It Ended in an Ambush

As many of you know I have been slaving away at summer school for the last 13 days, meaning I have complained about it relentlessly on this blog, before I wrap up 'teacher me' and put lazy me's hat on I wanted to take this moment to document the three most important reasons I love summer school.

one.

I appreciate my 'regular' student's so much more.

The summer school I worked at was a similar breed of hood rat that I am used to on a daily basis, but on a different level. Both groups are eighth graders, both groups are title one schools and many of the students are students I taught at one point during middle school, we have a very high turnover rate as students change schools all the time, but my students are just smarter. 

Case in point:

girl one: "Miss are we 2-D or 3-D?"

me: "Like us, as in people?"

girl one: "Yea, we are 2-D right?"

me: "now I know why you are in summer school..."

boy one while talking to his friend: "I am still buzzing from taking..."

me: "boy, please stop talking about drug use in front of me. I legally have to report suspicion of drug use."

Not five minutes later he was talking about it again. And again. And again.

me: "are you an idiot, or do you just really want to get caught."

boy one: "It's whatever, it's what I am known for..."

boy two while other boys were asking my age: "your 28 right?"

me: "I am 29."

boy two: "Baby girl, age is just a number. You got a man?"

I should also mention said boy called me baby girl at least 10 times an hour. He spent his entire first day hitting on me and actually believed he had enough game to pick me up.

Day two...boy two took to farting repeatedly. Either he was over me or farting is the mating call of middle schoolers. Either way I have never had a student make me so uncomfortable to be around him, I could never figure out if he was going to slap my ass or fart on me.

boy three's story is better told in story form:

Boy three walked out of state testing today so I followed him around until he was ready to talk, apparently he was anxious to get his tracking monitor off, for assaulting a cop, so he wasn't handling sitting in a room without his phone well. I finally got him to at least come sit next to me in the hallway rather than wonder about, we had a lovely conversation about his juvie experiences, his favorite drugs, what I thought might happen if he failed a piss test for the 2nd time, etc. This boy was completely comfortable sharing soo many things with a complete stranger...or I just have a trusting face. 

Our conversation ended pretty shortly after I asked him what high school he would be attending...you know to stop the pot conversation...his answer: "I haven't decided if I am going to high school or not yet."

Best of luck dude, best of luck...

two.

Ambush endings are the best way to end school.

A fellow teacher at my regular school mentioned to me how cool it would be to have an ambush ending to the school year: basically the Friday before the last week get on the announcements and just say this is the last day, say your goodbyes and have a nice summer. I personally loved the idea: just think about the amount of behavior issues that could be avoided, the number of suspensions that would be unnecessary and the lack of hormonal emotions leading up to the last day.

Low and behold 10 minutes before the end of the day today the admin team stopped by each classroom and told the students that today was the last day and they would not need to return tomorrow. I can promise you I was probably more excited than half of those kids...

three. The money, duh!

Regardless of the last crazy 13 days of waking up early, dealing with getting hit on, hearing middle schoolers boast about drug use and the lack of consequences for any actions, I would teach summer school again in a heartbeat. It's all about those Benjamins...perhaps I have been hanging out with the hood rats too much...

- The Babbling Box!