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Attack of the
Adolescent
Emotions!



Emily M. Yeater
Multigenre Paper
EDT 427
Dr. Romano
8 November 2011


*All names and places have been changed.
Yeater 2
We interrupt your
regularly scheduled
programming for an
important news update!
A plague is sweeping the nations junior high and middle schools. We had no warning. It
departs as quickly as it comes, leaving only destruction in its path. Who is causing such damage?
We interview a person right in the thick of it all, a field experience student in her third year at
Miami. She was teaching in a junior high school when the plague hit. Here is her eyewitness
account:
Miss Yeater: It happened so fast I couldnt keep up with it!
Reporter: What did you see?
EMY: It was like being on a roller coaster! Words were flung like hand grenades at people who
were once friends! I couldnt keep the two straightthe friend/enemy boundary was blurred
beyond recognition. In the blink of an eye, a person could switch categories, sometimes more
than once!
R: Is this something specific to the junior high you were located in?
EMY: I dont think so. The scale feels much larger actually, it brought back memories I had
hidden away long ago of a similar plague that occurred in my middle school. Peoples emotions
were all over the place, just like they were today.
R: How did you manage to come away unscathed?
EMY: I just kept my head about me. I remembered that people can frustrate you, but that
doesnt mean that your friendship is over. I tried not to let little things upset me. However, the
girl in the back kept whispering behind her hand to the boy next to her I wonder if they were
laughing at me. Was there something in my teeth? Oh, I bet they hated me! Im going to be a
horrible teacher! This is quite possibly the worst day in my entire life.
R:
Yeater 3
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Scandalized
Her eyes roll with her mouth agape; she blinks dramatically once, twice. One side of her
lip turns up and she looks at Teachers back long after Teacher has turned away. Scandalized
asks how anyone could accuse her of being wrong. She is neither Defeated nor Dumb, sitting in
a corner, pronouncing easy words wrong and forgetting to turn things in. Scandalized is
downright offended that Teacher had the audacity to mishear her, because Scandalized always
speaks up and is always correct.
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!"#$%&'()* ,(-#$ ./)"&&/)$("0#
I expected anxiety. I anticipated nerves, dread, and fear. After all, I was returning to
junior high school after seven years. Instead, the first emotion I felt pulling up to the junior high
school was nostalgia. The main building must have been built around the time the school I
attended from Kindergarten through eighth grade was built, for the outside, interior, and even the
smell were similar! However, their school housed only junior high, whereas the school I
attended was an entire Kindergarten through twelfth grade building.
Even the town around the school felt familiar, although obviously I had never been in that
part of Ohio before. The small town, tiny roads, and farms took me back to my childhood school
that I still look back upon fondly.
These feelings of nostalgia made it difficult for me to keep quiet when I listened to the
other field experience students gape at the smallness and the podunk nowhere of this school.
They did not understand how it was possible that there were no phones in the rooms, the old
wood floors creaked so loud it was difficult to hear the teacher, and how many of the ceilings
were low and cracked.
Yeater 4
I understood.
In a way, I felt offended. I managed to attend a school housed in a building quite like this
one, in an even smaller district, and I am successfully completing college. Students may have
fewer opportunities that have much to do with socioeconomic status, but that does not mean
there are not positives to a small, local school housed in a practically historic building.
My nostalgia awoke my junior high memories I had so long ago tucked away. My entire
class of nearly thirty students got extremely close during those two years of school, even though
we saw all the other grades in the halls and in neighboring classrooms. Some of us took
advanced classes, but there were not enough teachers to do a full tracking setup, and so I still saw
my classmates that were destined for anything but college.
That was a privilege others may not have had.
All the teachers knew you, because they had either had you in earlier years, had your
siblings, had your cousins, had your parents, or knew they would have you in the coming years.
Positions stayed relatively the same during those years, and I do not remember any new teachers.
I started my own business that actually made money. I joined marching band and made
older friends. I stopped attending formal seventh grade English class and instead was involved
in an individualized program with the librarian (although in todays world, the lack of
accountability and testing would get something like this nixed immediately).
In my nervousness about going back to junior high and attempting to teach the animal
that is the middle schooler, I had forgotten all that I accomplished during those two years of my
life. Nostalgia brought back the good feelings, but not without the bad. Had I not been assigned
to a foreign-yet-familiar rural school for field experience, would I have remembered the time I
spent as the band directors aide, alphabetizing hundreds of loose sheet music? Would I have
remembered how everyone was a friend, at least until high school? Would I have remembered
Yeater 5
the teacher who behaved inappropriately, being called into the office to rat him out, and being
proud when the creep was fired?
Nostalgia might be something personal, but it allowed me to connect on a deeper level to
my students and the school I was assigned to. In a way, I felt sorry for my peers who walked
into this school seeing nothing but negatives, just because it was new to them. But I felt like I
was coming home.
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Frustrated
Frustrated repeats herself. Frustrated repeats herself. Frustrated repeats herself. Rough
drafts are due Monday. When are rough drafts due? Monday, your rough drafts are due. Due
Monday: rough drafts. Frustrated feels disrespected, and somewhat worthless. She wonders
why she is standing up in the front of the room. She wonders if maybe, contrary to her own
belief, sounds are simply not coming out of her mouth. She wonders how soon fourth period
will be over. Frustrated does not allow the picking of partners. You will be assigned partners.
No, you may not pick a partner. The friend sitting by you is not your partner. Your partner is
the person that was assigned to you. Frustrated walks to the back of the room to unstick the
record, but it is spinning lazily and smoothly. It must have been a manufacturers defect. It must
have been a manufacturers defect. It must have been a manufacturers defect.
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An Ode to the Trapper Keeper

