Tuesday: I started my fellowship on Tuesday and the principal at the school was really great. She was relaxed, more concerned about the work product and seemed to need a lot of guidance in the area of education technology. So, this was good. I only met with her for an hour and then I went to Brooklyn, to get my deposit back from the apartment that apparently was given away.
While I am on the train, a guy strolls slowly on the train and says, "Attention passengers, my name is Omar and I am selling some candy bars, Snickers, Mars, etc. I am trying to make money in a positive way, so I would appreciate your support. I'm not sticking up people or hitting them over the head, so please let me know if you would like a candy bar." I'm from Philly, so I've been trained to not even acknowledge passengers who raise their voice above a whisper. You don't even look their way, because you are asking to be made a target. Then I realized, I might want to acknowledge this dude, since he is apparently saying, "buy my candy or I will be forced to use other methods to make some money." Then, I thought - I'm going to stick with my Philly training and look up, pick the dirt out of my nails, adjust my purse, so it's on my side and not in front of me, clean my glasses or just cross my eyes for the sake of not looking at him." When the next stop arrived, he got off and I thought I hope he doesn't hit anyone over the head. SMH. Come to think of it, when I came up to New York a month ago, a guy got on the train and said the same thing and I thought - is this a threat. Then I'm like, whoever you guys are getting candy from must have taught them to say this. That's just not wise counsel or maybe it is. A month ago, everybody started buying the dude's candy.
I, of course, closely watched the hair on my legs grow.
I had a phone interview at 4:15pm, so I decided to just go to the closest library in Brooklyn, since I was down there already. Well, I should have stayed on the train. Google Maps gave the library a whoopin' 1 star, because apparently it is ridiculous. It was so loud. I'm glad people were in the library, but I couldn't have a conversation in there. I'm on the phone with the lady who is interviewing me and a guy across the table from me, starts cussing and talking to himself, calling whoever he was watching on his phone a B%&ch. I looked at him like, really? I asked the girl next to me, if there was a quiet place in the library, she says - No, you might want to go outside. I do that and sirens, construction and loud loiterers are running a muck. I tried to answer her question about what my day to day looks like, but then the ambulance siren starts blaring. So I said, it's like that. She coughed and I couldn't tell whether she was laughing or appalled by the fact that it probably felt like she was in the ambulance with the siren on. I didn't ask, but that is how I felt. I then parked myself in the lobby of the library and it was fairly quiet, except the people that walked in thinking that I was there to greet them. I just gave them the cool nod, like "Welcome to the Brooklyn Library, proceed to the desk for your next steps". SMH.
I finally manage to have a decent interview and she said she would follow up with me by the end of the week, so I took that as a good sign. I promptly leave the noisy library and head to my room in the Bronx. This was at 5pm. After 5 different wrong trains, going back and forth on the trains, people giving me the wrong instructions, I finally made it to my stop and arrive home at 8pm. Forget that I had to go to the bathroom and I hadn't had a thing to eat. So, I decide to explore the neighborhood and five blocks away, I find a Subway, 7-11, McDonalds and some other places to eat. I walked over so much trash (NY beats Philly in regards to the filth) and dodged a few cars to get my sandwich. I'm standing in line and this girl walks right in front of me. I thought she was going to get a closer look at the TV, which had the weather channel playing, but then she started looking at what she was going to order. Am I being punked or is she on drugs, were my thoughts. I looked at her and said, uh? Then her friend said, I think she was in line. The girl says, Oh, I'm so sorry. And I DID see you there too. Uh, I didn't even know what to say to that, so I just jumped in front of her and ordered my food. I was too hungry to even "have time for that".
Wednesday: Today was pretty cool. I arrived to work really early, stopped by Dunkin Donuts and picked up a sandwich and Iced Coffee. Not really a coffee drinker, but I didn't want my lack of sleep to catch up with me on my official first day. I arrived at work and literally stayed at the community table in the main office until 4:15pm. This was quite different, as nobody asked me why I was there or anything - just chilling, working on my little pink mini computer with a pink mouse. Looking quite special I'm sure. Around 3:45, a 4th grader is brought to the community table, because he was not doing the right thing in class. The teacher is giving him the countdown, the stern voice and all. He starts humming and then tries to leave. She "guides" him back to the seat, but he is persistent. I look back up a moment later and some guy has the boy in the air and literally sits him in the chair. The boy's mother is apparently downstairs, so they call her up. He was still humming (the No song - I think), putting his head down and not cooperating and I'm sitting there looking like, I just told that woman yesterday that I did not mind working with younger students. I want to call her and take that back. "Ma'am, I need to renege on my earlier statement about working with younger kids, because I'm used to speaking to students, who answer me back. I can handle them cussing me out or cussing you out, but humming and outright refusal to comply - to the point where I need to lay hands on them! It's going to be a fire alright! Hot mess.
That boy's mom came up and the teacher told her, that he was in science class climbing on things and refused to comply with any directions. The mom said in her New York accent, "oh you think you're a monkey, well you can spend the summer at the Brooklyn Zoo with the monkeys, let's see how you like that."
Then he put his head down and she sternly says, "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU". He quickly picked his head up and she scolded him some more. Then I thought, this is why it takes a village to raise a child. So, I guess I won't call the lady back and renege on my response. If I get that job, I will be sure to put full force into parental involvement. It's definitely needed and with smaller kids, it is much easier to facilitate this, but I will need to work hard to sustain it in the years to come. The mom took the biggest piece of chocolate cake (almost a quarter of it), said she was on a diet and left stating that she would be here tomorrow!
It was a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment