Friday, February 23, 2007

you're so fat when you step on the scale it says, "to be continued..."

My greeting of affection today from Huffy. To put this in context, I've been out of school for the past three days sick with a virus that started last Friday morning which has basically put me off solid food and caused me to drop somewhere between three and five pounds in the last week. I'm already probably the thinnest I've been since I was actually in middle school myself, so for possibly the only period of time in my life I don't mind anyone making fat jokes about me. I cracked up.

Today was actually okay, with the exception of two periods where they would just not shut up. There were a lot of other annoying parts, but they had to do with the adults, and I'm depressed enough about it already and this week has sucked enough that I'm gonna hold off writing about it.

Huge bright spot of the week- on top of going to the "mall"- the bar we go to after school, and actually not throwing up the alcohol I drank, and eating solid food, nine o'clock tonight, while on the phone with my mom, I get a call from DJ's mom's cell phone, actually DJ. I haven't talked to DJ's mom in probably months, although we played phone tag for a long time in the fall so I could check and see how he's doing.

"Hello?"
"Ms. A?"
"Yes? DJ?"
"Yeah."

Silence.

"How are you doing?"
"Good."

More silence.

"Well, thanks for calling, DJ. What's up, what's going on with you? You calling with a question or just to say hi?"
Pause.
"Just to say hi. I'm doing good. I'm getting good grades."
"Like what? As and Bs?"
Pause.
"Yeah. Only one C."
"What do you have a C in?"
Pause.
"Not math!"

The whole conversation kinda went like that. Turns out he was just calling to say hi and tell me he was doing well. For reference, DJ was the kid I had probably the most intense relationship with out of all my kids last year. He was initially diagnosed as being mentally retarded and was testing at a second grade level, but I was (and am) of the opinion the whole thing was bogus- he was tested while in a homeless shelter and spent the whole school year he was with me commuting from the opposite end of the city from the hotel he lived in via multiple trains and buses AND took his little sister to school every day. That kind of independence and adaptive intelligence just is not compatible with retardation (in my not very humble but also not very expert opinion... but I was right! I had him re-diagnosed and got that frigging label taken off him). Anyway, I could write about this kid and how great he is all day (not that I felt that way on most of a daily basis last year from his behavior, but he was), but his family finally got some kind of housing that wasn't a hotel way on the other side of the city and he transferred schools- hence the whole phone tag with his mom thing. So basically he just called to say hi and tell me he was doing well. How many seventh grade boys do that? I love that child.

AND this kid today, who's not even one of my students but in L's homeroom (the sister class to mine) that I got into my after school program because he's so well-behaved and did such good work for me gave me a glass paperweight today. From Las Vegas, actually, kind of random. It was really sweet of him- of course he got suspended a period later for fighting, but I have it sitting on my desk for when he comes back... Plus I think I got a hug from every child in my hallway (except Huffy, who cracked fat jokes instead...). Screw the adults (specifically, the ones who have gone through the admin machine which makes even the best people lose perspective and humanity), all you really need are kids. Who needs adults anyway?
Course, I got a new kid today that I'm afraid to even write about... potential lawsuit with the school... medications, assaults, issues... he might change things.

Also fun: Melissa confiscated a phone today of one of her eighth graders. The kids all warned her not to look through it, but she opened it just to turn it off so it didn't ring. Turns out the wallpaper was animated cartoon porn. (Doggy style, and yes it moved. You were wondering, admit it.)

Ah, the innocence of childhood.

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