Dearest binder,
Holder of my homework, my notes, and my
agenda,
I come to you for advice
In my time of need.
Yeater 6
You are an oracle of sorts,
Determining whether or not I get the days
points.
The final draft of a paper that is due, you
offer up
Or not.
For I know that if you do not produce it,
It is gone for good, and I will take the fail.
I can clutch you to my puny chest
As I walk the halls, attempting to avoid
Any older, bigger eighth graders,
Principals, and stern-eyed librarians
Who are always looking to punish
A good kid like me.
O trapper, you are full of mysterious, never-
ending pockets
That may hide yesterdays gum, an iPod, or a
broken pen.
I feel complete with you; I feel safe with you.
With me always, I fill you with my thoughts
and feelings and notes from friends and
secrets like BOL loves EMY.

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Perplexed
He is dramatic. His eyebrows comically furrow and he stares at the worksheet that was
apparently printed off in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Mouth opens, silently mouthing words
unknown: Rough draft? Due Wed-nes-day? Animals? Perplexed had never seen such
a text, such a combination, such a material existing in the world! A worksheet! An assignment!
Yeater 7
He claimed to have a great memory, but today, Perplexed sat next to Confused and Slacking. A
perfect excuse, Perplexed is, for when things are due.
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LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF
Junior High Memories

I, Junior High Memories, a resident of Vanlue, Ohio, being of sound and disposing mind and
memory and over the age of eighteen (18) years or having been lawfully married or a member
of the armed forces of the United States or a member of an auxiliary of the armed forces of the
United States or a member of the maritime service of the United States, and not being actuated
by any duress, menace, fraud, mistake, or undue influence, do make, publish, and declare this
to be my last Will, hereby expressly revoking all Wills and Codicils previously made by me.

I. EXECUTOR: I appoint Emily Marie Yeater as Executor of this my Last Will and Testament
and provide if this Executor is unable or unwilling to serve then I appoint Posterity as alternate
Executor. My Executor shall be authorized to carry out all provisions of this Will and pay my just
debts, obligations and funeral expenses.

II. SIMULTANEOUS DEATH OF BENEFICIARY: If any beneficiary of this Will, including any
beneficiary of any trust established by this Will shall die within 60 days of my death (I could
only be so lucky) or prior to the distribution of my estate, I hereby declare that I shall be
deemed to have survived such person.

