I want to inspire people

Yesterday night, I saw a FB post by a friend about inspiration.

It made me really hope that I can inspire people in my life - students, family, friends, even strangers that I just do random acts of kindness toward.

A few minutes after I saw this and was thinking of how I hope I inspire people, I saw an email notification on my school email.

At first, I was going to ignore it since I don't like to do work emails on the weekend and it was around 11pm on a Friday night.

However, I saw the sender, and it was a student.  I always look at those since there may be something wrong and I want to make sure the students are ok and don't need any help.  It was from a student who has struggled at the school for three years.  Had a child two years ago, didn't do too well last year, and at the start of this year, when she became one of my students, she was skipping school a lot.

The past few months, she has been on top of her game.  She has turned in all of her work, some even early, and is passing the class.  She also took part in the school's first open-mic night that I helped sponsor, and the school's first guitar concert where she played one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs ("Isn't She Lovely").

Yesterday morning, she came by my room before school and I told her how I had really loved her performance and told her the history of that song and why Stevie Wonder wrote it.  I also told her how much I love that she is doing well in school at this point.

I was shocked to get an email from her so late, so immediately went to read it.

It almost made me cry.

I always try to greet the kids into my class with a smile and a warm welcome to Global or welcome to Social Studies or welcome to room 412 or some other happy welcome greeting.  I don't ever really think about it making a difference, but I do love to see the kids smile back and some of them walk over to my door without a smile, but begin to smile or at least snicker at my giddiness when they see me and hear my greeting.

It is always hard as a teacher to realize when you make a difference in a child's life, but it feels great to know that it is so.

I guess I am an inspiration to some, just as I had hoped I was just a few minutes before seeing this email.

Makes me really love my job - especially in these last days as I have been stressed with end of year Regents Exam preparations.

Copy that?!

Quick rant:

I have to be at school for zero period (before school class) every day but Friday. It kills me.  I love the class, enjoy the students and the coteachers, but getting up that early and then teaching a full day is tough.  I have literally had days when I want to stay on the subway an extra stop just so I miss mine and may "accidentally" miss the class.

I have also had a day when I suddenly started crying during my walk from the subway to the school because I started thinking about how much I dislike getting to school early and having to still teach a full load of classes and than have teacher meetings or an additional (mandatory) student help session at the end of the day.

Today, was a day the students took a Regents exam so there was no zero period day.

So wonderful!!!

Words cannot express my joy knowing that today I did not have to get up early to teach that class!

I got to sleep a little later, eat breakfast, leave for work with my boif, and just be relaxed in the morning.

One benefit of getting to school for zero period is that I am always the first person to get to one of the two copy machines for teacher use.  I can copy to my hearts content until it is time to get to class.

Because I knew that today was a late arrival day for me, I made all my copies yesterday. However, after grading a class's work last night, I decided that I wanted to print their progress reports so they could see their current grades.  (Yes, NYC is still in school and won't be finished until June 26 - that is not a typo.  June 26)

I got to school 20 minutes before school started (instead of an hour and a half early like zero period days) and went to the copy room to print my 26 single-sided copies.

When I got there, both machines were in use and one teacher was almost finished with one of the machines.

Before I could print my items, the teacher that was on the machine what was nowhere near finished said that she was about to start copying a shit-load of stuff on the other machine, too.

I almost screamed at her.  How can you use BOTH machines in the copy room?  I asked her fairly calmly, but in my head I was screaming.  This made absolutely no sense to me.

There are two copiers for 30+ staff.  You can't gank both of them to make your last minute copies to do something you have known about for over a week.  You also shouldn't be making hundreds of copies early in the morning that you need them anyway -- copiers jam and you may not get what you are trying to get copied.

I'm just saying.  That's what preps and lunch and after school are for.

She said that since she got to school earlier, she had the right to take up both machines.

I said that I also had the right to get ready for my first period class and to be able to print 26 pages.

She said something jokingly to me and pushed my head a bit. I'm not sure what she said because I not only was pissed about the copies, but also don't like my head being touched, let alone pushed - and, I'm a strong son-of-a-gun, but this one does not know her strength.  I restrained myself from putting a hand on her - it was still before 8:15am, and I like getting paid for work.

She allowed me to get in on one of the machines after a little while and I finally got to print my reports before the start of the day, but was still kind of pissed about the whole situation.

Not a good start to my Tuesday.

I tried to go back to this motto about good ish and breathe easy.

Getting my replacement ink cartridge in the mail today makes it easier to breathe it all out since I will be able to make more copies at home again.

And it is only Tuesday, despite my thinking it feels as though at least half a week has passed since Sunday and that it could be Thursday...

I'm not in school, but still love Spring Break

Teaching can be really stressful, but one of the great things about teaching is that I have never had to stop getting excited about Spring Break. A week and a half to relax, refresh, and frolic without 100+ children all day -- so nice!

