Week 32: April 20-24

090424: Day 142
Ms. L took a dozen kids on a school trip to Washington, D. C. I would kill myself if I did that. Anyway, despite the fact that only twelve kids were going, I pretty well planned on attendance being shite. The kids get it into their heads that everyone is going to be gone so there’s no reason for any of them to come either. So we took a day to write hate poems based on this one. Easy, peasy.

I overheard GA telling another one of his classmates that he was “holding it in” while he was working on his hate poem. Truth be told, he was doing an OK job of holding it in, too. By “it” I mean the excessive swearing and sexual vulgarities. He had good reason to make an effort. One of the many phone calls I made yesterday was to GA’s sister—that poor woman. Turns out Ms. Po had already talked to her before I phoned because GA threatened to bring Ms. Po’s mom into class and make her suck his dick in the back of the room. Sister is planning on taking out a PINS petition on him. Long process short: if a judge finds GA to be “in need of supervision,” he can put him in a foster group home or assign him a probation officer. Guess GA does have some fear in him.

Regarding Ms. Po’s shot across the administration’s bow: we have a sexual harassment action plan. AP P, AP L and AP A are going to bring the offending students’ parents into the school to have a sit-down with their kid and the world’s scariest police officer regarding the harassment. I’m thrilled with the idea of bringing the parents in. Anytime you make parents come into the school they know it has to be serious.

090423: Day 141
Boy howdy did I make some phone calls today. I called home for DD, because he’s shouting out “pussy” and “tossed salad” (not the kind with greens and dressing) all the time and blaming it on his “Tourette’s.” For the record, DD has no such ailment. I called home for FR because he sucks at least as hard as DD does. I called home for KCh because he was a little bitch in class about answering a question I already knew he had answered correctly on his worksheet. I also called home for EB, who often does nothing in class, but today was awesome! I told his sister who passed it along to his mom (who only speaks Spanish) that EB did very well on the quiz we had, volunteered some great answers and even smiled a little. That phone call was fun. Makes me smile just remembering it.

In related news, Ms. Po sent a mighty email to the Principal, AP L, AP A and the deans’ office about the persistent sexual harassment that goes on in our classrooms. She called out the lot of them: SC, GA, FR, LF, and DD. Among the best stories she told on them was DD standing in her doorway with his pants around his ankles saying goodbye to her over and over until she looked up to see he had his pants down. It looks like we may see some actual administrative action on these issues.

Oh and I cried again: during second period.

090422: Day 140
Stopped teaching again in fifth period. I can’t handle the homophobia anymore. If I have to hear “faggot” fifty times a class period for the rest of this year I do not know how I will finish. It’s hard to explain the toll the hate language is taking on my spirit. During the last ten minutes of fifth period, after I’d totally given up on the motherfuckers, TE was standing next to me. Some background: TE has a tendency to be a little gassy. Anyway, I was sitting there in my misery when TE lets out a deep, gurgly belch. He then says, “Ewwww, Ms. G! Gross!” TE is 15 years old.

I had to throw GA out in fourth period. He was doing marginally better, but his entire demeanor is class-stopping. He was so angry about removed that he threw his paper to the floor and spat on it. Then he spat on the late log. I didn’t tell fifth period about the spit. Ha ha, assholes!

And I cried again. This time during my lunch.

090421: Day 139
I had a marker thrown quite forcefully at me in fifth period today. From my dean’s report:

At one point, I threw my overhead marker down in disgust. It was at lest two feet away from any student. Later in that period, I was writing notes on the overhead with said marker and saw something fly dangerously close to my face and heard a loud popping noise (almost like a glass bottle breaking) as it slammed onto the floor beneath the Smart Board. It was a marker. After much discussion and some help from a dean, NR told me and the dean that it was WR who threw the marker. Another student, CM, also came very close to being hit and was upset.

As WR was being escorted from the room, he said to NR, “You gonna get shot.” NR isn’t scared, per se, but she was definitely upset by this comment. She said she was going to 144 to file her own report of this incident, and I hope she did.

I have attempted to call home a couple times over the past month about WaR’s attitude, language and academic progress, but we do not have a working phone number.

