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, November 9, 2010

Three things.

Three things that made me want to walk out of RMS's doors today and never. return. ever.

1. Someone grabbed my ass today. And by someone I do mean a student. He was a punk about it and did it when about 25 kids were pushing past me so I couldn't tell who it was. I just about lost it then and there, and the clock didn't even show 10:00 yet. I mean SERIOUSLY!?!

2. I spend 75 minutes teaching about isotopes. I give them notes. We practice diagrams, we do examples, we look at pictures, we read articles, we answer questions. As they're packing up, I tell them to draw an isotope on a post-it and put it on the door on the way out. Three kids simultaneously: "What's an isotope??" Seriously?!? Seriously.

3. I brought cookies for my 3rd block class--not because they deserved them, but because they had improved from worst class in the universe to just worst class in North America. Made the cookies myself after school yesterday. Bought the damn ingredients off my two-dollars-and-fifty-cents-an-hour paycheck. Passed them out during warm-up. "Man, Ms. M dese cookies harder than a BRICK. Why you can't warm them up 'fore you bring em to class!?" I considered throwing both a cookie and a real brick at the genius who made this comment and asking if he felt a difference.

I'm getting to a dangerous point. The point where I'm finding it difficult to care about anything school-related. The point where I'm saying things I shouldn't during class, slacking off on the things I know I should be doing consistently. I can't care enough for 85 people, and I'm burned out from trying. Is it June yet??
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2 comments:

  1. Lindsey SmithNovember 10, 2010 at 8:01 AM

    so close to the iron bowl! so close to thanksgiving and christmas! you can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    and i need your email address to invite you to my blog. wild story. send it to my via FB message

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah Cooper SmithNovember 18, 2010 at 5:37 PM

    I've spent an entire week talking about the Constitution only for several students to say "What is a constitution?" on Friday. Goodness gracious. Gotta love it!! You're so good for those kids!! Keep up the good work!

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