Wow.

Today was a day for all days – and I feel a deep need to record this for posterity.

As some of the people who will read this may know, I am piloting an Advanced Biology program at my school – where students are not prepared for AdvBio and the course is not properly recognized as a difficult course. In any event, I teach two periods of this course – one during 5th hour, one during 7th.

Those two periods could not be more different.

7th period is calm and focused, organized and productive. 5th period? Not so much.

Today, a student decided to stand for the entire class. We’ll call her A. This was because she wanted to annoy me after I made her change her seat. Today, I was massively unprepared for how hyper high school seniors can be.  Today, I laughed so hard at A, I actually cried while she was standing for the 30th minute of class. It was incredible. While I was laughing, the only thing students could say was “She baggin’ up! She baggin’ up!” (Delaware slang 101 – “baggin’ up” is code for laughing uncontrollably, at least in my case)

Around minute 35, A stated “I think I’ll sit down now”. Another student said “But then you lose!”, to which A says “Didn’t you know? Ms. S is my homegirl. I don’t lose.”

Yes. I am her homegirl.

Needless to say, I called her mother this evening and we spoke about A’s behavior. With a talk tomorrow during the Do Now, she’ll be fine – we’ve gone through this before. What really makes this situation beautiful is that A actually changed her schedule to be in my class, and rearranged it twice to stay in the class. She truly enjoys it and learning – but sometimes, just sometimes, she’s here to be my reality check.

Homegirl out.