School Tales: Mean Mugs

I don't have nearly as many outrageous middle school stories this year, due to many factors: smaller classes, fewer NEW thugs, familiarity with the same thugs from last year, and better classroom management. Yes! Slowly, but surely, I am gaining control of my classes. I'll admit, the cards are stacked against a teacher smaller than her students who appears to be their age, but it can be done.

In my short tenure as middle school teacher, three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand:

1. The unrivaled power of a bribe that involves candy and pizza.

2. The way of a coach with a football player: involving bearcrawls. Oh the fear that grips the heart, that seizes the player's soul at the teacher's threat to email Coach.

3. Nothing spells pushover like teacher who laughs at students misbehavior. I am working on it.

4. The unspoken message communicated through a mean mug.

Mean mug (adj./n.) may be loosely translated as a "look from h____ given by the teacher in the direction of a student who is ______________(insert misbehavior)_____________."

Mean mugs are uni-directional: teacher to student. A look from h____ from student to teacher is classified not as a "mean mug", but rather blatant disrespect or insolence.

It is important to note that students can recognize and classify a mean mug with nearly 100% accuracy: "Ooooooooh girl, she mean muggin' you; you betta shut yo'self up"