i'm not making this up

i don't remember what reminded me of this just now, but it's been bothering me.

jorge: by the way, mister, arleni has been asking for help the entire class.

me: oh, shoot. really? i didn't notice. i'm sorry, arleni. i'll help you next class. don't worry, this won't be due for you as homework.

tiffany: way to do your job. you know, to _teach_ people?

and tiffany is one of my better students. arleni is very quiet. she never talks. when she has a question, she doesn't ask. or at least, apparently, not that i can hear. she usually sits there and draws anime girls (really well, i might add) sailor moon style.

this short exchange occurred at the end of class, after i'd handed out 3 pages of notes on which i describe, step by step by step, how to solve for the area of regular quadilaterals, triangles, and hexagons, given the radius.

i wrote the sheets up after writing up on the board how to do it step by step (although i did not label the steps, and i probably went too fast, even though i repeated myself many times), then giving a quiz that almost every student failed, then going over the questions again on the board after the quiz.

thankfully the notes seemed to work. a lot of students hunkered down and followed the process outlined on the sheets. i went around helping students individually as they worked.

my god, you ought to hear some of these girls when they ask for help and you say, i'll be right there after i help this person. they need to be learned some manners. backhanded across the face, in other words.

jorge and tiffany brought arleni to my attention at the end of class. when it was too late to do anything about it. i'd gone over to help tiffany at least 3 times during class, and she didn't say a word about arleni any of those times. and that thing i was supposed to be doing? you know, teaching people? i spent the entire class going from student to student, and putting up with the girls who started whining when i didn't give them my immediate attention.

i should put a stop to the whining thing. it's kind of funny, but only the first time. after that the back of my hand starts to twitch. any suggestions?