III. BEQUESTS:
I will, give, and bequeath unto the persons named below, if he or she survives me, the Property
described below:

Name: Emily Marie Yeater
Address: 211 North Beech Street Apartment 29 Oxford, Ohio 45056
Relationship: Strained and resentful
Property: Bad hair cuts, fake friends, chicken legs, hormonal imbalances, realization of
boys, pimples, mood swings, lowered self-esteem, conformity, and all other
semblances of memories not hereto named, but still bequeathed.

Name: Teresa Marie Yeater, mother of aforementioned Emily Marie Yeater
Address: 20380 County Road 162 Vanlue, Ohio 45890
Relationship: Rough at best
Property: Rude replies, snotty attitudes, emotional outbursts, unreasonable requests

If a named beneficiary to this Will predeceases me, the bequest to such person shall lapse, and
the property shall pass under the other provisions of this Will. If I do not possess or own any
property listed above on the date of my death, the bequest of that property shall lapse.

Yeater 8
IV. ALL REMAINING PROPERTY; RESIDUARY CLAUSE: I give, devise, and bequeath all of
the rest, residue, and remainder of my estate, of whatever kind and character, and wherever
located, to Emily Marie Yeater, provided that Emily Marie Yeater survives me. If Emily Marie
Yeater does not survive me, then I give, devise, and bequeath all of the rest, residue, and
remainder of my estate, of whatever kind and character, and wherever located, to a
irretrievable database memory abyss as alternate. If none of my named beneficiaries survives
me, then the rest and residue of my estate shall pass according to the order of intestate
succession in the State of Ohio.
V. ADDITIONAL POWERS OF THE EXECUTOR: My Executor shall have the following
additional powers with respect to my estate, to be exercised from time to time at my Executor's
discretion without further license or order of any court.
My executor as previously named has the power to overcome my strong grip,
especially in regards to self-image. I, the testator, hereby release the previously
named executor from experiencing flashbacks of junior high bullies and snide
comments about braces, skinny legs, and Dumbo-esque ears.

VI. WAIVER OF BOND, INVENTORY, ACCOUNTING, REPORTING AND APPROVAL: My
Executor and alternate Executor shall serve without any bond, and I hereby waive the necessity
of preparing or filing any inventory, accounting, appraisal, reporting, approvals or final
appraisement of my estate. I direct that no expert appraisal be made of my estate unless
required by law.

VII. CONSTRUCTION: The term "testator" as used in this Will is deemed to include me as
Testator or Testatrix. The pronouns used in this Will shall include, where appropriate, either
gender or both, singular and plural.

VIII. SEVERABILITY AND SURVIVAL: If any part of this Will is declared invalid, illegal, or
inoperative for any reason, it is my intent that the remaining parts shall be effective and fully
operative, and that any Court so interpreting this Will and any provision in it construe in favor of
survival.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I, Junior High Memories , hereby set my hand to this last Will, on
each page of which I have placed my initials, on this 2
nd
day of November , 2011 at Roberts
Apartment Number 29 on North Beech Street in Oxford , State of Ohio.



Junior High Memories
Junior High Memories e
_______________________________________


WITNESSES
The foregoing instrument, consisting of an ungodly amount of pages, including this page, was
signed in our presence by Junior High Memories and declared by her to be her last Will. We,
at the request and in the presence of her and in the presence of each other, have subscribed
our names below as witnesses. We declare that we are of sound mind and of the proper age to
Yeater 9
witness a will, that to the best of our knowledge the testator is of the age of majority, or is
otherwise legally competent to make a will, and appears of sound mind and under no undue
influence or constraint. Under penalty of perjury, we declare these statements are true and
correct on this seventh day of November, 2011 at Roberts Apartment Number 29 on North
Beech Street in Oxford, State of Ohio.


