Saturday, October 4, 2008

Teachers After Dark

So obviously its been a HELLA long time since I've said anything in this piece---a lot has gone down too, so this blog may be a little long.

For one, let me be the first to let you know teachers are regular a** people. The overwhelming majority of them, from what I see, are not green-eye idealistic bambies who go around singing "We are the world." Some of them, I actually even wonder they teach, cuz most of what they do is gripe about what their students, administration, or other teachers aren't doing. Bell rings at 3:45 and half the parking lot is empty by 4. Some even have schemes on how they will miss days by going to workshops, lol. Which, in defense of the person who told me this, I think they were just trying to be funny because they haven't missed many days. During lunch, they talk SMACK about kids as if they were kids. They talk SMACK about teachers like nobody's business. The more I think about it, the more I realize that to some people, teaching really is just a job. While I got into it because I want to one day change the way african american children are educated, others may not have the lofty of a goal. Some just enjoy math, so they teach math. Others aren't sure what they want to do in life, so they just teach for the time being. There are a plethora of different motivations behind why we do what we do. One thing I do appreciate though is that teachers, or at least the ones I work with, are extremely down to the earth and they keep it painstakingly real. I feel if they were more "lofty" they'd be taking themsevles too serious, and wouldn't let their hair down. I enjoy lunch, and laughing at something a kid did or said, and yet knowing that each of us at the end of the day want ALL of are students to succeed and do well---even the ones we may laugh at or shake our heads at. I mean, people, we are human still. Just because we work in a field that has zero tolerance for that kind of behavior (for the most part) we still can't help it if a child says something kind of off, or is low on the attractiveness scale (a teacher, and i kid you not, on a regular basis stands by the fact that he had the ugliest girl in the world in his class last year). The best thing we can do is hold it in at least until we get around each other, but laughing in a kid's face is a big no-no. But let me tell you---it gets HARD. Most of the time, I can play it off because other students are laughing, and I can kind of gauge whether or not if its appropriate to laugh, because I have one student who says crazy stuff ALL the time, but she knows what she is saying is ridiculous. If I know a kid honestly thinks what they are saying is right, or they really aren't sure, I don't even think that is funny and I jump down everyone's throat who is laughing.

But I will definitely tell the other teachers what wonderful thing that was said and we may get a good little chuckle out of it.

But hey! WE ARE HUMAN. Imagine dealing with kids allllllllllll day, I mean, they got a show called kids say the dardenst things, and boy, DO THEY. If you watched that show and were told "now, no matter what they say---no matter how dumb it is, you CAN'T laugh" Do you think you could handle it??????? It takes skill and finesse. I don't know why I went off on this tangent, but I guess I just wanted to let people out there know, because I was surprised at how loose with the tongue teachers got behind closed doors. People think we've got it all together, UH-UH. We are just really good actors. lol



Now, onto another revelation I've had---TEACHERS KNOW HOW TO EFFING PARTY! Man, ever since I beacame a teacher whenver I go out and get a lil' loose and I am with a pack of teachers, and we get pretty crunk. I went to a spot two weekends ago and we were teachers, but you probably wouldn't have guessed because we were all on the dance floor when everyone else was acting lame. Last weekend, I went to a coworkers b-day party and they was playing "lean wit' it rock wit' it" and the cupid shuffle, not to mention her margaritas probably make your favorite bars drinks fseem like drinking a flat sprite. lol Good times! Teachers after dark....we know how to get down with the get down. I remember in institute, my instructor told me that as a teacher, you have to calm down and that most of the staff wouldn't be very into partying and all that, and that as a teacher, you have to keep in mind who you may run into. blahze blahze blah. That was effin' hogwash and she worked at a school with a bunch of lames. At my school, there is generally a happy hour outing at least once a week; this week there was two lol. Their tolerance is crazy though, so I mean they can knock 'em back and you wouldn't even know they were drinking; I'm the only one where everyone KNOWS my limit and can see when I've reached it lol. One of the teachers I joke is an alcoholic cuz he is always talkin' about beer (I mean a lot). In no way shape or form are these teachers dry as I was expecting them to be, and they are much older. In fact, when one of the teachers had a party, hella people were mad they didn't get invited....and these people were like mid 50s and ish. lol I'm like "what you gon' do at a club ANYWAY!?" lololol But that's just how it is....and I don't think its just my school. I mean, teachers are people, and we still like to do regular people stuff. Sure, we gotta be on the low, but all that means is don't wear any school labeled attire when you're out, and maybe go outside the city limits when you finna get down. Good thing for us there is no where to seriously party where we work anyway, so I ain't got to worry about unknowing grinding on a father to one of my students. Whatever we do, its in moderation.....ain't nobody got time to be drinking every night when you got papers to grade and lesson plans to make exciting. But yea, teachers after dark---I think that should be a reality show, it would be great. lol


Aiight ya'll, I'm really supposed to be grading but I decided to take a break and update you guys. Next time, I promise it'll be about actual classroom stuff---like how students wrote in their journals (their english teacher told me) that they hate my class........whatever, I take it as they either a) can't handle the work load b) don't like being told to shut up or c) don't like that we can't do stuff on account of people acting up. The only people who I obviously am sorry for is those in the 'c' category, the rest of 'em need to step their game up. GET DOWN OR LAY DOWN!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

Bsquared86 said...

lol @ get down or lay down! just so you know, i'm stealing that.

ya'll are off the hook over there, man. i can't wait to come. we are going to spring break like spring break has never been done before, i promise!

N/A said...

Good post! Good post! Those kids that don't like your class are the exact ones that need to be in their. Probably never been challenged a day in their lives. Stay on 'em teach!