My kids can't write. They can't write!! They were all born here, and they can't speak proper English. Seriously! I'm beyond frustrated. After a year of labor, i look at their writing and feel like i've accomplished nothing. 

they cannot use "many" and "much" properly.

they don't know the difference between "a little" and "a few."

they don't know how to use past perfect.

their tenses are all over the place.

subject-verb agreement? i don't even know where to start.

they still tend to mess up the gender pronouns. "My sister's annoying. He always bothering me." 

you see weird expressions like "too less homework" (what they mean is "not enough") all the time.

they don't know how to form a complete sentence. ("What to bring? Seven days until Vermont field trip!!!") 

and they simply don't make sense! 

it's not just bad writing. it's writing that doesn't even make sense!

and they were born here!

and they want to go to Stuyvesant! 

Seriously!

and now it's end of the year. i'm trying to put together a "6th grade year book" type of thing. i'm supposed to inlcude every single student's work in there, but the kids have become so lazy that i've only collected a handful. Not only that, most of the work i saw is simply not presentable! Simply toooo embarrassing.

i've not worked my magic.

ARRRRGGH.. WHY?! 

This is ENGLISH! not some exotic foreign language they are forced to learn in high school. and they were born here! right here in the big apple. born and raised and have gone through PreK, 6 years of elementary school and they're still not proficient. If their chinese is anywhere near passable, I'd well, pass. 

but NO, English is what they feel the most comfortable using. their chinese is even more of a mess.

AAAAARRRRRRRGH. What exactly is missing?!!!!

and you can't fix it. their English, along with all its appaling mistakes, has fossilized. FOSSILIZED! something that should only happen to adult learners like me, who started learning English at 13. 

and it's their NATIVE language i'm talking about!

i'm beyond stressed. the deadline is less than a week away. i've got tons of work to do, and the kids are simply not there. it's the end of the year....  how can i get 30 lazy 6th graders to produce something extraordinary (or simply not embarrassing) when they all know that the grades are in. now i'm beating myself up trying to get a group of sneaky, lazy, summer-fevered preteens to produce something presentable to end the year strong?

and they don't care. 

they don't care at all whether this year ends strong.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is infuriating. 

my head hurts. i can feel my hair turning gray.