A Little Piece of Jeriel's Blog

"So, I wanna talk about the girl I love. She has curves like no other. The way her body flows is incomparably indescribable. She causes guys and girls to lose it. She calms me down when I'm angry, fuels me when I'm pumped, massages me when I'm sore, puts me to sleep every night(if I go to sleep), clears my mind when my thoughts are driving me to insanity, kisses my lips whenever I tell her to, and picks me up when I'm feeling down. She is my everything. I love her and her name is Music."

An E-mail from Bradley

"I'm so sorry that I messed up your headphones :'(, I've been feeling bad all day. I will do what ever you want and will pay you back as well, but don't be mad at me because I love you! I should of never borrowed them :'( from now on I will learn not to borrow stuff because you wouldn't want to break them. I will try to remember to take my own headphones from now on.
Again I am tremendously sorry, my sincere condolences to your right headphone. :'("

Yet another reason why I love my students.

Justice Journals

We have started reading To Kill a Mockingbird in class, and the students will be participating in various journal entries that tie in with specific chapters. Our first journal was about justice, and the students had a choice to speak about injustices within the book or within the world at large. What follows is David's rather timely response:

"A person or people I know that have been judged unfairly are the Mexicans or immigrants. I think that they have been judged unfairly because some of them are drug traffickers and some are criminals. But most of the immigrants or Mexicans come to this country to find a job and to care for their family. The country has looked at them only as bad people, but they actually have lots to offer to this country. Most Mexican immigrants are mistreated and disrespected when coming to this country because of their reputation of being bad people. Also when the H1N1 or Swine Flu came out the Mexicans were treated badly even more.

I think the government is being very racist when making the Arizona law. A lot of innocent families were broken up because of this law and it’s just not right. I think that immigrants should have a chance to come to this country only if they are good hard working people. I think the government should make laws against drug traffickers and criminals, not immigrants that come to this country for freedom."

9th Grade Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday, I took my 9th grade students on a Scavenger Hunt around Manhattan. They had an incredibly specific list to follow... and they had a BLAST! Here are some of the best pictures:

Jose, gettin' down on one knee, to "Yo Ms.! That girl be slammin' hot!"

Ali, helping clean up our beautiful city.

Leticia and Natalye playing a piano at Guitar Center on 14th street.

Jeneilson scooping his own icecream.

The whole crew hangin' upside down!

Dolphins

Josefina, senior extraordinaire, just came back from the bathroom with the following:

"Ms., I have a question. We have gay rights week to support people who are gay, right? Well... why don't we support people who love dogs then? I mean, they're both different than what's normal... so..."

Interesting teachable moment.

"Well, Josefina, it all goes back to what we call 'societal norms.' Originally, homosexuality was taboo in our society. But as we've evolved, and sex has become something people do for recreation and not just procreation, it has become less taboo. Some people simply are more sexually attracted and fulfilled by same sex relationships than opposite sex relationships. However... I think that bestiality is still pretty taboo in our society."

Edwin then chimed in with: "Dolphins have sex just for fun."

Alex: "Yeah, and we learned in Science and Society that dolphins also have guy on guy dolphin sex."

Yet another day in Technology Skills for Life.

Vincent

Vincent: "Ms. Mayer, can I tell you the racist joke now?"

Mayer: (sighs) "Yes."

V: "Okay, so this black guy walks into a white man's bar..."

M: "Why does it always have to be about a white guy?"

V: "If you look throughout history, white people are always angry about stuff. Can I just tell you the joke??"

M: "Yeah yeah, go ahead."

V: "Okay, so this black guy walks into a bar and the white owner says 'We don't allow colored people in here.' And the black guy says, 'Colored? You're pink when you're born, green when you're sick, blue when you're cold, tan when you're in the sun... and you call ME colored??' and walks out."

Friday: Last Period

It's 3:01pm last Friday. My last class comes barging in, and Kiana marches straight up to me with a pouty little look and says, "Look what they put in my locker." She hands me a piece of folded paper. I open it to find a drawing of a penis. At this point, it's ignorable, so I tell her, "I'm sorry... stupid boys. Let's just forget about it and start class."

3:03pm: Kiana comes to the front of the class while I'm in the middle of getting started and hands me another piece of paper with a "Ms. Mayer!" look on her face. It is, of course, another drawing of a penis. No longer ignorable, I hold up both drawings to the class and say, "Is this how we're going to end our week?" A couple shouts of "It's Anthony! It's Anthony!" rain out.

This disturbs Anthony, who immediately flips open his notebook and fiercely draws a penis. He comes to the front of the classroom holding his own drawing, and I realize that at 3:06pm, I am standing in front of my 9th grade English class with three separate drawings of a penis. It becomes clear, however, that Anthony is not responsible for the first two drawings as his penis drawing is clearly different. I announce, "Okay, Anthony, we can all agree that the first two drawings are not yours. Can we PLEASE start class now? Enough penis talk."

Everyone gets settled. Class is running smoothly. I am rotating to each student to check the outlines of their Of Mice and Men papers. It is pin drop silent as each student is finally diligently working on their writing. I am pouring over a student's work when I hear from behind me Pamela Reyes yelling.

