I gave the kids a picture of someone and told them to create a character out of him. Then I told them to imagine that he was a new student coming into our classroom. The results were very interesting. Some of the students had the guy pulling pranks, of course, but for others, the character was themselves. So revealing. I have a sex offender who is a very, very shy boy with minimal social skills. He wrote about how his character was trying to overcome shyness and meet girls. Another boy wrote his first impression of the teacher–me! He wrote that she was “cool, and looks like she’s in her 20′s”. He must want an A on that paper.

One of my students left today. I particularly hated to see her go, for very selfish reasons. She had been a very reliable person to send to do my Xeroxing for me. She always finished her work early, and she would help out the rest of the day. When she left, she handed me a note. Among the things that it said was this nugget: “…and thanks for caring whether or not I got my credits or not. I’ve never met a teacher who cared whether I got all my grades or not.”

Weird, huh?

Also, this note happened to be from the student whom I am 99 percent certain went in my purse and stole six dollars the first week she was in my class.

She has a lot of potential. I hope she does okay. She really isn’t looking forward to dealing with the “drama” at her home school.

Maybe we should get rid of teacher school. Mr. Sir couldn’t teach his Algebra class today, so he came by my room, handed them all a worksheet that they didn’t know how to do, and told them to work on it at their cubicles. Nobody knew how to do it, so I let my 18 year old senior help them with it at the table. I saw their faces light up with comprehension. They complemented him on how well he explained something they hadn’t understood before. He beat the pants off Mr. Sir as a teacher. He should teach Algebra every day. I’d pay him.

The math teacher upstairs is very overwhelmed, and has a difficult time explaining things. I suggested to my principal that she send those kids downstairs one at a time, and my kid would help them. Everyone thought it was a good idea. My kid can put it down as volunteer experience. I think it will work out well for everyone.

My principal keeps dropping by my room on some pretense or another. I suppose she is verifying for herself that my class is not the den of iniquity that it is portrayed to be. Each time she has stopped by, the kids have been extraordinarily engaged in their work or something that we were talking about. In fact, the second she walks in the room, they become especially earnest about whatever subject and appear ten times as respectful as your average public school kid. I like this group of kids. They have my back, for sure, and I’ve never had to say a thing.

So I have this kid in class who, when talking about ethnic strife over religious differences, announces that he is going to hell. When I asked why he believed that, he told me that he thought the Pope was just some dude, and not really given power by God. I suppose this is heresy in the Catholic Church. What power they have, as well as many other churches.

He asked me if I believed in evolution. I answered in the affirmative.

“How can you believe in evolution when the Bible said that we were created in seven days?”

I got into my explaination that time is something that man could have invented and that perhaps God would see time in a different matter. He asked if people could change time now. I said, “Sure, let’s make a minute an hour and all go home!”

It’s weird talking about this stuff with students. I don’t feel comfortable either talking about it or not. I’m always careful to emphasize that what I say are my views, and that they are to come to their own conclusions. Probably the thing I said about time was the most radical thing they’ve heard in a while. It is odd teaching about ethnic religious conflict in an area where there are some pretty extreme Christian views. Strangely, it helped them to relate.

It was interesting.

I finally made some. I signed a six-month lease rather than a year-long one, after agonizing over it for more than a month. Having options is good.

I left for work today, and I wanted to cry walking out the door. I thought about how many times I’ve been miserable with our public education system, and decided to give my self the option of quitting or taking leave. I spoke with my principal, and I think I can make it until next year, when Mr. Sir is gone.

The kids told me that Mr. Sir talked trash about me while I was gone the last two days. There is nothing I can do about it, as he is too crusty for mediation. It doesn’t matter anyway, because it doesn’t hurt me at all with the kids, it just makes him look stupid.

My principal said that the other teacher and I can interview his replacement. I can’t wait.