Wednesday, August 11, 2004
I decided that I would try this thing where I would keep my part-time job at the bookstore/cafe while teaching.

Last night, after I had taught all day and was bent over scrubbing the floor of the cafe, I thought I might reconsider.

However, today I feel better about it. Being a teacher with a brand new apartment that costs more than any place I have ever lived, I can use the money. I sure was tired last night, though. The upside to all of the working is that today, because I only have to teach (only!), I feel like I am on a vacation! No bookstore! YIppee!

The kids are starting to test me. The girl whose neck I should be stepping on had to be put into "reflection corner" (where they sit facing the wall writing an essay by answering questions like 'How did my behavior get me facing the wall? What could I have done differently?'). She had been a pain in the rear all morning. But when I read her essay, she wrote, "My goal this year is to change my attitude, to stop talking back to the teacher, and to be better than last year." Sounds good to me.

The other student I had to send to reflection (thank goodness my room has four corners!) wasn't quite so contrite. He wrote, "I am here because I said I told Mrs. K (another teacher) off, you stupid mama jama."

Now, it has been months since I have been called a "mama jama"...I kind of missed it. The funny thing is, when I turned him in, he kept saying, "I didn't call her that!", even though I had the paper he had written it down on. In his own handwriting. With his name at the top. Ah, children.

But I feel fine about all that. The great thing about year two is that you haven't just seen something before-- you have seen it eight million times before. This kind of behavior is nothing to me, now. Short of actual violence, it is hard to get my hackles up. It's nice.

I am ready for the weekend, though. Ready, ready, ready.

¶ 11:36 AM