"It won't go in Ms. Mayer! It won't go in!"

I freeze. I have a total panic flashback to the beginning of class. I take a deep breath, realizing there is NO WAY the two incidents can be related.

But it's too late. Mohammad sees the look on my face. He says, "Ms. Mayer, seriously? That's where your head is at??"

I turn around to see Pamela trying ferociously to get a piece of lead back into her mechanical pencil.

Deep breaths all around.

"This Kid"

Today we are putting George on trial for the murder of Lennie. One of my favorite students from last year, Juancarlos, has been asking me if he could serve on jury duty since the beginning of the year. I cleared it with the principal, and Juancarlos has been spending the afternoon with me.

As I am typing this, there is a different class in my room. Mr. Dixon is teaching a lovely group of students, including a child we'll call Curley for annonymous sake. Juancarlos is quietly doing research on my laptop.

Curley is not happy. He doesn't want to be in class, and is pushing boundaries fast and hard. In the span of twenty minutes, Curley reaches the consequence of being sent out to the dean. He mouths off a bit on his way out the door. The class is relatively silent because of the altercation and the dean referral.

It is at this point that Juancarlos, just one grade ahead of these 9th graders, turns to me and says, "Who is this kid?"

How fast they grow up.

Living History

Malcolm: Ms.! I can't type!

Mayer: Yes you can, Malcolm, yes you can.

Malcolm: This is not the Obama campaign.

E-mails

I am teaching a senior class I have dubbed "Technology Skills for Life." We are working on typing skills and basic computer etiquette. Today, my students' first assessment was due, and they had to attach their projects and send them to me via e-mail. In their instructions for e-mailing their projects, I asked them to write me something funny in the body of the e-mail. Here are some of my favorites:

YYYOOO0O0O!!! what do u call candy dat is late?? CHOCO- LATE! - Malcolm

whats the funniest part of the egg ????? --------------------------- THE YOLK !!!! get it get it ? JOKE YOLK ?? yea :D - Lissete

this is from glee : Santana: so get up in my grill, cus britts and i want to get our anethesia awn ! - Nairobe

TEACHER: Why are you late?
WEBSTER: Because of the sign.
TEACHER: What sign?
WEBSTER: The one that says, "School Ahead, Go Slow." - Jhemerlyn

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now. - Josefina

Yo yo yo check it check it!
we in typing class
I hope i pass
this weekend was little crazy
but hey @ least i don't have a baby!
and yeah im kind of lazy but im never shady!
Ms.Mayer holding it up and down,
side to side! yeah dat right
you know i noe how to sort of rhyme :) lol - Edyaline

"The best laid schemes of mice and men..."

My class is in the middle of Of Mice and Men, and today we were discussing the theme of loneliness. Jakira, in my first period, randomly shouted out, “Ms. Mayer, you’ve had to read this, for like, five different years. How can you still be so enthusiastic about it?” I simply smiled at her and said it was because I loved the novel.

It wasn’t until fourth period when I was reminded of why I truly love reading and teaching Of Mice and Men. Again, we were discussing the theme of loneliness, and Zavia offered up the following: “I think that the reason why they are all so lonely is because they don’t love themselves enough. If they can’t love themselves, then how are they going to love and be friends with the other guys? People have to love themselves first.”

Students constantly surprise me with what they get out of this novel. Of Mice and Men is 107 pages long. Pick it up. Read it. For the first time, or for the fifth time. This novel truly is timeless.

The Accident

Lawrence walked into homeroom this morning with a peculiar look on his face.  He sat down in the desk next to me, and after we chatted a bit about how Tuesdays kinda suck, I realized he had a small green water balloon in his hands.  I asked him what he was planning on doing with it, and his response was a vague, "Oh... you know..."

He let me hold the water balloon for a little bit, which was nice of him.  I handed it back, and within one minute, he popped it all over himself.  With little to no reaction, Lawrence looked at me and said, "Well... I guess that didn't go as planned."

Utopia

My students' homework last night was to write a couple paragraphs about their own personal utopias.  What follows are some choice lines, grammar and spelling unchanged:

"If you commit a crime you will be deported to a different country with the total opposite of my utopia." - Daniel

"But for people with allergies, they will live in a different side of town with pictures of things they like in their house." - Yessica

"My utopia wouldn't be 'perfect' as most people describe it because I don't want to wake up in the morning and already know what's gonna happen, which is what could happen if your utopia is perfect." - Melanie

"Mainly I would have no racism in my utopia.  Second, with no racism from myself I would have only mexicans and non-mexican haters." - Cristian

"I wouldn't call them slaves or maids but I want people to do stuff for me." - Joshua

"The food that we sell is sushi, steak, lobster, potatoes, fried shrimp, pina coladas, and slushies." - Thiana

"There would be an animal species called Flonkas and they would be like our servants in exchange for all the chocolate they could eat." - Aaron

"I think that riding a train to Brooklyn to see my grandmother takes too long.  I would make all forms of transportation either walking, driving, or rollercoasters." - Lawrence