Good New$

Despite yesterday’s excessive self-recrimination—and despite the written Job Discrepancy Form found in my mailbox at school this morning (for not turning in a Fixed Asset Form last Friday, which was mentioned to us approximately once, without any subsequent reminder)—today was a good day.

The principal came to my classroom this morning to deliver a copy of a letter which informs me / my school / the district that I have been selected for a $5000 “REACH” award. Hooray! This develops out of an application I had to drive down to Jackson and hand deliver last month in order to get it in on time. Well, I guess it was worth the trouble. It looks like I get $2000 in December and the other $3000 when I finish the school year, but I have to submit a variety of paperwork, attend a workshop or two (Yippee! Substitutes, anyone?), etc.

Today we had our regular Tuesday after-school staff meeting. Every other week or so, we spend time on professional development for our IBO Middle Years Program. Today, we made hot air balloons out of tissue paper. I was in a group of full-figured black women ranging in age from my own age to that of my parents. Being white and male and not from around here, I was the exception to my group, but it was a nice team-building activity. I learned that the inclusion teacher who often visits my classroom, for instance, once almost married a Zambian man and was about to move to Zambia, learn the tribal language, and all that business, before she finally broke off the engagement. Oh yeah, and I won some Vis-à-Vis markers for reciting the five areas of interaction.

On the way home from school today, I made a stop by a neighborhood corner market to visit my student Mocha. In class today, I had passed around a paper so my students would write down their extra-curricular activities, such as band or football, as well as their position and uniform number or instrument, so I could pick them out of the crowd when I go to see a game or performance. Well that lead to a brief exchange with Mocha about how she works after school at her parents’ store and where that is. As she was describing its location, she mentioned “where the bad people are.” I told her not to say it like that, but I knew exactly what she was talking about. The street is definitely in the ghetto part of town. The visit was not something I planned ahead of time, just an idea that struck me as I pedaled home. Mocha seemed really proud to lead me to the adjoining shop and introduce me to her mother as Mr. A, her Algebra II teacher. See, Mocha and I had our troubles during the first week of school. She hated my strict rules, which I have since eased up on somewhat, and I think she even got ISS for her attitude with me. The next Monday, however, she brought me a very nice, written apology, and ever since then Mocha has been one of my best, model students. It was really great to be able to tell her mother face to face, and praise how bright she is, how happy I am to have Mocha in my class. So, look, I contacted a parent! All on my own! Yay!!