Ms. Fo' Fo'

 

My favorite thing from today . . .

One of my kids was turned around talking, at which I warned him that he already had a "strike" and that this could make two. Without hesitation, he blew up at me, claiming he "Didn't do nothin'!" I instantly gave him the look-of-death and said, "Wait. Let's try that again and this time without yelling at your teacher." After he did this, all the girls around him started hassling him to apologize to me (a small miracle in of itself), and he finally sighed and said, "Oooohhhh alright. I'm sorrryyy Ms. Foe-Foe." Hysterical laughter ensues. Apparently my new nickname is "Ms. Foe - Foe."

I seriously cannot believe how far these guys have come. They are definitely not the same children I started with in November. I really am starting to like them.  Yesterday, I told my 8th graders how proud I was of them and started to tear up . . . surprisingly, some of them started to tear up as well!  They were actually pretty shocked that I was crying - they kept saying, "Well, at least she hasn't cried every day while yelling at us!"  It was kinda cute. 

Life is . . .

I just realized that I haven't posted anything since October.  The time has flown and I cannot even to describe how much has happened.  I am now officially teaching 5th - 8th grade ELA on the southside of Chicago.  I am working at a relatively small magnet school, and it has been a challenging year - to say the least.  For a while I was writing some of the craziness down in a journal, but I haven't been consistent with it.  The things that have happened definitely need to be remembered.

This week has been interesting (to say the least):

Today I stopped a security guard from verbally berating a student in my classroom.  Now, as a little side note, this particular student has a historically bad (this may not be the word . . . awful, horrendous, horrific, terrifying, disrespectful, unbelievable . . . you get the picture) temper and is known for not being respectful when she gets angry.  About 20 minutes into class she was brought into my room by the security guard who was yelling at her and she was yelling back.  It continued on for a while until I stepped in and issued a detention.  At this point, she turned her anger on me.  I removed her to the back of the room and wrote her a referral, however, the officer continued to (and escalated) his yelling and threatening to "lock you up".  He would. not. let. it. go.  After a minute or so, I turned her to the opposite direction and stepped between the two of them.  "I've got this."  I stated, as calmly as possible.  He continues. "Officer, I will take care of this situation."  The yelling continues.  "I will make sure she gets to the office and I will take care of this."  FINALLY, he left.

          Before leaving for the day I received the following letter from her:

Dear Ms. Forster,
I am sorry for disrespecting you.  I didn't mean to.  I was irritated and annoyed.  I didn't mean to yell at you.  If you don't forgive me, I understand.  I don't like being yelled at either.  No one told me to write this to you.  I just figured that since I yelled at you, I should apologize.  I am really sorry this time.

Mind you, this young lady and I do not have a pleasant history.  She has already served multiple days of In-School-Suspension for yelling at me and has NEVER ONCE apologized.  I am pretty sure her note to me was a direct result of me standing up for her today.  I think she finally realized that I cared about her. 

Slowly, one-by-one, they are starting to come around.