Sunday November 26, 2000
I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about my job. At night, I am visualizing the assignments I can do with my kids. During the day, I am getting up earlier to give my job my all. I love teaching and am really trying to think on my feet and be more prepared at the same time more than ever this year. I have even had dreams about the magic of teaching. I am really enjoying it as an art form and I'm pretty sure the kids can feel the energy in my classroom.

I spent last week organizing a time capsule for the school and starting up the History Club. I have the support of both the AP and the Principal on this one and am really digging the teaching vibe. The AP hinted that there would continue to be opportunity for me at this school and that summer work appeared likely. I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch or anything, but I think the summer could be profitable.

Some kids have really tried to turn it around in the last few weeks. I am giving a test this week and I will be able to measure just how well the kids are doing. Hopefully, more kids will raise their grades and continue to enjoy my class.

Thursday November 30, 2000
I have come to realize this week that no matter how much you try, you can never completely take the ghetto out of the school, when the school is in the ghetto. This week a number of kids asked me point blank if slavery was to be reinstated because George Bush was elected. I shook my head in amazement each time a kid posed this question to me because it sounds ridiculous.

I had to write a referral today, but I pretty much blame myself for it. There is a certain girl who all of the teachers claim is a pain in the ass. She is the kind of child who is already gearing up for a major booty call and she is in the 8th grade. This girl always wears revealing clothing and another teacher told me that she was seen grabbing her boobs and yelling loudly, 'I swear that they are for real!' Anyway, the girl came to class real late and began telling other kids that she 'didn't care what the fuck was wrong with this school and that she was going to fuck fuck fuck fuck…' I asked her to leave the class and a security monitor happened to be outside. I asked the security monitor to take this girl to an administrator and in about two minutes, the girl was back upstairs with the security monitor who told me that AP wanted a referral. At that point, I felt compelled to write the damn thing, regretting that I had ever stopped the security guard. I should have just put the child in another class for a while, but I guess I will learn for the next time. I have been laying the foundation for the time capsule in a few weeks and it appears to be going pretty well. The only problem in the last week has been not getting paid for tutoring and asking the lazy ass person in the office to address the problem. I have only reminded her each day about this issue and continue to get nowhere. It is only over about 100 bucks or so, but the fact that this person is not doing anything about it is really lame. It is the first example of total bullshit that I have had to deal with at Sunnyland and it is irritating.

Most of my kids took a test this week on the foundations of government and did really shitty. I always give open book and open note tests and these kids are just slacking off. It really frustrated me because I think that this stuff is not only interesting (although my wife disagrees and insists that it is boring) but also easy material to score well on. I ripped the kids this week and challenged them to do better or else reserve a seat for next year in the same grade. I'm not sure how the kids will respond, but I know they can do better. There is only so many phone calls and parent teacher conferences you can have before kids have to wake up and take some kind of responsibility for their own academic progress. But then again, I know that I wasn't that jazzed about school either in the 8th grade, but dammit I sure didn't make shitty grades either. I must think and retool and find other ways to motivate the kids.

Mr. Creepy continues to grope little ladies. We have a Mr. Creepy Jr. in one of our classes. Some girls have lamented that he has touched them inappropriately and today I'm pretty sure he got ripped by the counselors.

I'm going to show some civil rights videos next week. Hopefully this will wake up some of the kids and get them reinvigorated. Today a kid came to me with a pamphlet that you would buy in an underground bookstore entitled, 'The Five Negro Presidents of the US.' It was a good read and amazing that there are some kids who are interested in that kind of vibe. I have another kid who constantly asks me if know who the Moody Blues are or why Jimi Hendrix was so popular. There is a group of kids who come in every day and insist that other kids 'sit down, shut up, and eat your Wheaties.' There is no doubt that some of these kids are heavily influenced by the magic of TNT's wrestling programs as they generally act out their aggressions by pretending to be professional wrestlers.

Monday December 4, 2000
Jesus, I can't even believe that December is here already. It seems like yesterday the school year started and its only two weeks away from Winter Break. I can hardly wait!

I confiscated a note today that read as follows:
'Do you like to suck dick?'
'No'
"Not even mine'
'Nope'

I couldn't help but kind of laugh when I saw this note because it was just so fucking funny. I'm sure the kids saw me laughing, but they knew what the note said and were pretty giddy about the whole damn thing too.

There is a wealth of other notes that I must document this week. I keep them in a drawer at work and will try to bring them home this week to update everyone reading this in the journal.

I realized today that there are a bunch of kids who are sitting in school and really hating their entire school experience. I think I need to change this and ask the students for their input on how to change things. If there is something they want to study, I must find a way to get through to them. On the other hand, maybe there isn't really any way to get 8th graders excited about the learning process. School sucked for all of us in the 8th grade as I recall.

Tuesday December 5, 2000
The day started with a parent coming into a meeting and informing us that his child has been missing since 8:30 last night. He seemed pretty confident that the aunt had taken the child away but it was a real crappy way to start the day. I would freak out if my child never came home and all of the teachers had lumps in their throats.

I showed my kids some videos on civil rights today and they really seemed to dig it. These kids really need to see for themselves what the struggles minorities went through to get civil rights. Reading from a book just doesn't do it. The funny thing is that my 7th graders really seemed to relate better to the videos that I showed them. They really understood the connection between John Locke's ideas of natural rights and the struggle for civil liberties in America.

In addition, the kids learned what made SNCC, Stokley Carmichael, Fred Hampton and others famous for the stuggle to obtain civil rights. It kind of makes me wonder just how many adults, especially white adults under the age of 35, even know the real struggles and battles that existed in America. When my kids saw films of rioting at the 1968 Democratic Convention, they were genuinely surprised. When I told them that family battles were over the length of one's hair, they laughed insisting that I was lying. These next few weeks are the best weeks of the year because I get to teach about the things in history that really matter and shaped our nation. In addition, it happens to relate very well to the kids lives.