the Italian noun

My rowdy class might make good. I may have to keep sending a kid out every day, but they might do ok.

I gave a rash of shit to Martin who put on a test that Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was Italian. WTF?! So, we give him a hard time, but today when they were writing about her, another kid wrote that she was a "noun." And somebody said, "But a nun is a noun!" and another cried out, "Sor Juana, the Italian noun!"

They're geeks like me, they just don't know it.

I had to send a kid to the office to talk to the vice principal about how another kid is sexually harassing her. The asst. principal had just interceded on the sexual harasser's behalf so I was not dealing - I'll deal with it tomorrow. I sent her up with Kris, who is THE BEST CAMPUS SUPERVISOR EVER. He SO rocks. He has SO got my back. I'm SO glad he's back - he was gone all last week.

I said to Kris this morning, "You know, I just sometimes got these coupla kids who are obnoxious and I need somewhere to send them. Do you know any teachers who can handle that?" And not only did he know, but he went and got that teacher, and then they both accosted the kid who is most obnoxious, and that teacher came and talked to me, and Kris said he'd be happy to be a first-line of intervention, and then the teacher went and got in Flanders (the AP)'s face about "how dare he send somebody back to my classroom that had been sent out," etc. (and he told me, "He doesn't fuck with me. Now he won't fuck with you." Which, I gotta say, is cool).

And I don't think they think that I just can't handle discipline - I think they see that it's important to work as a team.

This is kinda what I feared. I don't want to bond to my school peeps because it makes me sad to leave them and it makes them feel like they wasted time with the new kid.

You know what I really hate? I was at ToysRUs the other day, getting a Rubik's cube to take to Africa for when I don't have yahoo games anymore, and I heard this woman yelling at her kids and I thought, "Holy shit. Is that how I sound?" I don't want to sound like that. No BS. Now one warning and then they're out, because I'm not going to be a harpy at 'em.

I got another kid to have a cop conversation. He had skipped a page on the test yesterday, so I was going to let him finish so I called his teacher this morning and she sent him over - but instead of coming to my classroom, HE WALKED OFF CAMPUS TO BAKER'S TO USE THE RESTROOM. So I went over to the teacher's classroom and was like, did you send him over? And she said yeah, and then I was talking to somebody else, and Kris came a few minutes later dragging the kid along - who TOLD US what he had done. Which is totally against the rules - that's truancy. So, I told the AP, Flanders, and he called the cops who called in the kid and gave him an official ticket.

Will this kid EVER forgive me? Probably not, which is too bad because I really like the kid. But when I got off the phone with Flanders who was asking some stupid detail, I turned to the class and said, "Do not EVER TELL ME WHEN YOU BREAK THE LAW. Because I will bust you." What kind of stupid is that, to tell your teacher?

Yup, here's me, making friends and influencing people.

And one of my other kids, who was really doing well for me, well he's up for expulsion because he and a pal were shooting with a pellet gun one day on the way to school and a resident followed them to the school and called the cops who searched the kids' cars and found weapons. What kind of stupid is that?

Yup, my kids are a special kind of stupid, I guess.

All I can say is that I have travel-itis SOOOOO bad. I have so much to do and don't want to. I watched General Hospital. Now I'll take a walk. I called Jenny to see if she wanted to go shopping. I will eventually hit panic mode and start all my work, but for right now, all I can think about is getting on that jet plane in 8 days and 2 hours.