Week 34: May 4-8

090508: Day 152
First thing this morning I opened my email and found a missive from Ms. L with the subject line “bullying and abortion.” An attention-getter, to say the least. Long story short, CG and BJ—what a lovely couple—have been manipulating NR and AB into believing each wants to fight the other in order to engineer a girl fight. If you recall, BJ hit NR over the head with a recycling bin just a few weeks ago (see Day 137) and this week marked his return from the off-site suspension school. Anyway, all the students were out of classes for most of the day so there could be a “mediation” of their problems. Ms. L happened upon AB and NR at some point during the day and pulled them both into her room to talk the problem out.

Ms. L had been told their dispute had been mediated before. I’m not sure how you define mediation, but I’m pretty certain it should involve sitting both people down together. However, the girls said it was the first time they had sat down with each other to discuss the problems they had—problems that have been going on for a couple months. Our school’s “mediation” is a faculty member sitting each student down separately and threatening suspension. Huh. Anyway, as the story emerged from this genuine mediation, Ms. L helped the girls to see they were being played by CG and BJ. They were angry and vowed to stick up for each other from then on. It will be interesting to see how that plays out on Monday, when BJ and CG find their cruel entertainment spoiled and NR and AB now firm allies.

Ms. Po was not here today. I feel icky about it. As bad as I am, she is worse. I’m not sure if I hope she comes back or if I hope she doesn’t. The situation is certainly coming to a head. Who knows what happened to the meeting she was supposed to have with AP P this morning.

090507: Day 151
As I sat in my room this afternoon, talking to my friend Sally and making wedding plans, I watched the sky turn darker and to that sick shade of green that tells you a serious downpour is on its way. I swear it waited for 2:55 to burst forth. By the time I made it to my car, the sky was booming and my skirt was soaked through. I wore boots for just this occasion—didn’t want to ruin my beautiful new blue pumps (see above). Fuck me, though, my bag got so wet that the shoes got damaged inside it. Then, because I’m so exhausted I can’t take care of myself, it didn’t occur to me to take my shoes out of my wet bag until hours after I got home. I need to go to a leather repair shop. I’m thinking Eddie’s in Grand Central, but who knows when I’ll have time.

The Poetry Slam victory continued this morning. DG came into my room before first period (I don’t have him till fifth, but he likes me) talking about how much fun he had yesterday. He said he was so nervous, but once he started reading it was just so much fun. Be still my heart.

Also, today LS threatened to kill herself. And no one could find her para, Ms. WP, when it happened. It was Ms. WP’s lunch break, though, so I’m unclear as to how she can be in trouble. But she is. She sat in AP P’s office for twenty minutes waiting to be called into a meeting about the situation while a small army of people searched the school for her. No one knew who she was, so they didn’t recognize her when she was sitting right in front of them. She’s pretty pissed, seeing as how she’s worked at the school for eight or nine years.

090506: Day 150
The Poetry Slam was an amazing success this year. Last year, it pretty well sucked. This year every student in attendance participated save three or four (I suspect GL’s crippling depression and shyness held him back and JG’s lack of participation is impossible to explain). In each period, students performed their poems one-by-one. At the end of each performance, everyone in the audience scored the performance between a 0 and a 10 by writing the number on an index card and holding the card up in the air. I (kind of randomly) picked three scores to write on the board and tallied up the totals as we went along. I’m incredibly proud, mostly of me but also of the students. Keys to success: students were on teams and competing for a team prize; students were also competing for an individual prize; guest judges made it “real”; and each student got to judge all the performances. Once the event got rolling, so many kids were participating—both reading and scoring—that it became more embarrassing for a student to refuse to participate than to be mildly embarrassed by reading in front of the class.

GA read a poem of his own composition and won in fourth period with the only perfect score of the day. He’s still an asshole, but it was nice to see him succeed. JK wowed the entirety of first period with his rendition of “Romantic” by Dana Wier. Pretty amazing for a kid who gets made fun of stuttering through whole paragraphs. BR almost caused AP A to faint with his recitation of “may i feel said he,” a poem I personally picked out for him when I noticed he was looking for “sexy” poems.

The event was such a hit that by fifth period, we had four guest judges and a bunch of students from first period who enjoyed the slam so much they came back to see more.

I need to do more presentations next year.

090505: Day 149
I ran into Ms. Po this morning. She had a letter in her mailbox from AP P asking her to attend a meeting Friday morning. AP P happened to be standing there when Ms. Po picked up said letter, so naturally she asked what it was all about. AP P claims she just has a question to ask, but I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as that. Neither does Ms. Po. She’s a little bit upset, seeing as AP P is supposed to be meeting with students and their parents on behalf of Ms. Po, due to the constant sexual harassment she endures (See Day 142). Of course, when the kids harass her, Ms. Po rips them back. So who knows what that meeting is going to be about. But generally, if it is scheduled, it is more than just “a question.” Ms. Po told me that she doesn’t think she “can come back to this place” if she’s in trouble. I think she’s known for awhile that she shouldn’t keep coming back. It’ll be interesting (and possibly tragic) to see how this plays out.

Today is the last day of class preparation before the poetry slam. I was reviewing the expectations and the prizes for the winners. In fourth period, fucking FR called me cheap because the top individual prize was only two candy bars. I canceled all prizes briefly because really. FR is the kind of kid who acts like an asshole daily, lets other students take the blame and then claims he never lies, that he always admits it when he is out of line. He is the lowest form of scum in the classroom. And he does no work. Numerous kids in the classroom called on FR to apologize for calling me cheap and ruining it for the rest of them. He flat out said he wouldn’t apologize because I was being cheap. Fucking hate that kid. It’s this kind of crap that makes it hard to come in every day: a student who lets others take the blame for his shit, who does no work, who expects to be treated like royalty by his teachers.

090504: Day 148
Remember when my seventh period got split in half? (See Day 97 and the next few days that followed.) Well, Ms. Wi finally took her maternity leave—that woman held out until the last week of her pregnancy to take her leave—which left all her classes without a teacher. So, the students in Ms. W(itch)’s seventh period got returned to me and Ms. W(itch) took over Ms. Wi’s seventh period. So far, they have been pretty good to me. Obnoxious as all get out, but happy to be back with me. Or just happy to be back in a class bigger than five students. MN in particular seems happy. He came in on time, picked up a new Aims and Answers sheet without being asked and immediately began to copy the aim. He also claimed me right quick as his partner in the Poetry Slam on Wednesday. I missed him, too.