Dean T, whom I don’t know from Adam, came in to help with the situation. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t so into teaching after being (again) physically threatened in my own classroom. Ms. L was also in the hallway and told me that Dean T was talking smack about my classroom management skills behind my back and in front of SS. Fucking getting it from all sides here. The dean problem was one I could handle, though. I hunted Dean T down and asked him to kindly not speak about my teaching in front of my kids. He was quite apologetic and there was also some miscommunication involved.

After talking it out with Dean T, I went down to 144 to return WR’s hat to him. He was quite adamant that he did not throw the marker. But he wasn’t in trouble for the marker—no one really cares about anyone threatening me—so much as he was in trouble for threatening to shoot NR. We ended up having a really nice conversation. WR explained his anger management problems (he is so not alone with that problem) and how the only thing that helps is listening to his music. I suggested that if he felt like he was going to explode in the future I would be OK with his slipping his headphones on and listening to his music. He said the signal would be him raising his hand. He was starting to smile by the time I left. I think he had to talk to police after that, though, which was probably less fun. I myself returned to my classroom to teach another period. Didn’t even have a chance to cry until eighth period.

The nastiest part of the whole marker-incident was certainly JM. I’m pretty certain JM was the actual pitcher in the room today. He went so far as to suggest I was to blame for having a marker whipped at my face because I threw my overhead marker at the floor. Then he did that thing he does when he presumes to know what I’m thinking. “You scared, Ms. G? You scared?” And he says it with such glee he clearly enjoys seeing people scared. Which does scare me at least a little. If a kid ever takes a swing at a teacher this year, it’s gonna be JM.

090420: Day 138
The Poetry Slam unit began today. I love this unit, naturally. We read and analyze poems–love!—and at the end the kids have to deliver a dramatic interpretation of a poem of their choice. I started the unit off with my own dramatic interpretation of “This Be The Verse,” by Phillip Larkin, which drops the F-bomb. Nothing like a rhyming poem that blames the misery of the world on parents to hook kids into poetry.

Like any other day, things were fine until fourth period. Both GA and LF loudly announced to the class (or to the universe at large, it’s hard to tell), “I have to take a shit.” I spoke to both of them after class about it. I suggested to GA that a better strategy would have been simply to ask for use of the bathroom pass. GA replied, “Are you crazy? Who shits in school?” I shot back, “Are you crazy? Who talks about their pooping loudly in the middle of class?” And LF? Well, he’s another sack of crazy. The kind of crazy that suffers from echolalia. Or faked echolalia anyway.

Remember last week when I was skeptical that any students would ever be suspended again? BR is suspended! JC is suspended! JC’s suspension is particularly gratifying because it was me who he threatened to “slap the shit out of.”

—–
New film pictures on Day 126 and Day 137

Week 31: April 6-8

090408: Day 137
Oh, how I hate the day before a vacation. I opted not to give a midterm and gave a “midterm” instead. Students had to complete a research poster outline in preparation for their final project for Aliens and Americans. I graded them on effort. (This was an awesome strategy, by the way, for getting me out of pretty much all grading for spring break). The longer the day went, the less the students worked. I understand; I can’t imagine how I would feel if I had taken six midterms in a day and then still had one or two left. I’d slow down, too. But oh, how they didn’t even try after third period!

In other events, BR made an off-color joke towards Ms. Po. They were talking about the fact that Ms. Po lives in the Bronx, and BR commented, “Good. I’m going to come to your house and rape you.”

Take a second with that one.

When BR made it to my room, he was outraged that Ms. Po took it so seriously. You know, because it was just a joke. When he retold the story to seventh period, including AR, RQ and SC, they all laughed. My heart sank. These are mostly nice boys and they are laughing about raping a teacher. I tried to explain that rape jokes aren’t appropriate in mixed company; they ignored me. Word on the street is that BR is also going to be suspended and is not allowed to return to Ms. Po’s classroom. Once again, I’ll believe it when I see it.

But wait, it gets worse. For Ms. L, this time. During her midterm in seventh period, BJ and NR were having some sort of argument. According to Ms. L, it looked like BJ was about to storm out of the room, but instead he doubled back behind her, grabbed the recycling bin and slammed it over NR’s head. As Ms. L turned around to see what was happening, the recycling bin slammed her in the jaw on its rebound from NR’s head. When she came to my wedding shower on Saturday, her face was still tender.

