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3652k17 · 4 years

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March 17th 2020

Quarantine Day #4:

Not much to report today. I played guitar for much longer than I probably should have (my poor, poor neighbours). I got a chance to speak to Rebecca which was good. She seems to be mostly delighted about this change in our lives and part of my agrees with her, but a much larger part knows that if I were to get a message tomorrow that say’s “WE’VE SOLVED IT, YOU CAN GO BACK TO NORMAL NOW” I’d weep of straight happiness. The break has been nice, but it’s been less than a week and I just want to be a teacher again. I know, for now, I should just enjoy (as I’ve always BEGGED FOR) that the hardest part of my day is the run that I’m going on or which episode to watch with my lunch. I know that I’m incredibly lucky that this is the problems that I have. I’d hate for anyone to get sick, so as long as that keeps being a thing, I’ll be happy.

But with no end in sight, this is definitely going to be a challenging year. It just hurts a little bit each day with the thought that I won’t be able to have a crazy first block anymore. Here’s what a dream day would like for me:

I get to school around 7:15 because I was actually able to get myself out of bed by 5:00 and do an hours run. I’ve showered, straightened my hair, and I’ve even had time to put my makeup on. There aren’t any club meetings today, but instead, my room fills quickly with all of the AP kids doing their “corrections” but really they’re just there to pass time before class begins. It’s an A day. Maybe Rebecca and Eric come to say a few words. Maybe Ben stops by too. A1 starts to file in with Jake and Ryan announcing their presence in only a way that they can. Ryan’s got a question about an assignment. He doesn’t actually have to ask the question, he just likes to have the routine. Jake hears the question and takes it upon himself to spin the most ludicrous of answers. Maybe Chas is there too, to help him have someone to bounce off of. As the clock inches evermore towards the quarter past mark, the buzz that had filled the room since 8:00 that morning has grown steadily louder.

There’s a good lesson on the board today, I actually know what I’m teaching my AP nuggets. We’ve got a lot of discussion going on, we’ve got a chance for them to be nutty. Matt’s done something silly again, where the office has to get involved and everybody’s cheering and applauding. There’s some downtime as well, as people are finishing up their assignment in small groups. This allows me to go and visit my front table with their aardvark family, to hear the oddities of their conversation (which probably involves cannibalism). I rotate around and the group off to the side has finished the work and is quickly try to study for their APUSH test later on that day. The front table closest to my desk is screaming about “BEING BOSS LADIES” and running the show for the next part of our activity. The room has a healthy chatter. It’s about 10:00, and I’ve actually remembered to do attendance. Ben stops in to share with us whatever is going on in his mind, while I make a cup of tea. We fill him in on our morning, he spits some truths in his awkwardly fun and unmistakenly loud way and leaves. We run out of time to finish half the activity because A1 gets so into it. The bell rings, there’s the 10 minute passing period and Will and Ais stop by (probably along with Amanda and Ryan) to chat to me about whatever is going on in their lives. I hurry off to the pubs lab, as we have an English department meeting where something ridiculous is going to be said by Tonya, and you want to get a good seat; you don’t want to miss Rebecca Kline’s facial reaction to ANYTHING that she says. Some new mandate is spelt out, and our department battles it out, everyone’s patience wearing thin. I’m enjoying the drama, sandwiched between Rebecca and Eric, loving their responses to everything. Susan’s giving death glares across the room and everyone finally understands what it’s like to be on the wrong end of her for a cohort meeting.

The bell rings and I hop off to teach 10H. We’re in the middle of a novel and everyone’s actually paying attention for once. Sure that table by the door is being a lot and they’re just constantly asking, “When is Mr. Gibson going to stop by” but we have a good time reviewing for our quiz anyway. This basically takes us up to lunch. I have a ton of things to share coming from the department meeting and I even stop by the workroom just to hash a few more things out, before swinging by the library. Here I find all manner of people to chat to: I chat to Ben about it, I talk to Dana and Susan and get their wild take, maybe even Zack swings by (where I get to squeeze in a quick tease that he does nothing, let him him either outwit me or think that he has) and then it’s back to class. They’ve got projects to work on, so I can just jump around the room and chat to whomever I need to. I spend a good deal of time with the boys at the side of the room, listening to the sheer nonsense that is pouring out of their mouths. When the fourth lunch bell rings, Kenzie stops by to chat to me about soccer, college, Jonathan or whatever is going on at home with her parents. She sits at my desk and I lean casually against my black filing cabinets, keeping an eye on the room. Ben’s probably back engaging with teh group at the far end, enjoying the insanity that is 10th grade. Right at the end of the block, my usual fourth block crew comes piling in, and I try and shoo them out. Maybe even Rebecca stops by to tell me something crazy that happened during lunch duty. Finally the bell for fourth rings.

Ishan, Nathan, and Preetham saunter into the room, each demanding something of me. Ishan just wants someone to listen to him, tell him taht he’s working far too hard, and acknowledge the work that he is doing. He just desperately needs someone to care-truthfully, he just desperately needs an older sister. Nathan and Preetham have heard about the lesson from block one and are here to just annoy me about it, until I reach a point where I’m just yelling. Although, as this is a dream, maybe I’m going to say that they’re all eager to learn the lesson. Carina and Taylor don’t want to just complain and they actually want to enjoy what we’re doing. They take to it well and I finally feel like I’ve done an honest days work, that these kids are actually progressing and are doing better; that these kids are going to pass the exam. Despite the bell ringing, it’s hardly the true end of the day. I’m going to say that for this fantasy, I don’t have homebound, so maybe it’s a Friday afternoon. My room is far from empty though. Madelaine, Rohin, ( I can’t remember their friend from Nigro’s class right now) Caitlin and Rita all stop by. Sure, I want to kind of go home and start the weekend. But if I’m truly honest, I want to pour another bowl of mini wheats and listen to whatever they’ve got to tell me for the next hour. Knowing this lot, it’s going to be a recap of what happened that day in class, and how Nick Davies and others had really annoyed Madelaine, the upcoming standardized test, and whatever Mr. Gibson had done in 4th block seminar class. I smile, as Madelaine reminds me that I should teach it with him next year, and I know that although I’d be SO FLATTERED AND HAPPY TO DO SO, it would be a disaster. He needs someone to play the bad cop with in that class. He’d realise that I know absolutely nothing. He see that I’m a pushover. He wouldn’t come to my classes anymore. I pass it off as something that couldn’t happen for AP Lang, which is one of the reasons, but I keep the real truth to myself.

Finally, their rides have arrived and they bid me farewell for the weekend. I smile as I turn off the five lamps in the room. Maybe today, as the sunlight is just starting to dip behind the school building, a beautiful blue sky, tinged with the beginnings of red, orange and purple, spread out above the distant tree line, I take a deep breath and take a look around the room. I smile. I had a good day. I can’t wait to see what Monday brings. I’m happy.

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