My absence on this edublog is not due to lack of reflection, lack of motivation, or lack of material. I am, of course, responsible for what I make of my time throughout the day, but this time I am going to pass the buck to a tornado, being homeless, and another heart-breaking, unfortunate occurrence. Many folk's have taken a stab at why the tornado zipped through my place of residence, my favorite being: God hates gentrification. Either way, that spinster really left his mark. I have been without home and without my personal belongings since March 15th. If you Google "Atlanta tornado" I am sure you will find some tornado memorabilia or maybe a description of how "it sounded like a freight train," you may also take a gander at my loft building and what remains. I was in Boston crying because my home was on the television and my little cat man was stuck on the 4th floor all alone. I saved my cat four days later...he's a survivor.
Life has been full of inspiration and desperation and I have been writing, but not on this Internet thing...it's all been a little too personal. Teacher life is difficult while trying to balance human being life. Life and teaching and tornadoes and personal disasters make me daydream of Spring Break and airplanes. I have had to leave work early because my emotions overtook me, wear dirty jeans to work on a Monday (there is no such thing as a casual Monday!), call FEMA during my planning period, and attempt to grade 130 essays although there are many other things that I would rather be doing.
Meanwhile, my students have been providing me with plenty of exciting material: getting arrested, searched, suspended for using Xanex, passing out in class, and, the most exciting thing in a student's life...PROM! However, the most exciting school-related event in my life and the event that deserves to be posted got me a day off of work! A week ago my VP approached and said to me, "You've been served!" As he quickly flashed an approving, "I've always wanted to say that" smirk, I studied the very first subpoena that I had ever seen. Funnily enough, the subpoena had my name on it. I had truly, been served. I was to "drop all other responsibilities and appear as a witness" for a moron of a student that wrote "F*ck Lov3" on a quiz. Let's call him Wally. Wally was 19 years old and in my 10th grade World Lit class, his average was a 3, he once told me that he was a 'supremacist' but did not specify what group he advocated for, was involved in gang rape earlier in the year, and witnessed a suicide two years ago. It's like Dangerous Minds up in my world, ya'll! Knowing these things I still tried to believe Wally was a good kid who wanted to learn, but even more I wanted to show him that I cared. I am the one in the crowd with rose-colored glasses and smelling of patchouli; that new teacher that things all kids want to learn, the system has overlooked them, their parents don't care, and all they need is love. Well, I hate to break this to you John and Paul, but Wally needed a lot more than love. Wally is now banned from ever enrolling in a school in my county again and, in fact, has a restraining order against him. That is not what I became a teacher to do. Not at all. Lesson learned...some kids are just here because they truly have nothing better to do and do, in fact, have trash bag personalities.
I have somehow, with a lot of help, made it through these past few weeks and Spring Break will be upon me after I drudge through tomorrow. After Spring Break I plan on getting back on track with this blog thing...it'll come in handy one day and I need to regain my focus, get my life back from Mother Nature.
Good things are happening with my Journalism class...it will be an exciting time to reflect upon that.
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