I'm Too Sexy for the Movies

I'm at MyFavoriteTeacher [MFT]'s house in the Bronx for a mid-week sleepover, watching the Justin Timberlake episode of Saturday Night Live. He and Alvin & Chipmunks are singing the Christmas Song. "Meeee, I waaaaant a huuuuula hoooop..."

Today, I took a trip up to my old school to visit MFT and the kiddies, who finished up the state ELA exam yesterday, and were rewarded with a field trip to the movies. One group went to see Dreamgirls [the kiddie verdict: it was too looooong, but Beyonce was hot] and the other to see Stomp the Yard [the kiddie verdict: that sh*t was hot!] Of course, there were a select few who were "left behind" for various reasons. I asked Isaac why he didn't get to go on the trip, and he responded "They said I'm too sexy for the movies, Ms. G," which was pretty much the best reply he could have given me, although I'm fairly sure it had more to do with the fact that he was swinging around a broom handle at one of the girls for the greater part of the afternoon. Why there was a broom handle floating around the halls with no "broom" attached is beyond me.

Before MFT's group returned to school, I went down to the cafeteria for the late-lunch of the group who got back first. I received my typical welcome [read: screaming OH MY GOOOOOOD MISS _________ COME BAAAAAAACK WE MISS YOU, followed by an onslaught of very clingy hugs, which made me glad I got a flu shot]. They have a new math AND a new ELA teacher now, the second of each of the school-year, and I guess they have now come to think of themselves as pretty "bad-ass" because of this. "How was the test?" I ask, "It was eeeeeasy!!" they insist, which is generally not a good sign. "I hear you have a new math teacher now?" I ask. "We're rude!" Ellonie explains, and a number of them concur. Even though I know they are perfectly capable of being rowdy and obnoxious and hyperactive, I cannot really concieve of them as being the total whackos that they have apparently come to be this year. Last year, they could keep it together under the correct supervision, and were generally "good kids" underneath the craziness. But the descriptions I have heard this year, even from teachers who knew them last year, are really disappointing.

T-Rex had his brand new shiny nano, in electric blue, and was walking around with his headphones on, so I tapped him to say hello, and asked to see his nano. He was listening to a song by an artist named "Hot F*ck" and so I opted to hand it back to him instead of browsing his music library. Then, I noticed that Chanya was sitting at a table nearby and had not come over to see me. I sat down next to her at one of the long cafeteria tables and said:

"Um, helLO!?" and she replied, "hey."

I looked at her stunned, like Where Is My Enthusiastic Screaming Hug?

"That's all I get? Where's the love?"

Ellonie came over and said "Don't listen to her, we still love you" and I raised my eyebrows at Chanya.

"I don't know, my 'closest' student doesn't seem to miss me at all" I said, with a pouty face. So Chanya got up... "hold up one second..." ran about ten yards across the cafeteria and did a flying running squealing "HIHIHIHIHIHIII" and after hugging me, promptly dropped the enthusiasm, lost the grin, sat back down, said "What up Ms. G?" and went back to her headphones. I think she's gotten over me. She got braces, and seems a little more subdued than she was last year. She doesn't write me emails anymore either. I feel like I've been dumped.

In general, the school seemed relatively calm. This may have been because the majority of the seventh grade was on a trip, returning from a trip, or chilling in the cafeteria after a trip, and not having to participate in any remotely academic activity. But nonetheless, the visit didn't have the same sense of chaotic urgency as my last visit. My principal seemed tired, the AP was nowhere to be seen, and rumors that he took an "unvoluntary leave of absense" travelled the halls. A few teachers told me that they were leaving next year, and my oldest friend teacher who I taught with at my first school [not to be confused with MFT], got engaged! Then, my principal invited me to attend their brief staff meeting, because MFT and her kids were not back from their trip yet, so I got to sit in on a staff meeting congratulating the teachers for surviving test week and bracing them for some "scary visitors" in the upcoming weeks. For me, sitting in on a staff meeting is a surefire way to remind you why working in a school is a drag, much more so than socializing in the cafeteria, which is most people's least favorite situation.

Well well, MFT is telling me to wrap it up so I can watch JT perform "Dick in a Box" on SNL. Time to go...