Street Credits

I don't know why I schedule my craziest RSPED kiddos all in one day. I don't have that many...but the four that I have really work me!

In the morning, I saw my usual Tuesday 2nd period boys (C and D). Since Chanel last warned them about "behaving better," they have straightened up. I don't think I've mentioned this, but they totally have a bipolar relationship with each other. For the most part, they get along very nicely, but D will (literally) pound on C if something that C does/says triggers him. Today, after they started off smoothly, C got on D's nerves. When it was time to write responses, D threatened, "You better not finish before me..." but C did so D punched C's arm really hard. I said, "Hey, do I need to separate you two? [C], have a seat over here" so C moved to the other end of the table and said dramatically, "It's over between us!" I often tease that they are inseparable which they sometimes feed off of (and pretend to be all loving) and sometimes vehemently deny (y'know, they have to be all macho) so when C said that, I was laughing so hard! Then D said, "Oh, I see how it is. I was going to celebrate our anniversary with some champagne, too. But I guess it's over between us!"

I was like, WTH!! LOL Crazy kids! They were saved by the bell (rather, I was saved by the bell) but before they got to the door, I said, "Hey, guys, I noticed that both of your reading skills have really improved since the beginning of the year. I think that's great." D screamed, "WOOHOO!!" I think they left before they saw me shaking my head and letting out a sigh of relief.

Later on, I saw my other two crazy boys. I've gotten to the point where when G walks in, I attempt two conversational turns (if even) and then ignore him until D comes in. G is really hard-core about keeping his street credits so he always walks in like he's hot stuff and way too cool to talk to me. But the moment D walks in, it's like a shouting match between the three of us! A few weeks ago, I called for G, and his teacher said, he may not want to come b/c they just started watching a fun movie. So she put him on the phone and I gave him the option of coming. Much to my huge surprise, he came. Of course it was like pulling teeth working with His Coolness since D wasn't there.

So we started working and of course they asked, "Why can't we just play a game?" I said, "If you finish reading this and answer ALL of the questions correctly -- no mistakes and in complete sentences, then we can play this game." Dude, they worked so fast and hard. It was awesome and hilarious. One of the questions was, "Describe what country you would visit and why." I was impressed with G's answer. He said, "I would visit a place that is nice and peaceful." I totally didn't expect that from him! I tell you, this crazy kid could do so much better for himself if he always put in the effort and stayed out of trouble! What happened next:

D hollered: I don't know what country I'd visit!
G: Dude, just put Mexico.
D: No! I don't like tacos.
In my mind (and I'm sure my expression spoke for itself), I was like, WHAT!!!!!
G: Dude! That's racist!
(FYI: both are African-Americans)
D: That's not racist. So what if I don't like eating tacos.
G: You just can't say that! How would you like it if someone came up to you and said, "Hey, you like eating fried chicken all day?"
D: I'd say, yeah. Cuz I do like fried chicken.

What in the world?!

The best was when after they left, and I was finishing correcting D's responses, he wrote, "Mexico because of the tacos." LOL (No credit b/c it wasn't a complete sentence nor did he "describe" the country.) But on the real, I was extremely impressed with G. If anything, I would've imagined it the other way around (D being the one with manners, schooling G, and writing good responses; then again, D has his own funny attitude.)

At some point during that session, one of the 320 aides came in to pick up a questionnaire I filled out of her. She asked me to write my e-mail address on the back of the form and when I finished writing it, I noticed that G was frantically trying to scribble my address down! Unbelievable! (He didn't get it, but I totally called him out on it.)

(Maybe all the interruptions added to the craziness) Also during this session, a student came by again to see if I had finished filling out a teacher survey about myself based on Ellen Degeneres' AMEX print ad. I didn't even think twice to ask what it was for (I know which teacher it was for) so I filled it out. What did I put for favorite movie? Of course Nacho Libre!!!

I told BF afterwards and he was mortified. He thinks that I embarrass him waaaaay too much. Shoot, what's there to be embarrassed about? :) Still, I almost felt bad for putting that down, but why lie? It is my favorite movie (even if it's part of CBnR's "Bad Movie Day" collection).

Later on, I shared in Big Kid School about my fave movie and my classmate said, "dude, now they're totally going to be like, "wow, I thought my speech teacher was such a dork, but she's actually really cool."

I said, "Um, I doubt it. I probably just confirmed that their speech teacher is the biggest dork!"