____________________________________
Emma Marie Willig

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Embarrassed
He shuffles in his seat, furtively glancing left and right for either Blameless or Disgusted.
His hue goes from whiteboard to essay-marking-pen in a blink of an eye. Embarrassed is a bit
proud, however, when his teacher cries out, Who reeks? but does not complete the grin inching
across his face. The laughter subsides and Giggly and Shallow calm down, but Embarrassed
cannot help himself. He finally gets up and is carried out into the hallway on his classmates
laughter, sighing in his shame. Why me? Embarrassed asks. Why me?
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Discover Yourself:
A Quiz
Take the following self-scored quiz to see exactly where you fall in the range of
emotion archetypes. Keep track of your points and then follow the scoring guide
at the end. You never know what your true self could be!

1. You pass your friend in the hall and wave, but she doesnt wave back. Do you:
a. Think she must be mad at you?
b. Tell everyone in your next class you two are enemies?
c. Assume the hallway was just too crowded and she didnt see you?

2. Someone drops a note on your desk during English. What does it say?
a. Do you like Zach? Check yes or no or maybe sometimes.
Yeater 10
b. Kevin farted!!!
c. OMG girl tonite we should get some ice cream before my rents come
home and Ill have to walk the stupid dog. Ughhhh life is so unfair and
nobody said anything nice about my fall dance dress even though

3. The teacher asks you to repeat what you said. What do you do?
a. Look scandalized! She should have heard you the first time!
b. Repeat what you said.
c. Stick out your lower lip and pout that no one else had to redo their
sentence reading.

4. Someone shoves you in the stairs and your books go flying. Do you:
a. Roll your eyes and pick up your thingsit was probably one of your
buddies fooling around?
b. Begin crying your eyes out about how unfair it is that this happened?
c. Exaggerate the story until it begins to sound like you survived Nam?


1. A = 1 B = 2 C = 0 2. A = 1 B = 0 C = 2 3. A = 2 B = 0 C = 1 4. A = 0 B = 1 C = 2


If you scored 6 to 8 points, you are a drama queen! Junior high is all about being
in the know, making friends, making enemies, and doing your hair!

If you scored 3 to 5 points, you are attending the worlds biggest pity party!
Everything is always worse for you, and you play your violin proudly!

If you scored 0 to 2 points, you are probably a boy. Either that or junior high is
so last year.
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Eagerness
Fingers tickle the air vigorously and desks move with potential energy. Eagerness cannot
think of a single thing more fulfilling at this moment than to be called on by Teacher. School is
great! Friends are terrific! Life, oh life! Is that your favorite poem, Teacher? Eagerness wants
to read it aloud. You are such a hardworking Teacher so you deserve a hug! Eagerness is
friends with Teachers Pet, but the difference lies with the impetus: Eagerness wants to please
because when one is liked, there is fun to be had, whereas Teachers Pet wants to get a good
grade. Teachers Pet remains within the classroom, but Eagerness sprints forth into friendships,
relationships, family, and life.
Yeater 11
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1234&/5* 6%#$(0' 738-/##("0#
The glares I received when I passed back the graded persuasive essays were horrifying. I
knew that I was lucky there was only one more day left in junior high. They refused to work
with me as they had days before. The balancing act between giving them the grades they deserve
but the attention and care they require to do any sort of work is rough. Within my own
classroom, I hope I will not feel such guilt over giving poor grades, especially when they are due
to the students lack of effort.
The students feelings toward each other, themselves, and their teachers affect every
single thing that they do. Their reactions in class are based upon whether they respect the
teacher, but respect is vague and broad. Sometimes, a smile seemed to work, but for others,
only undeserved grades and a turned cheek are the only things that will suffice. Logic is not
always the best argument with these seventh-graders, but I have not yet found the best way to
connect.
I felt comfortable teaching in high school, because I felt as though I could understand
those students closer in age to myself. I was humbled when I realized during conversations that
some junior high students are wise beyond their years, and at times can catch even their teacher
making mistakes. There was a constant need for me to be on my toes within the junior high
classroomwatching the students and watching myselfmuch more than in the high school
classroom I was in.
Mainly, I learned that I both underestimated and overestimated the students. My
deferential experience came when I discovered that some of the students produce thoughtful
responses, caring words, and hilarious discussions. However, not all students are up to that level,
and the variation in academic ability was extreme. The toughest thing I had to learn was how to
Yeater 12
accommodate those students who were not quite even with their peers. The more grown-up
students I found myself drawn to, and worked hard to address each student.
Whether it was a student asking Which poem do you think is most inspiring? during a
lesson, the student who ran into the classroom screaming, Im a psychedelic cat! Meow! or
reading a persuasive essay that was blatantly copied from a classmates, I learned more from
these students than they learned from me.
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Resentful
He did not see the reminder on the boardhow could he have? After all, Resentful has
other things on his mind. How could Teacher expect him to do something so arduous, so
painstaking, so time-consuming, as to look at the board? Resentful dislikes strangers coming
into his classroom that assume he knows more than he does. Resentful snickers at the poetry
read aloud, and he always makes sure to address his comments under his breath. He is short and
knows it, and struggles with remembering where a comma goes. Resentful has been hanging out
with Aleck comma Smart on the weekends, and now has a partner in creating shenanigans.
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Review of Attack of the
Adolescent Emotions!
Notes upon the multigenre paper genre choices

