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, December 14, 2010

Is this bad?

The highlight of my day:
Watching Devonte Jefferson take a lunch tray full of macaroni and cheese to the face.

He pissed off the wrong girl and paid for it. Apparently, he had thrown his bread on her tray to get on her nerves. It had worked. Now, noodles and cheese sauce poured down his glasses and cheeks and rested in the folds of his plump neck. If I could have seen his eyes, I'm they were wide with shock. I turned on my heel so no one could see me laugh.

All right, that sounds terrible. Does this make it better? Devonte is the biggest bully ever. He is so mean, especially to my Hispanic kids, my disabled kids and my gay kids. NOT OKAY. I've tried to turn him in to administration for months, but nothing he did was severe enough in their eyes. Until this "food fight." Apparently, we can make fun of people's race and call kids "faggots," but tossing a yeast roll across the table is a no-no.

Whatevs. Bye-bye, Devonte! See you in ten days! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!

Side note. I really love my boys, despite the tone of this post. I'm starting to realize how much I'm going to miss them when this is over. I think it is easier to love them this year because I don't get as frustrated with them. I already know the worst it can be, so I let things go more easily now. The ones that are still little and cute, I want to scoop them up and hug them to death. The ones that are big and bad and way too old for their age...well, I want to scoop them up and hug them to death too.

I watched their basketball game yesterday and screamed 'til I was hoarse; I was proud of them like they were my own boys. When someone would ask who just made the goal (shot? I'm not a basketball person?), I'd puff my chest and and answer, "Khalil. He's one of mine!" They'd make quick eye contact with me from the court, then act like they didn't see. But they did. I know because even though they are waaayyy too cool for school in that moment, the second they walk into my classroom the next day they are little kids again.

"Ms. M did you see that rebound??"

"Ms. M you saw me when I blocked that shot!?"

"You gon' be there again Thursday?"

I wish they'd keep that little kid face on all day instead of the grown face they assume most of the time. I like it much better.
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1 comment:

  1. Lindsey SmithDecember 14, 2010 at 8:36 PM

    my oh my how these posts have changed.

    you are doing a great job. keep it up.

    i want to be like you when i grow up!

    ReplyDelete

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