Howdy.
I said goodbye to my students today. Mind you, I’ll still work with my classes once a week, but they’re not my sole responsibility anymore. Woo hoo! Students took it fairly well that I am taking on another position at the school. I first told the news to Hicks’s homeroom. Some students broke out into very rude applause, which made me feel a bit bad. I can be honest about it, and I know I was not demanding anything from them that they couldn’t and shouldn’t deliver. It’s not my fault that some of them were so angry, disruptive, and apathetic. I know very well that I didn’t positively reinforce any of this behavior. My girl students were the ones who were most taken aback. Some asked me not to leave. One girl - a student it seems that only liked and did work in my class - stormed out of the room, was gone for twenty minutes, returned quietly to finish her work, and then told me she would never speak to me again. Hmmm….okay.
Sigh. I do hope my few sweet students are nice to Mr. Patton tomorrow. The man doesn’t know what he’s in for. The comparisons will get very old, and I have a feeling some students will miss all the writing I made them do. Oh, well. Today’s Writing Workout topic was “Things change…” They certainly do.
I am now officially sick, rather than merely under the weather. I’ve started a course of antibiotics and postponed my interview for that tutoring job. The bad thing was that I rode to Times Square, got on the Q, and then decided I was too feverish and snotty right before the train entered Brooklyn. So then I had to ride all the way back on the Q to Times Square, and then board the 1 from there. I did my good deed of the day when I helped a woman who only speaks four English words - “J, train, thank, you” - find the J train to Queens.
Me: Mida, Jota. [pointing at the sign that says "J"]
Her: Si.
Me: Y Jota. [pointing at another sign down the platform, then pointing at stairs to J platform] Arriba y entonces Jota.
Her: Si. Thank you.
I loved the black guy watching the whole thing, shaking his head and going, “Man, that’s crazy, yo.” Cracker speaks un poco espanol, senor. Of course, had Jose Montiel, my beloved crazed Spanish profesor been around, I would have remembered whether to indicate that the woman should walk “derecho” or “izquierda.” I would have actually said “el tren” and “de nada” when she said thanks. But things change…
