Freedom!
So it's been a while since I last blogged. Since then, so many things have happened at Bethune Middle School that it would take an excessive amount of time to write about them. But I'm now off-track (my semester is over until January) and have a little extra time to spare.
Since October 17, I've won several battles and have lost less. I've discovered that some of my students literally can't read. I've chaperoned a Halloween dance (I used the phrase "come back when you learn some dance steps" with a train - ugh - of grinding middle schoolers). I've helped with the set up of an extravagant haunted house, and dressed up for the first time since middle school. I've been asked "Miss, will you go to the dance with me?" by a 7th grader (and followed that up with a "No, I will not. And I think that's illegal.")
I've also been the subject of rumors and whispers, which were (of course) started by my children. It began when a certain disciplinarian and I were seen speaking on the PE field where I was covering a class. According to the students, the longer we spoke, the closer we moved towards one another. Um... First of all, a noisy PE field is a diffiult place to hold a conversation. Secondly, we were discussing a specific student's behavior and , as I mentioned, my kids are pretty nosey.
After that, the kids asked me if I'd ever considered going out with him. As I don't make it a habit to discuss my personal life with middle schoolers, I ignored them. Over the last few weeks the rumor has grown. What I thought was a speculation started by two girls in my homeroom has spread into every single class period.
I actually think it's pretty amusing. Now, when the kids misbehave, I just threaten to send them to see my boyfriend. :) It could be worse... The kids could see me embracing a fellow coworker. Oops, too late. (That's another entry for another day).
In this time another one of my students was "opportunity transferred." I hate to say I'm glad to see her go, but I know she was getting nowhere at our school. Every day was fight after fight with other girls. She didn't do any work, riled up my class at times, and had a file a mile long - but I still really liked her and hoped she'd come around. I'd given her responsibilities in class - she was powerful and the other kids listened to her.
My favorite memory has been completely non-academic. In my third period scientific drawing class, I have a student who is easily the cutest child on the planet. He's also the student who asked me to the dance. Anyway, I've said over and over that he could and should be on TV.
One day, this special little boy did what I'd been waiting for someone to do. On my lab bench are a whole bunch of different apparati to be used in science demonstrations. Unfortunately, none are hooked up so they're really just there for show. One apparatus is a hose attached to a shower-head nozzle. the hose is about 5 feet long, so it can be pulled out. Well, my dear boy thought it really resembled a microphone and chose to start singing in front of my lab bench. He made up a song on the spot about love and other gooshy stuff. It was great. He then jumped on top of my bench (which brought his 4 foot frame up to about 7 feet) and proceeded to sing to me. I know a real teacher thing to do would have been to yell at him to get down from the bench. Instead, I rolled around behind my desk, laughing my ass off. You have to pick your battles.
By the way, did I mention I'm on vacation??!?!??!?!
Comments