Highlights

Today was a really, really, really hard day emotionally. But I'm going to leave you hanging, because I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Maybe tomorrow. There were a few highlights though.

In Algebra 2, we were studying for exams (next week!!), and several students asked if they could listen to music with their headphones. Our school policy is that students are allowed to use headphones during study hall, but they are forbidden at all other times. So I told them no since it wasn't study hall. Then one asked if she could just use her iPod's speaker to play music out loud without having to use headphones. I said I had no problem with that. Then like 4 other kids wanted to play their music too. So I taught them the word cacophony, and we all agreed to just play Christmas music on my laptop instead.

"I'll be Home For Christmas" came on, and one poor girl in the back corner seat yelled, "MISS!" I looked at her, and she looked back at me with wide, watery eyes, and just shook her head at me. She's new at our school this year. Her family lives in Jakarta, and she lives here in the dorm. But she's originally from Korea. So I sent someone to change the song, and we landed on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause". Harmless enough. After that came "Ave Maria", which also almost made my corner sitter cry. We skipped that one too. She asked if she could use her headphones, and I said no, but that we would avoid all sad songs. In the meantime, I caught THREE other students creatively attempting to listen to their earbuds - one had it wired down his sleeve and kept pretending to scratch his head. I am pretty good at spotting he-who-thinks-he-is-stealthily-doing-something-he-should-not-be-doing.

About 20 minutes from the end of class, sad girl slouched down very low in her seat and held her math book vertically in front of her face. Very sneaky. I knew what she was doing, but I also understood what she was feeling, and I chose not to fight that battle. That class gave me all the more reason to love them as not a single one questioned why she could listen to headphones when they couldn't. These kids get it.

The only thing that drove me a little crazy about the situation was that she probably thought that she got away with something without me knowing about it. I thought that she thought that I had noooo clue at all that she was back there with earbuds on. I can't have students thinking I'm losing my edge! So it was a little bit of a heartwarming surprise when I passed her hanging out with her friends on my way home 45 minutes later, and she grabbed my arm as I walked by and said, "Thank you for letting me listen to my music earlier. I just needed it."


I had a student refer to me as "girl" yesterday. I thought it was strange. Then I realized today that he intends to keep using that form of address, and instead of finding it rude or disrespectful, I find it oddly heartwarming. I have a nickname. Kind of? It's at least better than "bro", which I have also been called several times this week.

I also had two 9th grade boys who didn't feel like studying busy themselves with cleaning things in my room that probably haven't been cleaned for months - like my chalkboard and my erasers. And then two 9th grade girls decided to give me a back massage until I finally made them go study again - that was a hard call to make.

The kids knew that I was having a rough day, and when I got home from school, I had a Facebook message from yet another 9th grader telling me not to feel sad and to distract myself by playing games with him instead. So yes, I am not ashamed to admit that I did spend a large part of my afternoon playing Songpop with students.

Have I mentioned how much I love my 9th graders?