Friday Night, Feb. 5th

Wow, this week went by in a blur. So much happened and I've been so busy. The first two days of the week were very hard in class. The guys were just running around like crazy and leaving the class a lot to play in the hall with the high school students who don't go to class. I don't know what the security guard does around here, but he doesn't make people go back to class. I would think that would be his main job. I sent two guys to detention with the guard and they just left. The last time they did that I sent them to the principal's office, but it didn't seem to make a difference because they just did it again. At the end of Tuesday I was very frustrated and I told them that this class was going to change. Up until now I have run it with a very relaxed style. The students who are self motivated work very well under that. The girls don't get into trouble and I think they learn a good amount. A few of the boys are very self motivated and do their work before talking to friends or anything. But I've recently been overrun with these guys that don't care about school at all. This one kid has been in and out since I've been here and been caught drinking and other stuff. He just hangs out in class and does no work at all. I told them that the last couple weeks they have made my life miserable and if they don't straighten up I'm going to make theirs miserable. The next day and came in with a completely different attitude. I wasn't as hard as I probably should have been, but if people were running around or talking loud I got on their case. If they didn't listen, I made them do pushups. If they left class for any reason without asking me, I made them do pushups. I must say, they weren't angels, but it was way less stress on me because I had a recourse if they didn't listen. The principal has told us not to do physical punishments in class and other teachers have gotten into trouble for doing these things. But these 8th grade guys do not respond to anything but physical punishment. If you tell them to write sentences after class, they ditch and don't show up. You have to be immediate and physical. It works too. Like I told them, I took the pressure off me and put it on them.

We had a volleyball game with Coop, the school next door. My girls showed up really late and so they were about to sub in Coop students in our team because we only had three or four players. So I walked over to the girls' house where I knew they would be hanging out and roused them over there. The first game was really bad. I don't know what happened. Our girls just weren't into it at all. But then after that we just owned them. Our students are much better volleyball players than Coop students. It might be because our PE teacher doesn't actually teach them anything. He just lets them have a bunch of free days and they play volleyball the whole time. But they were really good when they got here, so that doesn't explain everything.

About two weeks ago one of my students' grandmother died. She was upset about it for a few days and told me she hadn't been eating. Her relatives were flying in from Hawaii and all over and so they embalmed the body and kept it in a freezer for a couple weeks until everyone could get there. Today they had the funeral. She told me she wanted the class to come so I asked her what time. She said any time. I thought that was kind of strange so I asked if we could go at 1 pm when school gets out. She said that would be fine. One of the girls got her father to come with his pickup truck. Most of the 8th graders piled in and we all drove down there. They wanted me to ride in the front, but I told them I'd rather ride in the back. All my students were back there and we had a great time driving over. (It's about a 30 minute drive to Long Island not to mention the many stops we made along the way to pick up people.) When I had announced that we could go all the students acted really excited and started making a bunch of noise. It's very interesting around here because they treat funerals as mild entertainment time. They always have a bunch of food. I guess the family of the deceased is expected to provide it. On the way over I brought out my camera and instantly everyone wanted to be in the pictures and look at the pictures. They asked who was going to speak for us. I didn't really know what that meant. They asked me if I would and I said I could, but I didn't know what to say. They told me to say we were sorry about her and stuff. We got there and we went in to the church. The flowers were out and the casket was sitting there. We sat down and the kids told me this was the time to speak. There were a few family members there and some of them were taking video of the whole thing. Other than that the place was empty. I went up there and talked into the microphone. I told them who we were and how much Pearlynn (my student) means to me and all of us. I told them I was sorry I was never able to meet her grandmother and we would be praying for them. Then I sat down and one of the family members got up and made a similar speech thanking us for coming over and at the end he offered us food. We walked by the casket and left a dollar or so each by it. That is their custom here. They do that at birthdays too. The casket had a glass covering so you could see in but it wouldn't stink up the place. I've never seen one of those before. We went out and they served us rice, chicken, koolaid, and crackers. The kids sank the crackers into the koolaid until they were all soggy. I thought it was gross. As we were leaving Pearlynn told me she really liked my speech and she really appreciated me mentioned her in it. The other kids told me it was really good too. I felt awkward because I hadn't been to a funeral like that before and I didn't now what people normally said. Plus I had never met the deceased. On the trip back the kids were in a great mood and having tons of fun. They were whistling, waving, and blowing kisses and every stranger they saw along the rode. It was hugely entertaining. I'm really glad I went and it was a great experience.

I also had a parent/teacher meeting this week which I was really stressed over, but it went well. Maybe I'll write a blog about that when I have more time. I've already spent more time than I have on this blog. Better get busy with other stuff.