Week Two

Week two is moving along slowly but surely. Things seem (a little) more under control this week. I still can't make copies, take attendance, keep track of grades, or get nearly enough sleep, but I'm making it work. One of my classes is continuing to drive me crazy though. For the life of me, I cannot make them shut up... but I guess that's one of the hazards of the job.



Aside from them though, today went well. I basically got a period off today when the freshmen had an assembly. The remaining upperclassmen and I took the opportunity to play Hangman. At one point, the category was singer, and the girl was trying to get us to guess Lady Gaga. No one seemed to be getting it, so she offered a hint. She looked at me cautiously, said "No offense... she's white." It kind of intrigues me that people think that might be offensive to me--as if I somehow hadn't noticed that at a school of 1600 kids, I am one of less than 40 white people (all but one of whom are other teachers).

I also got a few interesting comments from students regarding my hair today. "Is it always that curly?" "Does it ever get nappy?" "Are you Caucasian?""I'm going to take out these braids and wear my hair like yours tomorrow." I don't know what the interest in my hair is (I also had a student this summer who listed it as her favorite thing about me on the end of course survey), but it amuses me.

I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting a sense of who these kids are. I know most of the names (in most of the classes at least), and it's easy to see who will excel, who doesn't care about the class, who will cause trouble. One think I am curious about is what they're thinking about the school. They seem confused about why I would take this job. I'm not sure if they know about TFA, if they know I'm part of it, or if they even understand why it exists. I also wonder if they understand what a precarious position the school is in, or the kinds of things that are being done behind the scenes to fix it. I'm guessing they're blissfully ignorant about most things, but with high schoolers it's hard to say.

Now for an (already too late) bedtime. Only two more days this week, and then the possibility that I may actually have the energy to do something fun this weekend.