Ms. L, because she is a kind soul, thinks our school is poisoning BJ. Quite frankly, I blame NR more than the school. That girl could make anyone throw a trashcan at her. Anyway, see Day 61 for the day BJ punched AP L in the face. Obviously, though BJ seems quite sweet, he has a crazy-explosive anger problem. Ms. L had to fill out an accident report and AP L is going to try to get BJ a superintendent’s suspension, which would take him out of the school for up to 30 days and put him in an alternate site. Ms. L has to go to a trial for this. Given that Ms. L has already filled out official paperwork, this is one suspension I do believe is going to happen.

090407: Day 136
I almost couldn’t remember what happened today. That’s how banal sexual harassment and breathtaking displays of misbehavior have become.

I remember now, though. And boy does this memory come back with a bang. I had four kids removed from fourth period. Four! It was one of those incidents that I couldn’t even fully recreate for the dean’s report, so widespread and obnoxious was it. From my dean’s report:

Today in my fourth period, FR, LF, JCr and JC were not working and carrying on quite loudly. I asked school security for a dean because I could not hear the voice of a student who was sitting directly in front of me over their joking around.

FR was out of control for the entire period: he didn’t stop talking from the moment the lesson began through to when he was removed. JCr had moments of being on task, but was also talking throughout the entire lesson. Early in the lesson, a remark was made about “lefty,” which was clearly sexual in nature though I cannot exactly explain what it meant. Both JCr and FR repeated this lefty joke many times.

JC came in at 11:00 with a pass, but did no work when he arrived and began immediately to trade “your mother” jokes with JCr. During the trading of “your mother” jokes they began insulting the way people smell. LF got in on the act here and FR joined in as well. The four of them were laughing loudly and saying who smelled like what, including at one point saying that someone smelled like “LJS’s neck” referring to LJS, another student in the class. The conversation at another point shifted to include jokes about rape–I think in the context of how someone’s mother smelled. I wish I could remember exactly who was joking around about rape, but I cannot. My best recollection is that it was JCr, but I also heard the word rape repeated a lot in a couple of different voices.

JC consistently makes off-color jokes about other people’s mothers or sexuality. FR also consistently makes off-color remarks about people’s sexuality. Last week he asked CP if he had “popped that cherry yet” in reference to SA, who was just added to the class. LF as well often makes inappropriate sexual remarks, including calling out “Do you want a quickie” or simply saying “dick” and “pussy.” He has been better with this until today when he got in on the what-does-he-smell-like routine. JCr was only recently added to my roster, but he has done little work and a lot of disrupting since he has been in class.

I don’t find rape jokes funny. Particularly from fucking fourteen-year-old boys. Anyway, once these boys left the classroom, it was so peaceful. It was like when an asshole leaves the room and you feel the collective release of breath from everyone left.

Later in the day, I went to AP A’s office to make some photocopies for my kiddos’ research posters, and JC was there. JC is always in her office because he has decided he isn’t going to go to class anymore. AP A allows this, by the way. JC says to my face, “You are a liar,” and then asks to have some of AP A’s birthday cake. I shit you not. He called me a liar to my face and then got a piece of cake for it.

Later that day, Ms. Po copied me on an email she sent:

As an addition to Ms. G’s Dean Report, in regards to JC, JC came into my room yesterday (he has me after Ms. G) and was talking about how he got taken out of her class and said, “She’s lucky I don’t slap the shit out of her.”
While I recognize it was an “in the heat of the moment” comment, I thought that I would pass this information along.

Rumor has it JC is suspended, but I’ve received no suspension notice. I’ll believe it when I see it.

090406: Day 135
My dad and stepmom came to see me teach today. As anyone could have predicted, the kids were much better behaved than usual. JM went so far as to say that everyone had to be calmer because my dad and stepmom were there. He sounded disappointed. I bit my tongue so as not to offend him by telling him that, really, all students should be that respectful of all teachers ALL the time. Not just when our parents happen by the classroom.

My parents were amazed by the high expectations I have in my classroom—I often am, too, given the level of effort put forth by certain periods (fifth period: I’m talking about you).

I was afraid my parents were bored. They did see the exact same lesson three times in a row. But they said they had a good time. Hell, they got to see SS do some of his magic tricks. And they’re proud of me. Yay.

