Piolin

Piolin - Eduardo Sotelo - is a DJ at a LA Spanish-speaking radio station.

I know lots about him because Aztec Boy wrote a paper on him, tells me about him, etc. Piolin had a huge part of a million people showing up at the protest I went to - and all the others. He also kept 'em peaceful.

Like I said - when I went to this march, it was different than others. It felt like a grassroots family affair. Not about leaders but about people.

I kinda thought Aztec Boy was exaggerating Piolin's importance. But NPR's story today (there's a reason I went to work 10 minutes earlier today) showed me differently.

So I went to my classroom and made a mental note to myself to tell AB about it. Before mental note was processed, he walked in to show me his new clothes (why do kids buy distressed jeans??). I thanked him for making me cooler for telling me all about Piolin and keeping me informed (I try to listen to Piolin myself and he talks TOO DAMN FAST) and he gave me that look he gives so well and said, "Cooler? Harumph. Cool at all." Then we argued about how he's prejudiced and whether his "Girls Gone Wild Film Crew" t-shirt is stupid. Ah, what a way to start my day. He may be able to read my mind and whenever I want to see him he appears, but it never takes more than a minute or two to find something to disagree about.

Thanks to Spitfire later in the day whom I shouted at, "You're stupid! You told me the wrong store!" and her response shouted across the classroom was, "You are Mexican! You're like us! I really like you!"

Is it just my kids who break the rules? What becoming-a-teacher textbook ever tells you to yell at kids and call 'em stupid? I did it because she had just shouted I was stupid for going to the wrong store, and then she realized she'd crossed the line so I deescalated with humor. There was this kid "visiting" my class (another teacher couldn't handle him so sent him to me for the class period), and the look on his face was hilarious. We must have all looked like we escaped from the asylum - everybody except quiet special ed girl acts like a maniac in there.

Every damn week they have to break me in. I was thinking, "Oy, Mondays are the worst because they forget how school is," blah blah blah. Nope. Mondays are worst because *I* forget how school is. How do they learn best? When we're all shouting over each other and making slightly rude jokes in English and Spanish and I tell them to do something and they argue and throw a fit and I rudely laugh at them and they do it. When I have my Zen moments of surfing the waves of juvenile delinquency.

Now, not all my classes are like this, but they all have the tendency to a degree and the less sane I am the better the day goes. Maybe I seem like a loose cannon, but my crazy responses are all very timed and reasonable. REally. It's all part of my plan for student success. Or, wait, was that a plan for world domination?

Anyway, about the kid visiting, another weird mindreading moment from Aztec Boy today - when computer teacher called asking if I could take the kid, I said sure and asked a couple questions of her (like what his name is - which she didn't know - and what he was supposed to be doing. AB came over to my desk and was talking to me and I said, "Oh, tell me when that kid comes out of the classroom" - and AB had actually been watching for him through the window to make sure everything was cool. Kinda like how my dog Selma likes to get between me and any potential perpetrator.

So, I finished the Assaultive Behavior class tonight - not how to do it, how to deal with it. And I think that honestly in a situation like that my biggest problem would be keeping kids out of the situation and letting me handle it myself. If a kid jumped me in any of my classes, I have no doubt I would have kids immediately defending me.

Now, I'm not all that popular or anything, but it's a loyalty code thing. They take care of their own. And sometimes I'm close to being one of them. And enough have told me often enough, "Ms. B, we got your back."

In my classroom it may well often look like the lunatic is running the asylum, but it helps. I can't coerce my kids - they are hardened criminals, many of them. All unsuccessful certainly and hard-assed about it.

But I don't try to be their friend, either. I never try to be cool, because, well, it's hopeless. I'm a geek.

But as Ana Angel taught me years ago, "cool is on the inside." I get to be myself. Goofy and bad-jokey and driven and blunt.

They know what to expect from me. Some days are better than others for me, and my moods are not always predictable. But I'm always honest. They always have to work. I always want to help. These things never change.

But as always, I don't want to be remembered by my kids - I want their successes to be owned by them.

Dammit, I really didn't want to bond with them because it will make leaving so much harder.

Well, too late for that.