I punish myself with excessive grading

Yes, administration, I agree that it is a great idea to do a full mock test (50 multiple choice and two full out essays) with my students to see how they will do on the actual test in two months.  Said I before I remembered that I would then have to grade 70+ of these while also keeping up on regular class grading; why do I do these grading punishments to myself?

Work relationships

A good friend had a beautiful wedding and continuously speaks highly of her husband and their relationship. Our work colleague is still obsessed and seems to think there may still be hope for him; at this point I can't stand to be around him when he's near her.

Work weeks

To get back into writing, I'm challenging myself with 2-sentence or less stories.

Work is stressful, but I enjoy my colleagues.  Happy hour excursions are no longer limited to Fridays, which is fun and relaxing, but definitely adds to my weekly spending tabs.

Six Month+ update

I haven't written a real blog post since last June - that is over six months ago.

Here's a quick recap of what has happened.

I went overseas with 12 students, four mothers, and two other teachers in the end of June into the first week of July.  We went to France (Paris, Nice), Monacco, Italy (Piza, Florence, Rome, Vatican City).

Me getting into my new
car while in Monaco

It was an awesome experience - my first time in Europe beside stopping through airports.

The kids were great, the mothers irksome - one of them even had the nerve to tell me and another teacher that teaching is easy and that planning and organizing the trip was easy.  It took everything in me to not go off on her.  She also was perpetually late and even had a male guest stay in her hotel room in Paris one night (she shared a room with another mother).

Hotel window view each morning
a small town in Italy

There was a student on the trip who had body odor issues so much that other students, though they tried to be nice to her, got to the point where they did not want to room with her.  Her clothes and body smelled so much that we had to have an intervention. She was only in 6th grade, so perhaps did not understand the body changes and the need for proper cleansing and deodorant.  We teachers taught her how to thoroughly wash her body in the shower.  That did not help, so we teachers then had to wash her clothes in three sinks, a shower, and a bidet one night.  It took us about four hours and so much soap and detergent.  The smell was so revolting and our hands smelled like it for days.  She had been putting her wet towels back into her suitcase each day (we would travel most days).  She had her own towel that was the most revolting, mildewy, molded, disgusting thing I have ever smelled.  She didn't want us to wash it since the smell reminded her of her dad.  I had to walk out of the room when she said that.

Despite my promise to myself when I started teaching 10 years ago that I would never do so, I taught summer school last summer.  Living in NYC is expensive and I wanted to see what it was like. I only taught the second half of the course since another teacher taught the first half.  It wasn't too bad, though the commute was super far each day.

My sister who lived in NYC with me moved to Houston where another sister lives leaving me here in the big city with just the boif as the immediate family.

Perhaps you remember the heat
wave, summer 2013. It was so hot,
I looked like I was lactating.

I moved into a new apartment.  No longer in Harlem. Now just inside the Bronx close to Yankee's Stadium.  What a difference an apartment makes.  The last place was so horrible that I didn't even buy furniture for the living room. Now I have a nice place that is modern, clean, and the floors do not squeak incessantly.  I have bought a couch, I can watch tv, I got Roku, I use the living room for more than a storage place for my yoga mat.  I live in peace - though people in the Bronx have a problem of playing their music really loud at all hours of the day and night.  There are also no convenient places to buy simple food items that don't cost an arm and a leg and the 4 train is slower than dirt compared with the 2/3 that I used to be able to take.

I experienced the hottest summer ever in life.  My sister, her two 1/2 kids, and my brother came to visit NYC for a few days this summer as did my parents for a conferences.  It was nice to see them all.

Kid Sis #2's Kid #2 - So cute!

My parents have decided to move out of our childhood home that they have lived in for over 25 years.  I got to go into it a last time and say goodbye to the memories from there. I also was able to go through old items that I have been storing there such as pictures and track awards and memorabilia.

I got to spend a weekend in the summer with Kid Sis #3.  We went to the Lake of the Ozarks, almost got lost in the-land-where-no-black-people-want-to-get-lost, found our way to the resort, and had a great time. I parasailed for the first time ever, went jetskiing, and went ziplining for the first time ever.  It was so fun and so awesome to get to do so with my youngest sister.

School started back in September.  I am teaching the same classes as well as a zero period computer science class.  Those early mornings are getting to me and making me super tired Monday through Thursday. I love Fridays since I get to sleep later.

Picture I saved from the parent's house
before their move - me as a toddler.

I feel more competent in the classroom this year, but am still working hard planning more and doing better things in the classroom than ever before.

Kid Sis #3's newest son trying on
his mother's wig.  SO CUTE!!

Kid Sis #2 had her third baby late last year - the third boy.  I am looking forward to meeting him in person.

My students at school are great! (Most days)  I had one student bring me some bugs to taste after we practiced reading strategies on an article that talked about edible critters and I said that I wanted to taste some and see what they were like. I tasted them.  They were not bad.  I felt like I channeled my inner Andrew Zimmern.

