Thursday, August 31, 2000
The honeymoon is still going on at Sunnyland. I have found the kids to be very respectful and the administrators very helpful and non-critical. The kids at this school are also very different: one main difference is that they can read. The kids at Shitsville struggled to read books for little kids. I gave a homework assignment and 95% of the kids completed it. I have not heard a single kid tell anyone to 'fuck off' and the most attitude I have gotten from a kid was a groan followed by a half-smile. Without much more to say, I wonder if there even is a need to write anymore…

Wednesday, September 06, 2000
I can't get over how different this place is. Meetings on a daily basis to get organized, children arriving on time to class, and tomorrow I will find out how many kids are going to do their first homework assignment.

In class, the worst thing that has happened is that students have passed love notes and talked over each other. Today, one of my 'troublemaking' students, Darlene, went to the bathroom to fix her hair. She returned an hour later. I told her to go to the office to work out her problems and she did.

The worst thing about being in a place like this is that it really isn't an emotional rollercoaster (yet). Every day is the same and I'm not sure how to deal with the homogeneity of school. I am actually getting a bit bored with work and hope that the vacation hangover hasn't hit. I need another vacation to retool and refocus on my job.

Friday, September 08, 2000
I think that after two full weeks of school and three weeks on the job I can finally sit back a bit an really analyze what is going on at Sunnyland. I think the reason that I felt so strange for the last few weeks is that I had to re-establish myself in this new place. As a result, I had to develop a rapport with the students and with my coworkers. Since I really didn't know what to expect, I was rather pleasantly surprised as Sunnyland turned out to be a decent place. Coming from Shitsville it is hard for me to see how people can even bring themselves to bitch about this place. Yesterday, in a meeting, someone wanted to know the answer to a question and asked an administrator to call on the walkie talkie to the main office. The administrator replied that she would have an answer in a few minutes. The teacher became very animated and said that she could not understand why she would have to wait so long for an answer.

At Shitsville, you could wait for years and never get an answer to this question. After carefully observing the faculty for a few weeks, I think that there are a bunch of prima donnas on the staff. They wouldn't know a real teaching crisis if it bit them in the ass. Teachers are already complaining about kids. In fact, that's what most of them do in the teacher's lounge. But the things that they bitch about are so fucking trivial that I wonder what their tolerance levels are. Maybe that means I'm too tolerant and will soon modify my views.

My colleague from Shitsville who transferred to Sunnyland before me told me that she used to teach in my room last year. She told me that the vibe upstairs was definitely strange and that the teachers up there think that if they just close the door and the kids are quiet then they are doing their jobs. I think this is part of the strangeness I felt when I looked down the hallway and saw no doors open and heard no kids talking. Moreover, I have tried my hardest to accommodate those around me. I have brought them tons of free newspapers and have offered a bunch of class aids, but all they seem to be interested in is eating lunch on time. In fact, this week when my kids played their weekly current event game, the kids were actually excited and began clapping their hands and participating in record numbers. It was kind of numbing. Some of the other teachers raced to my room and assumed that 'all that racket' was leading to a fight. One teacher closed my door 2 times this week and begged me to keep my class less enthused about learning because it was making her kids wonder what was going on next door. I guess that I am so worked up about being in a learning environment that I am milking the success that I am having with my kids. In fact, I rather enjoyed the fact that the fat bitch next door got pissed off that my kids were having fun and learning in school while her kids were diagramming sentence structure.

Students here are generally respectful. The worst kid in my classes is like the best kid I ever had at Shitsville. In fact, the kids are really nice - let me illustrate a difference:
Yesterday, a kid dropped a pen. One student noticed this and let the other kid know. At Shitsville, the kid might have just picked up the pen and tried to jam it in the other kids eyeball while yelling, 'here's your pen, motherfucker!'

This week over 85% of my kids turned in the homework. Now this is not to say that it was perfect work, but most of the kids at least tried. Of the kids who didn't do their homework, only about 2 or 3 really just don't give a shit. Others were genuinely embarrassed. Over half of the kids returned a sheet signed by their parents indicating that the parents had read the syllabus. I think for a one day turnaround that is pretty good for middle school kids.

Parent's night is Tuesday night. I think I need to be prepared to deal with competent adults.

In fact, the level of preparation for my job has gone up dramatically. As a result of being in this new place, I have renewed energy to actually teach the kids. I think that it was very hard at Shitsville to teach when no one really gave a shit. Here, the kids are interested in learning.

Tuesday September 12, 2000
I took yesterday off after fighting off the flu and a severe asthma attack and felt pretty weird about returning to work. It was my wife who gave me renewed energy today when she told me that if I really like what I am doing, to just work on my kids and forget about all of the trips associated with working with others. This advice carried me a long way today and really helped me come back to work after a worrisome few days.

The day started with my first interaction with a 'bad child.' This child was acting out in class and when I asked him if I should call home, he exclaimed that I ought to just do whatever it was that I had to do but to get it over with already. I took the child out in the hall for a brief conference and he began using the magic four letter word sequence on me, saying how 'this was total bullshit and that I should just leave his damn ass alone…yadda, yadda, yaddda.' I escorted the student down the hallway where I saw the 8th Grade AP. I did not know how she would respond, so I politely told her the situation and she looked at the child and first asked him where he went to school last year. He told her that he had gone to opportunity school (AKA the school for badassmothers) and then asked him if what I said were true. He replied that he was 'sick of her fucking shit and that this school was bullshit.' Immediately I knew this kid has screwed himself. She looked at him in the eye and said that if he said the words again, he would be out of school. He looked her right back and said, 'fuck this shit, motherfucker,' so off he went with her. She asked me to write a referral and I told her that I would try to make parental contact first. I called the mother on her cell phone and her immediate reply was that whatever we wanted to do was fine - that maybe sending him back to opportunity school was the best thing for him and his temper. When I saw the AP later she told me that she was surprised at how relaxed I appeared when the tensions got high with this kid. I'm thinking that this kid is like each kid I ever dealt with at Shitsville and that it wasn't really too bad at all. In fact, dealing with the AP was extremely easy and I hope this foreshadows good things to come.

This whole incident happened in front of one of the secretaries. She had a strange look on her face. I immediately began apologizing for the child's behavior and foul language. She replied, 'I would have fucked that kid right out of this school and put his ass behind bars.' You never know what you are going to get out of people sometimes and this response made me grin and bust a laugh out.