25% of the school year is over! Three-quarters to go and then I won't have to deal with what is slowly turning out to be an incredibly cumbersome job. These kids have totally sucked every last bit of joy I've had for teaching and replaced it with nothing but bitterness. I wake up and have to gather all my strength together in order to be able to just make it through the morning. High school has become a drag all over again.

This week for some reason has been one of the worst weeks at school. It started off fairly well on Monday as I tried to enjoy my Eid, but before I knew it I was hit by a truck:

• I had a student curse at me in Russian.
• I made two students cry hysterically when I gave them constructive criticism on their presentations.
• One student rolled his eyes at me and gave me a "whatever" when I told informed that his attempt at giving me an answer was a good try, but that the answer itself was incorrect.
• Three of my girls got into a fight over a boy and when I helped them make up by forcing them to hug each other they started bawling about how BFF (best friends for life) they were.
• Another girl who witnessed these girls cry started crying herself, so I had to go comfort her.
• One of my classes has been spawned by the devil himself and this week he must have found it necessary to call his minions to rise and raise hell.

We also had parent-teacher conferences this week and while the majority of parents that I met look like they've got firm control of their kids, a handful of them kept rationalizing their kids' behavior. I was ready to beat them over the head.

I'm so drained. Every day seems to just be getting worse and worse and worse. I don't want to have the kind of job where the only thing I have to look forward to are Fridays and where I have gather up the energy to just make it through the day.

The one good thing? I managed yesterday to whip the devil's spawn class into shape. It was a great feeling to hear, at the end of the day, how well-behaved they were in their other classes. I had all the teachers thank me for whatever it was that I did.