I want to start by describing the high I felt coming out of your class with my students yesterday. My girls were so proud of themselves, I was so proud of them, I couldn't stop smiling and flet like my chest was going to explode. Seeing them take part in what could be the next step of their educational lives and seeing them own their responses and open up to adults they don't even know almost brought me to tears. I woke up today and - while i usually feel sluggish and lately haven't been able to get all the bad things about work our of my head, I flew out of my apartment ready to brag about the experience with everyone and to reconnect with the girls. Really, I was a cheerful mess all morning! Thank you for the experience. Thank you so much.
My high, unfortunately, ended when I heard that one of my students was in the clinic after a serious fight. It was the beginning of lunch, there had hardly been time for a fight. This student is my question kid. He panics if i don't answer him immediately. He starts talking at a million words a second and at top volume because he can't handle not knowing what to do. He's a prankster and a joker, but also very silly and humble at the same time. If I say yes, he'll say no... then he'll smile and say "miss you know I'm just playin." Lately he's been working so hard. So, when I heard he'd been in a fight, I knew something serious had to have happened because he is not the fighting kind. I went down to the clinic, and there he was - his eye busted and swolen and his nose bleeding, his eyes were bloodshot and his pride was crushed. Turns out that he was walking to gym with the rest of my class and hung back to talk with his girlfriend (which is cute because he gets so nervous when he talks to girls). One of my other students told him to hurry up as the rest of the group walked away. At this point, a group of guys from another school in the building had decided to get my question kid because one of them used to date the girl or some stupidity that hormones and immaturity create. Later, my boys came into math class unable to think about anything other than the fact that their friend must've thought they abandoned him because they walked away. We spent forty minutes talking about why walking away isn't always a bad thing, etc... How can they learn when this is their reality. Fighting in order to save their dignity and friendships.
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5 comments:
Cristina,
You should be very proud of your students; they all seemed so mature and thoughtful and had great responses to all the questions! I also enjoyed meeting you and all the girls. I am hoping that I will see some of them again at Smith in the near future.
I'm sorry that you had to come back to a sad situation. I hope your student does not have to get in trouble too. I think it's so unfair when administrators punish both students involved in a fight, even if one of them really didn't start it or do anything wrong.
Keep up the good work!
-Jen
Having the students from NYC come really was one of the best and most enriching experiences in our course. I mean, we have been reading all these books and theories, and your kids just knew all this stuff from investigating their own experiences, school, neighborhood. I don't think I thought that critically about those things when I was in high school. I think they really changed the week for a lot of us, we got out of our midterms-minds and in a sense got away from Smith for a little bit. I hope we get to visit your class when we go to NYC.
I hope that your student and class heal from that incident. Do you think that there are a lot of conflicts involving students across the different schools? I know some of the students that I met yesterday said they liked having multiple schools in one building, and some said they hated it.
then he'll smile and say "miss you know I'm just playin."
AHHH!! those kids are so difficult 'cause they're so adorable and they just break your heart almost everytime they open their mouth to speak. i've got one of those in the enrichment program i'm working in afterschool in springfield and he just kills me. i hope that your student is okay and isn't targeted for these kinds of attacks again.
ma'am you weren't alone in almost crying, i think the bulk of us were almost there too just from the absolute genuine emotion and thoughtfulness of your and others' beautiful girls. you have some AMAZING KIDS and well, you can see that you must have had quite an effect on them. keep up all the amazing work that you're doing!
- janel
i just wanted to let you know how much i learned from your students. it was great to not only meet them, but really to talk with them as well. it was so humbling when sam asked us to talk about what we didn't like about our schools. i stumbled over some answer about how pretentious a lot of smithies are and how it's always hard to get a word in edge-wise when they're stacking up their participation points in class. it's a common complaint here at smith, but sooo pathetic next to what the student i was paired up with had to say. her list included annoying metal detectors and building maintenance concerns. but what really stuck with me was her comment about how annoying it is that she isn't allowed to have a cell phone in school. she, of course, didn't want to have it available in class. her concern was, instead, quite legitimate. as an athlete, she often stays late after school and has to walk home at night, through a rough neighborhood, in the dark, with no phone. and it's not as if she can leave it in the principal's office when she gets to school and pick it up again after practice. there's just a no tolerance policy. and her safety is at risk, here. i told her about how, when i was at columbia university last semester, i never left my dorm without a phone, even though i was in the pampered upper west side. it was just such a slap in the face to hear that the bureaucracy of school policy is denying her her safety.
Cristina,
I am very glad to have met your students. It was a very enriching experience for our class, and I hope it was enriching for your students. I am sorry that you had to come back to a bad situation.I think fighting in schools is a very unfortunate reality. I am looking forward to seeing your students again when we visit NYC.
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