Day 72

I remember Lukie last year around this time saying before class "OK, I am DONE with this year! It's over! Can't it be over!" It's a problem; one goes balls to the wall for 8 months and then the standardized tests are done and then there's Spring Break and another six fat weeks still left until summer. The kids are done, the teachers are done, the administrators are frazzled and fried: and yet we still have to keep going.

I'm so tired I'm getting sloppy. A kid not in any of my classes kicked in my door today and when I said "you need to go" he said "who the fuck you think you is?" and I jumped on a chair, on a table, and down chasing him and when he took off down the hall I called him a "dumb ass" in front of other adults and students. All day I was pinching, punching, and pushing kids without caution. One boy tried to give me the bum's rush at my classroom door and I rapped his knuckles with my wooden Noisemaker stick. Oooh! Ouch. Another boy tried to escape detention by following a fellow teacher out of my room at 2:35. I grabbed his hood and pulled him back and he threw a handful of pebbles at my glasses.

I had to pause for about 30 seconds before I gave him the Vulcan death grip until he fell to his knees. Thanks Mr. Tracy, 10th grade Trig/Analytical Geo teacher, for passing on this useful skill.

Soon I'll be in New Mexico: Anasazi ruins, fantastic cave systems, desert, mountains, white water, aliens, spicy food, peyote, hot springs. Hell, yeah.