Gansta's Paradise

When I first started telling my friends and family about my students and stories from my classroom most of them suddenly pictured this: 

And up until about a month ago my sister actually thought my school was located somewhere that had drive bys all the time. 

Before I go any further let me be very clear that I do not in fact teach in a 'Dangerous Minds' type school. I know that there are schools much rougher, scarier and with more problems than mine. And despite what my students think we are a good middle school. For some reason they like to think that they are 'bad' 'ghetto' and one of the worst middle schools in the district/world. But we have teachers that care, a large group of students who care and an administration that understands our struggles and tries their best to help. Most Some days.

But there are times and situations that happen that would make some people think otherwise. 

Until I started teaching there I did not realize the types of 'adult' decisions that students as young as 11 years old were making. 

While of course this is the minority and not the majority we have students: who have kids, have probation officers, have tattoos, have gang contracts and who smoke and drink then come to school. A perfect example is the student who stole my phone last year. When I pressed charges he was arrested because it was not his first or second Class A Misdemeanor.
Hello, he is 14 when has he had time to get a rap sheet.

So in order to keep my insanity and to not fear for the future of the world (these kids already have babies...dear lord help us now) I take most things that are said by students with a grain of salt, or a shaker. And while I wish I had started doing this sooner, I am going to share a few nuggets of 'delightful' things my students said over this week.

Female Student: "Misss did you dye your hair"

Me: "Yes" 

Female Student: "You trying to be a chola now" "You trying to be gansta"

Yes, because as a grown woman my goal is to be a 'gansta'

Female Student:  "Misss you just don't understand TV portrays life more true now then they did when you were young, so they show us what we need to know about life. If not we have our friends."

Female Student: "are you on your period or something"

Male Student: "Missss you let them talk about periods but we couldn't talk about 13 year old girls having a miscarriages."

An actual conversation I had to shut down earlier in the week between boys no less.

A male student gets mad and walks out, yelling 'fuck this shit' and other things.

A female student stands up and yells and snaps, "he just put you on lock"

A male student, "dammnn, why you always picking on me, you hate black people, you racist."

When telling a student that we needed to call home, "go ahead there tired of hearing from your asses anyways."

Telling students that no bathroom passes will be issued the last two weeks of school: "if I get a bladder infection I am suing you" "what if I poop my pants" "that's illegal" "I will just go anyways."

And one of my all time favorites, "why you all up in my business. you need to get a boyfriend so you get the f*ck out of my life."

So for the next three days I am NOT going to think about my delightful kiddio's and enjoy my three day weekend with hopefully plenty of sun, booze and Mr. B time.

And come Tuesday I will put my Michelle Pfeiffer big girl panties on and go back to the war zone. And hopefully be able to provide you with a few more chuckles of the darnedest things ever said by my kids.

And for your listening pleasure I am linking up with Whitney for of course:



With an oldie but a goodie:

Coolio Gangsta's Paradise from Victoria Ramos on Vimeo.

- The Babbling Box!

P.S. I hope that you found some chuckles from at least a few of these quotes, I am not by any means complaining about my job or looking for pity. I love my students, just not always their thoughts.

P.S.S. I hope you have an AMazing Memorial Day Weekend!!!