News Bul l et i n
In keeping with the television or big screen theme, I wanted to introduce the main focus of
emotion in a humorous but relevant way. By including dialogue between an imaginary reporter
and myself I was able to voice my own concerns about field experience, my hopes and fears, and
let my reader know that I all in all enjoyed myself within field and composing this multigenre work.

Fi rst Impressi ons
I felt the need to include this piece of insight in a basic essay form since this is basically how
it looked within my field notebook. That first day I found it hard to focus on the educational
aspects, so great were my feelings of nostalgia and defense. Calling it Nostalgia felt slightly
maudlin, but in order to begin my study of adolescent emotions, I had to discuss my own first.
Yeater 13

Ode
At first, I was not sure if I was going to include this quick poem I wrote more for my own
pleasure, but I realized that I was not simply exploring the use of binders within junior high. The
trapper keeper appeared to take on qualities of emotions and became something that I could
manipulate to cover a great deal of information that I learned and saw within field.

Wi l l
In another one of my English classes, we were discussing rarely used nonfiction genres, and
the idea of a last will and testament has been stuck with me ever since. As a female who at one
time did experience junior high, I thought adding my own feelings (long since dead) to my study of
adolescent emotions would add to the depth of my project.

Qui z
It never fails that any junior high classroom one walks into, there will be at least one girl
with one of those vapid teen magazines. I am a guilty party myself, and so it was not difficult to
remember the self-discovery types of quizzes I used to take. Keeping with the theme of emotions,
I poked fun at the dramatics I encountered while still taking a prevalent aspect of the junior high
culture into consideration.

Three- Voi ce Poem
As I was creating the other genres for my paper, I realized that although my focus was upon
emotions found in the junior high classroom, I was in fact missing an important aspect of
education: the teachers and the parents. By utilizing the multi-voice poem, I wanted to explore
how at times the feelings of teachers and parents are marginalized, but also can be quite similar to
those felt by the junior high students.

Last i ng Impressi ons
Since I included the First Impressions piece, it felt right in a bookend sort of way to
including a final reflective piece. I did not feel it had to be too explicitly insightful due to my
examination within the other genre inclusions.

Repet end
I was inspired by the personification of emotion we did in class a few weeks ago, and while
listening to the junior high students talk and behave, I realized that it would be a very effective way
to convey their emotions, behaviors, and dialogue in a creative way. Although I kept in mind a few
specific students (and myself as a teacher) while writing the various personified emotions, all could
be applied to the majority of students I met while in my field experience. Any specific quotations
were actually said by a student at one point in time, and most of the behaviors are true, as well.