A Look Around...

I had originally posted this just before Thanksgiving, but was told that it was inappropriate. I believe that it is now entirely appropriate to post...

It’s the last class of the day on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I’m trying to avoid grading papers, so here I am blogging while Patch Adams entertains the students on the TV. Pauline (fellow English teacher) and I combine our classes during 6th Period on Fridays (today is a Friday schedule) to give the kids a sort of break.

Most of the students in my room right now are 9th graders who can’t pass the state standardized test and so the school’s cure (or it might be mandated by the district – I really don’t know for sure) for that is to force them into English classes for four of their 7 class periods. By Friday afternoon, that’s A LOT of time spent in English class, even for a kid for whom English is their second language.

I want to give you a glimpse into what I see as I look around the classroom…
Every student has black or dark brown hair.

Every girl has her hair pulled back in a bun or ponytail of some kind – no short hair here. All of the girls have brown eyes. None are wearing make-up.

Every boy has very short hair, most have crew cuts. All of the boys have brown eyes.

I can see the eyebrows of every student in the classroom. That is unusual if you’ve been to your local high school lately. This is because they use their eyebrows to communicate. A quick raise of the eyebrows can mean “yes,” “you’re right,” or “okay” – something affirmative. A long raise of the eyebrows usually means “yes, so leave me alone.” Therefore, it is very important that eyebrows be exposed. I’m not joking here. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – This place is beyond exaggeration.

Of the 14 students I can see, 12 of them are wearing hoodies and all are wearing sneakers. Five are wearing sweatpants or work-out pants and the rest are wearing blue jeans.

One is pregnant. Four are Special Ed. Four appear to be significantly overweight (all girls). Only one (a boy) is over 6 foot tall.

There are two Special Ed aides, Lulu and Old Man, sitting near their assigned students, one of whom just asked me, “What time it is?” to which I responded, “What time is it? 2:14.” Correcting their spoken English has become second nature to me.

About half the class chooses to lay on the floor during the movie (they also do this during silent reading time) which I really don’t understand because I’m pretty sure this carpet, which is duck-taped together in spots, has never been cleaned, just vacuumed. It is stained with ground in gum and assorted other sundries ground in. It is walked on daily by students who walk to the honey-bucket dumpster and through dog yards in those same shoes, stepping in a variety of bacteria.

I can look out the double windows next to my desk and see the snow blowing sideways, and the bare scrub trees gently waving in the winter wind. The snow is piling up on the bottom ledge of the window where it is being blown against the school building. The once-white, broken blinds are completely open to let in as much natural daylight as possible, even during a movie.

I just saw Carmen messing with her cell phone and only had to call her name for her to quickly slip it into her pocket and lean her head back to me with a childish caught-with-her-hand-in-the-cookie-jar smile from her resting place on the floor. All of the students are sweet-natured, for the most part.

Well, that’s it for the quick look into a few moments of my life on this Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving. Time for me to grade those papers!