Week 30: March 30-April 3

090403: Day 134
We finished When the Emperor Was Divine today. The end of the book is a spectular monologue in which the father confesses to being every horrible American stereotype of the “Jap”:

I’m the one you call Jap. I’m the one you call Nip. I’m the one you call Slits. I’m the one you call Slopes. I’m the one you call Yellowbelly. I’m the one you call Gook. I’m the one you don’t see at all—we all look alike. I’m the one you see everywhere—we’re taking over the neighborhood. I’m the one you look for under your bed every nithg before you go to sleep. Just checking, you say.

The passage is so angry and so over-the-top that pretty much every kid actually understood it. I love those days, the days when they all get it. AR loved it so much he demanded I give him a copy of the book because it’s his favorite now. I love it when that happens, too. I’m thinking I’ll buy him a copy.

090402: Day 133
I spent long stretches of fifth period not teaching. The class was relatively quiet while I wasn’t teaching, save a random conversation or two. But even though they weren’t talking, they certainly weren’t listening. After about 3 minutes or so a student would ask me to continue with the lesson. So I would ask the question I had just asked and then no one would answer. I’m not even sure they heard me ask the question, despite the requests to continue. I was not asking hard questions, for the record.

I cannot think for students. They seem to think that is my job, though. They sit there dumb as dirt and wait for me to write something on the board, preferably an answer to a question. Then they say, “I do your work” when they copy the letters from the board onto their pre-made note sheets. I am out of ways to explain that copying notes is not doing the work. They also need to answer questions, read books (and directions), listen to what I say even if they do not have to write it down, and listen to one another. Special ed my ass; this is laziness and it is disgusting.

On the upside, I finished my Culminating Assessment Project, or CAP, and drove it up to Mercy today.

090401: Day 132
Ms. Po is out today. I missed it yesterday, because I was out, but apparently her second period made her cry. That is not surprising; our kids are worse by the minute. I guess they were throwing markers all over the place, and she already felt sick, and she just couldn’t take it anymore.

I made it a point to lock up all my stuff before I left. But I came back today to find that a student stole markers from my desk. Someone reached into my desk and stole my good markers. Said person left all the crayolas and the crappy, school-supplied permanent markers and took my sharpies and overhead markers. I can’t get over it: a kid reached into my desk and stole my sharpies. The number of fucking sharpies I have had stolen from me this year is driving me a little crazy. I need them to keep the word wall nicely updated, and some fucking kid keeps taking them from me. I wish I knew who it was so I could say, to his face, FUCK YOU. Fuck you for being a petty little criminal. Fuck you for making me spend more of my money on your sorry ass, because this classroom is for you. Fuck you for making me waste my time by going to fucking Staples, again, to replace things that were stolen from me, again.

Also, I’m pretty sure whoever stole the sharpies is the same person who tagged “Cookie” all over my classroom in sharpie. It’s on the filing cabinet, Smart Board, heater, mouse pad, desk under the mouse pad and my chair. Also see where GA fucked up the bulletin board that took me a couple hours to put together. GA’s handwriting I recognize from the last time he defaced my mouse pad (and denied it).

If only they read the blog, they could see me say it: Fuck you, kid, for making our world trash.

090331: Day 131
I was positively giddy that I stayed home today, even if it was to work on my CAP. I also went to downtown Yonkers to get my license switched over to New York. Yeah, hadn’t taken care of that California license. It was probably illegal, but whatever. I’m square with the law now. I also hit up Staples for miscellaneous office supplies and even went to Target. Living large, baby.

090330: Day 130
I stayed after school today to help CP on his some homework. I kind of hate staying late, but I feel so much less guilty having one official after-school day. Also, I can get a lot of filing and grading done before I head on out to Mercy for another endless night of graduate work. As I was putting away a ton of stuff and writing directions on the board for Tuesday and stacking papers neatly on my desk, CP made a remark about me not coming to school the next day. I purposefully didn’t tell any kids that I was planning on being absent, because then they would make plans to trash my room instead of doing it on the spur of the moment. CP was a little sharper than I would have anticipated. Fortunately for me, he’s not a shithead. He probably won’t spread word around that I ain’t coming in tomorrow.