2002-06-06
Long week, posted at 12:07 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com As promised, I'll go a little more into what happened yesterday.My 2/3 period was awful. I ended up getting cussed out by a girl after asking her to be quiet over and over again, and then sending her out of my room. That was actually a pretty interesting experience. I immediately called home, and got in touch with her father. Her father explained to me that he had just gotten back into his daughter's life, because he's a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who doesn't want his daughter to make the same mistakes he did. He then asked, "Man to man... what would you do if this was your daughter?". (The girl is awful failing every course and is dating someone in college.) I didn't feel trained enough to respond to the question, but I told him that his involvement in her life will hopefully result in a turnaround.
He ended up coming right down to the school after our conversation, and the day ended with him standing over her with his arms crossed while I was teaching a different class later in the day. One of the other things she had done was write all over her desk, and I told this to the father. He then made her apologize to me in front of this whole other class. She was bawling. I almost felt bad for her.
Tevan was the other conundrum from yesterday. A day after giving him a ride home and then to his baseball game, he goofed off all period (not uncommon for Tevan, but it was very disappointing after the hard work he did the day before). He kept begging me to leave to "drop something off for a friend" or to go to the bathroom. I refused, and eventually told him that I was disappointed in him that he cannot sustain a work ethic across more than one day. He then kept looking out the window and even tried to yell, and I shut the windows. He got up and opened them, and then I just sent him out. While he was packing up his stuff, he said, "I'm a gonna slap him." I think he said it, although no one else in the class seemed alarmed. I'm, for now, just brushing that off. Idon't feel threatened. I'm a bit worried about my car, that's all.
I called home (I had met his mom the day before), but haven't heard back from her. He didn't come to my class today. I'm not really sure how I'm going to proceed with this. I want to talk to his mother before I decide anything. What he did was threaten a teacher, which is pretty serious; but Idon't feel threatened because I don't think he meant it.
Today has been a slightly better day, although I can't believe it's only Thursday. It's been a really long week.