I feel closer to the teachers at school and for the first time since working at my first StL school, find that I can actually call more than a small hand full of my colleagues my friends.

I went to India to attend a colleague's wedding in December.  It was the first time in eons that I have had a vacation that was truly a vacation.  I had a blast and want to go back to Goa.  It was beautiful and not anything like most of what is seen about India.  We performed a dance for the bride that reenacted the relationship of her and her husband from their first meeting, to their first date, to their engagement where he did a flash mob dance for her.  I felt like I was in a Bollywood production. It was amazing!  On the last day there, I went to a spice farm and discovered that vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world and that anything vanilla flavored that I have eaten in my life is likely not really real vanilla.

On the way there, I took a flight by myself since I didn't book tickets with any of the other five colleagues who attended. I flew through Cairo and was super fortunate (?) to have a long layover (I concluded that the airline does it on purpose).  I took a tour of the city and saw the Nile River, the pyramids, the sphinx, a perfume factory, and was able to shower, and have a nice dinner.  All this cost me only 30 dollars American.  It has been a dream of mine since high school to get to the Nile and the pyramids, so that was AMAZING!!

Happy New Year!!

Dream come true - accidentally!!

View from the beach on the
coast of Goa, India

Mehndi on my hand for friend's wedding

Me at the spice farm

Tomorrow, I wear a haz-mat suit to school

Today started wonderfully!

Since the kids are doing state testing (required for graduation in NY) I am proctoring.  The exam I was proctoring went from 1:15-4:15, so I didn’t have to be at school until 10.  I woke up, went to the gym, stopped to get some fruit on the way home, took a shower, took a nap, got up, went and had breakfast at a place that is normally closed when I go to work at the normal time, got to work by 9:15.

I sat from 10-12:45 cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting a travel list ready for my upcoming Europe trip, which somehow keeps getting closer and closer.

Kids started arriving to my room around 12:45.

Sample test I found online

 We started the test on time.

Even with all my years of experience teaching, there are still days that I see things I have never seen before.  Today there were two such events in the three short hours that I proctored the state science exam.

First, students were not allowed to leave sooner than 90 minutes into the exam.  One girl called me to her table 28 minutes into the test and said she was finished – with all 60+ multiple choice and 13+ short answer, written responses.  I looked at her multiple-choice sheet and saw that she had marked each answer with 3 (instead of a, b, c, d they do 1, 2, 3, 4).  I told her to double-check her answers since, “I’m pretty sure every answer is not three and also that you may be able to answer some of the short answer questions.”

She continued to call me back to her in 12 minute intervals until I finally told her that she could not leave until at least 90 minutes into the exam and that I would not let her leave if she was not trying on the exam. 

In the end, she did not change her 3’s, but did complete 3 short answer questions. 

Second new teaching scenario: Later, as students who cared about and actually tried on the test started to finish, turn in their work, and sign out of the testing room, I noticed something on the floor.

I do not allow food in my classroom since NYC is a city of rats and mice and other critters. 

But, I saw some jelly on the floor in three places.

I didn’t want to get upset since the culprit had probably left the room since the other students were still testing and had not gotten up from their seats.  I figured a student must have dropped one of those fast-food condiment packets on the floor and stepped on it.  I gathered several napkins from my desk and quietly bent over to wipe up the mess – first the smaller one and then the larger one.

After the first wipe, I realized that it may not be jelly.

No, it was definitely not jelly.

It was way, way worse.

It was way, way, way worse than jelly.

It was an excretion.

It was blood and chunky mucous from a menstruating girl.

It was on the floor of in my classroom, and on a napkin I was holding in front of me.

Complete shock and awe!!!!

It took a lot for me to take the napkin quietly to the trash, calmly open the classroom door, and quietly signal for the hallway proctor to come to my door so that she could watch the students while I went to find the nearest chemistry lab to take a full body shower.

I only found a bathroom, and had to settle for hand washing scrubbing as though prepping to perform surgery.

I went back to the room and immediately emailed the administration about the incident and requested that my room be haz-mat-ed (I’m not sure if that is an actually term, but that is what I would like done to my room!)

I’m still trying to wrap my head around how this huge chunk and two streaks could have fallen out of a person wearing clothes.  Did she not notice?  Did she realize it was going on and just let it happen   Did she see the mess she left?  How did it get out of her underwear and onto my floor?

I wanted one of these

anyway?  Did she see the mess she left?  How did it get out of her underwear and onto my floor?

Sorry if you are sensitive to the grossness of this, but I really don’t understand how a person could just let this happen.  How she could not tell this was going on and not request to go to the bathroom.

I get that the test is required for graduating, but this was a situation that should have superseded the exam for at least a little while.

She needed to give this situation some immediate attention!

I may need to start keeping a suit like the one pictured handy in my classroom.