The first email of the week was the shocking announcement that Mr. L., one of my colleagues at the high school who couldn't be a day over 40, had suffered a massive heart attack the previous day. He was on life support and his prognosis grim. That downer took us all by surprise. On Monday, hour by hour reports on the school email said he was critical. But slowly, the reports turned positive. By Tuesday, he was critical, but improving. By Wednesday, they'd removed the breathing tubes. By Thursday, he was talking and laughing. He's now expected to recover, but I'm sure he won't be back in the classroom before the end of the schoolyear. They've been saying he'll be in Intensive Care for a few more weeks before being moved to a regular room.
This week, the schedule was scrambled to accommodate the Georgia High School Graduation tests for juniors and seniors. On Monday, first block was extended until 10 o'clock. On Tuesday, we had a 2,1, 3, 4 schedule, Wed., a 3, 2, 1, 4, and Thursday, a 4, 2, 3, 1 schedule. The change in order made the students extra hyper, and the teachers extra crabby. Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk during my planning period. The teacher-who-shares-the room was teaching her class. Suddenly, there was a pounding on the glass door that leads out to the courtyard.An angry teacher from across the way stood there yelling that some student in our classroom was beaming a red laser light across the courtyard into her room, and annoying the students. Naturally, this disruption got the students all worked into a frenzy--how they love any drama! Then Ms. D., the teacher in my room, felt obligated to accost the students and accuse a few of the chronic troublemakers, telling them to empty their pockets and bookbags and give up the laser. An African-American boy began to shout that the teacher at the glass door had pointed right at HIM when she screamed about the laser, and he felt DEGRADED; just because he was Black didn't mean HE was the one, blah blah, blah, to the point that Ms. D. had to send him out of the room to wait in the hall. She then threatened to call the Administration to have them come in and do a class-wide search (the students blanched, thinking of their hidden cell phones), and finally, the Guilty One gave himself up and surrendered his laser pointer. All of this commotion took 15 minutes, not including the time Ms. D. had to walk the affronted African American student to the Guidance Counselor because he was so upset at being falsely accused that he had become unhinged. The next period, when I was teaching, a girl got up and ran out the glass door, and I, thinking she was leaving just to be cute, called, "Hey, where are you going?" until I realized she was vomiting on the grass outside. The parapro walked her to the nurse's office. It's hard to get a high school back on track after the slightest little distraction.
It has been a tiring week.
L. just called from downtown. He has a flat tire. He called AAA, but found it would take too long, so he changed it himself and was on his way to Sears to get a new tire, last time he phoned in an update. I'm waiting for him to get home so I can start a movie and help myself to some Chinse take-out and a cold beer.
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