No walking today.
It's that windy kinda day here - the kind of day that rips stop signs off their posts, that makes me say to students with normally beautiful hair, "I think the wind won today," that makes my truck feel like it's toppling over when I drive.
Tell me, am I unreasonable? Classes at my school last only six weeks, which with holidays works out to 28 days this term. The counselor still has not got all my classes settled (I gave her the change list last Wednesday at 7:30 a.m.), and she told me it will be taken care of "next week." Um, WTF?!
Today was actually cake because none of the new kids had been moved in, and there were lots of absences. All the nice kids showed up and did their work and helped me sort through schedule changes and book check-outs. All the good students get graduated out of my class. Several begged to stay just for today, just one more day, and I tried to say no, but that's kind of hard. One showed a brand-new-to-our-school student the ways of my class - she checked in her books and then I checked them out to the new kid.
Favorite moment of the day? Telling Ismael, the kid who's never been in high school because he's been in lock-up all his adolescence, to move over and sit by my desk so I could help him (he was the only one who hadn't completed his essay). He ignored me the first time, and then I said, "Now." I could see his eyes narrow, those little wheels in his head turning: "Is it worth knifing her now?" Fortunately, blog fans, he decided "no" and he did come sit by me and he did do his work and he did express interest in beginning the term with a good grade and completing all assignments. Before school, when he was walking with his homie, they both greeted me with smiles.
Why are these my favorite moments? Because of who these particular kids are. They are the toughest adolescents anywhere - they've done time and they may do lots more of it - but I can get them to do work and pleasantly greet me even before I greet them. See, they don't have to worry about looking cool - they look scary as hell and they scare most the rest of the delinquents. And when the other kids see them being nice to me, and me completely unscared of them, it makes a difference. When the gangstas and I are treating each other with respect, it makes the poseurs step back.
I have a drag queen in my class - he's back now after being gone last term. He dresses very pretty (not full drag - semi-drag still) and wears makeup and nail polish and speaks in a low falsetto and is always suffering from extreme ennui. Not in my class, but at our school, is a girl who insists she's a boy - refuses to use the girls' bathroom, looks like a boy, tells teachers she's a boy, etc. At first I thought, "So what's the problem?" but s/he's obnoxious about it, going into the boys' restroom shouting "Suck my dick!" and s/he ain't got one. Stood up to the principal and told him s/he was a boy until he picked up the phone to call her case worker for medical records. What's sad is that she's in foster care and that won't cover the sex change treatments s/he clearly desires so badly. And while my principal is a stupid hick, when faced with a kid who really is adamant, he will negotiate, so now he calls her/him by the boy's name chosen, which is a cool validation.
It's that windy kinda day here - the kind of day that rips stop signs off their posts, that makes me say to students with normally beautiful hair, "I think the wind won today," that makes my truck feel like it's toppling over when I drive.
Tell me, am I unreasonable? Classes at my school last only six weeks, which with holidays works out to 28 days this term. The counselor still has not got all my classes settled (I gave her the change list last Wednesday at 7:30 a.m.), and she told me it will be taken care of "next week." Um, WTF?!
Today was actually cake because none of the new kids had been moved in, and there were lots of absences. All the nice kids showed up and did their work and helped me sort through schedule changes and book check-outs. All the good students get graduated out of my class. Several begged to stay just for today, just one more day, and I tried to say no, but that's kind of hard. One showed a brand-new-to-our-school student the ways of my class - she checked in her books and then I checked them out to the new kid.
Favorite moment of the day? Telling Ismael, the kid who's never been in high school because he's been in lock-up all his adolescence, to move over and sit by my desk so I could help him (he was the only one who hadn't completed his essay). He ignored me the first time, and then I said, "Now." I could see his eyes narrow, those little wheels in his head turning: "Is it worth knifing her now?" Fortunately, blog fans, he decided "no" and he did come sit by me and he did do his work and he did express interest in beginning the term with a good grade and completing all assignments. Before school, when he was walking with his homie, they both greeted me with smiles.
Why are these my favorite moments? Because of who these particular kids are. They are the toughest adolescents anywhere - they've done time and they may do lots more of it - but I can get them to do work and pleasantly greet me even before I greet them. See, they don't have to worry about looking cool - they look scary as hell and they scare most the rest of the delinquents. And when the other kids see them being nice to me, and me completely unscared of them, it makes a difference. When the gangstas and I are treating each other with respect, it makes the poseurs step back.
I have a drag queen in my class - he's back now after being gone last term. He dresses very pretty (not full drag - semi-drag still) and wears makeup and nail polish and speaks in a low falsetto and is always suffering from extreme ennui. Not in my class, but at our school, is a girl who insists she's a boy - refuses to use the girls' bathroom, looks like a boy, tells teachers she's a boy, etc. At first I thought, "So what's the problem?" but s/he's obnoxious about it, going into the boys' restroom shouting "Suck my dick!" and s/he ain't got one. Stood up to the principal and told him s/he was a boy until he picked up the phone to call her case worker for medical records. What's sad is that she's in foster care and that won't cover the sex change treatments s/he clearly desires so badly. And while my principal is a stupid hick, when faced with a kid who really is adamant, he will negotiate, so now he calls her/him by the boy's name chosen, which is a cool validation.
posted by NOLA at 2:24 PM
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