skull much like Randy Orton using a chair across the head of John Cena. The board was cracked and she appeared to be unaffected by the whack. He weighs about 80 pounds (35 kilos) and she weighs about 200 pounds (90 kilos). I turned the incident over to the administration and they proceeded to handle it since I had 31 other students working with the same equipment to monitor.

I am not really looking forward to teaching these students how to graft trees. I can almost imagine the carnage that might result when I put exacto knives into their hands.