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.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

TWO POSTS IN ONE AFTERNOON?!?!

I'm going crazy with these posts.

The long and short of it: I had a rough day today. As in, I had to walk outside of the classroom three times to get my composure. If one more child had yelled at me, disrespected me or even gave me a bad look, I MIGHT have done something to get myself fired. I found myself on the verge of tears for only about the 3rd time this year (see, haven't we come a long way!?). Not tears of sadness. Tears of anger and frustration.

Over it.

But then: As I'm standing at my outdoor duty post watching kids walk to the bus lot AKA herding cattle (really rude cattle with attitudes), I quickly realize I should have brought my coat. It is COLD! I clutch my sides and keep the lines moving with violent head nods. De'Queius pauses to tell me goodbye.

"Ms. M! You look freezing! You want my jacket?" He begins to take off his backpack and tug at his sleeves.

"De'Queius, stop! You're going home! You need your jacket!

He continues. "I can just get it tomorrow. You gon' freeze out here!"

I assured him that I was tougher than I looked, but that he was a true gentleman for offering. So sweet. Doesn't take much to make my day at that place!
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