The week started the same as any other, which meant I was stressed out and ready for the weekend by Tuesday morning. This was unfortunate, since Tuesday consisted of my usually mind-numbing team meeting having "outside visitors" --principals from other schools who want to see how ours is run-- sit and watch us while our principal asked us redundant questions about how we were helping the lowest-skilled students succeed. During my first class period following the meeting, he brought the visitors by my classroom, specifically to see what I was doing. Thankfully, the four minutes he spent in my classroom were four minutes during which I was roaming between the lab groups, checking their progress on a review activity that I had devised. This meant that the students had notes and materials that helped them answer the questions they were being asked (by me, the principal and the visitors) and I could show off my "Socratic questioning" technique. The staff meeting this week was significantly better, and I didn't have the urge to yell and scream afterwards. But that was still followed by my Pace class, which sucked any remaining energy out of me.
Wednesday was Halloween. I'm not sure if I can fully express what that means to a NYC public school teacher, but I'll try. Students are crazy on Halloween. They're full of sugar, packing silly string, and (in my school) no longer in uniform. I decided that the best way to combat the craziness this year was to one-up the insanity. I shaved my beard, donned a bowler and some suspenders and dressed as Alex from "A Clockwork Orange." The teachers thought I looked great. Not one of my students got the reference. It was widely circulated that I was Charlie Chaplin, some sort of magician, or a tap-dancing mental patient. And I was fine with that. Frankly, if I had come across a 14-year-old New Yorker who was familiar enough with "A Clockwork Orange" to recognize my costume, I'd put him at the top of my Likely Shooter List.
The most positive result of my costume was that I looked psychotic. My students were freaked out enough that I could keep them in line simply with a wicked grin (see picture). Everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. We dismissed the students early, cancelled PM School and kicked them out of the building. I got to leave by 4:15, the earliest I'd been out of work in weeks. I hadn't been home more than 15 minutes before JimmyLuke invited me to come to the Haloween parade. I accepted, but only because I was still in costume. We hit Resevoir below Union Square for dinner and beers beforehand. Then we grabbed a couple of drinks while we waited outside a bar on 6th Ave. for the parade to start. Unfortunately, it wasn't too long afterwards that I began to feel the weight of the week dragging me down. I bolted for home at 8:30, just 45 minutes after the first elements of the parade passed us. Thursday I was giving a quiz, so it was a fairly low-maintenance day. The students were surprised to see me shaved again. I guess without the eye makeup and hat I looked even more different than the day before. I was also informed by one of my male students that my new shaved look was making life difficult for him because all the girls thought I was now cuter than he. I told him not to worry, since I didn't know of anyone who thought he was cute. Yes, I'm at that time of the year when I can insult the students to their face in the middle of class and they think I'm cool for it.
Thursday night I met PianoGirl for dinner. She was taken aback by my clean-shaven appearance and did a double take when I walked into the restaurant. Then I tried to order scotch and was carded. The waitress was very apologetic once she saw my birthdate. I'm officially seventeen years old again: sophomores think I'm cute and I can't buy alcohol. The dinner was good until we started talking about our plans for Christmas. That quickly devolved into an argument about my opinions of certain members of her family. It wasn't pretty. I left the restaurant alone.
Friday was all about coasting to the finish. Some students asked me if I had the quizzes graded. I laughed. We talked about sedimentary rocks. The day ended. My union rep came by my room after school, just to check how the week had been in light of last week. We had a little discussion regarding the finer points of dealing with sociopathic supervisors, but at this point I was just ready for the week to be over.
No Idea was full of the usual assortment of teachers (but no StuntMan) and I was feeling like I was ready to call it a night fairly early. Of course that all changed when Tex strolled in and sat down with me. She had moved away from Bethlehem when we were only fifteen. Through the wonders of Facebook, we'd gotten back in touch and had the usual "We should get together some time!" conversation. Previous conversations such as that had proven to be little more than politeness, but she apparently meant it when she said it. We quickly got each other caught up on the last decade or so of our lives. At one point I even called up SecondLaw, who was soberly working at her copy desk down in Philly, so she could catch up too. As the fates would have it, Tex is now working just a few blocks south of my school and living in Hoboken. We were chatting well into the night. Having an old friend from high school show up randomly basically sealed my new-found teenaged status.
So even weeks that seem to pile the crap on with second helpings can be redeemed in the least likely of ways. Who knows what this week will bring?
1 comments:
But...you'll grow it back, right? You just shaved for the costume, right? RIGHT???
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