Daily Life

Hello, everyone! Tsarina is feeling a bit...odd. I'm not sure, but I think when the label says to take 1-2 tsp. every 6 hours, they don't mean take a shot whenever the urge strikes you! However, if I have coughed at all in the last 12 hours, I was not awake to know it.

Tomorrow is Cruella's stepdaughter's birthday (I guess I'll call her Amy). Amy is a strange kid, and I feel bad that I haven't put more effort into getting to know her. I got her some cool kits to make stained-glass and bead jewelry...I have no idea what little girls like.

I met James' little brother, John, this week. What a cutie! I was talking to him in the hall (he was skipping class- if you'd met most of his teachers, you'd understand WHY he was skipping class). We were chatting, and he was agreeing to go back to class when one of his teachers came around the corner and started yelling at him. First of all it pissed me off because I am perfectly capable of handling the situation. Secondly, she tried to humiliate him by screaming that he was failing his classes, and shouldn't be skipping. It drives me nuts; why do you have to be so fucking mean to the poor kid? I told him that if he passed 7th grade (this is his second time), I'd request for him to be in my class next year...don't know if I'll even have a job next year, but it seemed to make him happy. Now every time I see him in the hall, he smiles and says, "hi". Ok, I'll adopt him and James both!

T. is confusing the hell out of me. He's doing well in my class, and in Lit, where she also is letting him do independent study, and he's been doing ok in history (I've been pulling him out of class and working on it with him). But, now he has to work on his group history project, and he's mad because he can't come to my room and work on it. For starters, I can't stand one of the kids in his group, and couldn't take having to deal with him twice a day. He's creepy- always "adjusting" himself, and "accidentally" bumping into girls (and female teachers). During a fight last week, as I was trying to keep kids back, someone grabbed my ass. I can't prove it was him because there was so much chaos, but I KNOW it was...ick. T. is also still failing math. Math teachers in general are inflexible (I have a friend who works near Chicago who is great, but she's the only one I've ever met). Our math teacher WILL NOT give him his work and let him do it; she insists he must listen to her lecture. For crying out loud, this is the third time he's taken that class, he probably DOES know it! But, she's kind of a bitch anyway- she won't give up the day before Xmas break to have a party for the kids. I don't know what she thinks they're going to learn, but she refuses to do anything but hold a regular class. Three of us are going to have parties in our classes, and I'm trying to find something that won't be too expensive to buy for 110 of them, but that they will like.

Also, this week Nina and I had a huge argument. Several times, I tried to say it was just that we had different opinions, but she's one of those people who CAN NOT understand any other point of view, and who feels that if she just talks louder, she'll convince you. She was again saying that most of her students were never going to go to college. I said, "well, not if no one believes that they will", which pissed her off. She started ranting about how when I tell them that they're going to college, I'm putting too much pressure on them (wtf?). I told her that while it is possible that they may never go to college, I want them to know that if they WANT to, there is at least one person in the world who beleives that they can. SHE FUCKING FREAKED! Told me that I was being unrealistic and unprofessional by telling them that anyone could go to college. She honestly said, "You are putting ideas into their heads that they can be successful, when we both know that they are going to end up in prison or dead". Then Tsarina fucking freaked and told her she was a narrow minded idiot if she thought that where a person came from determined where they could go. I asked her, "If one of your kids was raised by an alcoholic father and a mother suffering from severe depression that kept her in bed for years at a time, and the kids were forced to take care of their daily needs since they were around seven...the kids were abused and neglected, and in middle school, started drinking and using drugs. The family lived at the poverty level- would you think that student would never go to college or do anything?" She said, "NO, the kids will be another burden on society". I smiled and said, "I'm glad you weren't my teacher, or I guess I'd just be another burden on society. One of my teachers told me I could do anything- it may be harder than for other kids, but I could do it". She had no reply except to call me a "Liberal bitch with no concept of reality", and tell me that ideas like these are why so many scholarships are available to "unqualified" students. The more I get to know some of my fellow teachers, the smaller my group of friends becomes.

Ok, I've gotta go shopping...thank God and Al Gore for the Internet!

Have a great weekend!