Sweet success!

photo by Evan Stoecker (link below)

Em passed!! She passed! She passed not one, but ALL of her final exams: math, socials, science, and English. God I'm proud of her. I'm so happy she did it. Do you know what this means for her?

Amazing Em

photo by Bethan (link below post)

I saw a picture of some graffiti the other day while I was perusing the interwebs. It said:

 "When I do right, they never remember. When I do wrong, they never forget." 

It made me think. I realized that I haven't mentioned Em, my other student, as much on this blog, and I'll tell you why;

Sally Versus Apathy

picture by h.koppdelaney (link below post)

God damn it. Nobody tells you that being snubbed by a 13 year old can suck as hard as it does, ESPECIALLY when you're trying to help her get her shit together. Here's our last bbm conversation:

Paris: When do we meet up again?
Sally: Whenever you like. What works for you?
P: Uh idk
S: Lol don't you like the freedom of being able to choose? Or is it better when I just set everything up and then tell you when?

Long pause. Tumbleweeds blow past. The Earth gets a couple degrees hotter. Hell gets just that much cooler.

What are we schooling for? (part 2)

Continued from part oneof my hair pulling day at InnerCity High.

Photo by ashley rose (link below post)

Part two of this story starts with my talking to the Counselor and I having a little sit down concerning Paris. She's been slow to get her work done with me, dragging her feet at every fraction and decimal she sees, looking over at her blackberry whenever she can't touch it, texting friends when she can.... she has one last social studies assignment to do, but hasn't bothered to do it. She has a mountain of math work to get done, but only does it around me, and like I said, grudgingly at best.

C: "What you need to do is build a relationship with her, get her trust. Anything she does in terms of school work is fine, but it's the rest of it, that emotional stuff, that's what you need to do.

What are we schooling for? (part 1)

photo by Darwin Bell (link below post)

Today is one of those days when you just want to grab someone by the shoulders and shake them, just to let it out. Ugh.

I met with Em in the morning, bright and early at 8:30 am, to do a little studying for some of the tests she has this week. What was conveyed to me as "a couple tests this week" via her text message apparently meant "a test on 2 full chapters in science which I haven't looked at at all, a social studies test and a math test. Starting at 10am today." 

The (not so) Simple Life

(photo by Schaaflicht. Link below post)

I am in this weird spot of trying to relate to a 13 year old girl who has already out BarStar'd the best of my skankily-dressed, of-legal-age-and-above Uni friends. I've never failed a class in my life, and she's practically flunking out of elementary school. My family has always stood behind me, been supportive. Her family, at least as she describes it, is in pieces.

I am, of course, talking about our little Paris. Paris, of such charming slogans as "K whatever, G-bye!" and "Fuck, ok, don't shit on my head over it" and, oh,  my personal fave, "OHMYFUCKINGGOD this is taking so LONG [elapsed time: 5 seconds] go kill yourself! [to her blackberry]."

Meet the Students: Paris and Em.

Photo by DiaTM (link below post)

Finally! After a long long wait, I've had 2 students placed with me. The wait was long because the Counsellor I'm working with had to deal with what was apparently a miniature "Fight Club" cropping up at InnerCity school. Apparently the incident involved about 10 students or so, wherein 2 of them had scheduled a fight (during school time, on school property...) and 8 or so people who knew about it decided they would come and watch, maybe join in. The lot of them were suspended, fighters and audience members alike. The kids are about 13-15 years old... all I can say is, come on! When I was in the 8th grade at InnerCity, we all knew that if you wanted to fight and not get caught, you had to do it off school grounds and not during class time. Silly, silly children.

Anyway, the Counsellor was busy wrangling in 10 students for suspensions, thus our little project had to wait. But no more! I got a call about a week ago to come in at 8:30 a.m. to meet with the Counsellor and the Principal to discuss the two girls I'd be working with. The conversation went something like this: