Hello friends, family, and strangers (I flatter myself)! I am a recently-graduated girl finding my way in the "real world" (apparently, I've been floating around the fake world for the past two decades). Many of my friends' "real world"s consist of cubicles, nine-to-fives, marriage, babies, and other such grown-up things. My real world looks a little different. Yes, I still get up and go to work every morning, same as they do. But instead of battling fax machines, computer programs, disgruntled spouses and dirty diapers, I arm myself against a legion of 14-year-old boys. Well, 83 of them to be exact. You see, I teach 8th-grade boys' Science in an inner-city, high-poverty school. What it is not: glamorous, prestigious, boring. What it is: humorous, heartbreaking, and the most challenging thing I will ever do.

The stories I tell and the people I describe are real; you can't make this stuff up. If you are new to my blog, I hope you'll start at the beginning and fall in love with its characters, just as I have.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

It's the Small Victories

"I'm about to show this video clip--'The Science of the Winter Olympics.' DO NOT move your chair or your bodies closer to the front. You can see from your desk."

Before the words are even out of my mouth, Rell is picking his chair up and dragging it to the front of the classroom.

"Tyrell. What did I JUST say? Take your chair back."

Tyrell looks me in the eye, plants his chair on the ground, then turns around to sit. Without thinking and possessing a perfect timing uncharacteristic of me, I jerk the chair backwards juusst as he lowers his bottom to sit. BAM! Rell is belly-up on the floor.
The whole class laughs uproariously. In an instant, I am transformed from uptight teacher to valiant hero.
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2 comments:

  1. StarlaFebruary 22, 2010 at 1:14 PM

    You make me SO PROUD!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2010 at 3:13 PM

    Oh my goodness! It's the same with me too! Those times when your timing is just right so you come off looking awesome are very few but absolutely amazing when they do occur.
    -Ginger

    ReplyDelete

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