Too tired to even yawn

Suspended two kids today. Fighting. I had to physically break it up and ended up taking some of the blows. The other kids were impressed. Sent two other kids to the office for behaving like shitheads. None of these kids were my homeroom. I'm stuck with dealing with everyone else's students. Goddammit.

My kids take their first in a battery of standardized tests tomorrow. Writing. I feel like I can scarcely breathe.

It is 8pm and I am going the fuck to bed.

Well howdy to you too!

Right as class begun this morning (I had the entire 4th grade, minus special ed, again), Edgar shouted, "I'm gonna fuck you in the ass!" to no one in particular. This kind of awesome hush descended over the classroom. I guess they thought I was going to erupt. I was too taken aback to do anything but call one of our admins to come get him. He didn't yell it out at anyone in particular, but there was a weird note of triumph in his voice. Yesterday, I had to write him up for running and jumping at the wall in the hallway and turning a backflip. Today he got suspended. It was sort of a shit day all around.

This week has been depressing

My kids think Martin Luther King, Jr. freed the slaves. They don't know what the Constitution is, much less a constitutional amendment. They don't know what Congress is or what it does. They don't know what Jews are, either, and I had a hell of a time trying to explain what anti-Semitism is.

I am so frustrated and saddened by all this that I don't know what to do. I have some vague idea in my mind where I work with the kids brainstorming about the stuff they do know, because I am afraid I made them feel kind of stupid with my incredulity about what they didn't know. And that wasn't my intention at all. I'm just angry that they haven't been taught these things. It's not fair. So much of my teaching experience has involved me wanting to stomp my feet and cry about how fucking unfair everything is.

Speaking of unfair, they take their Major Writing Test next week.