“Let me get an action shot!” I said. They stopped their conversation (itself, an action shot) and posed…
Action Shot
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On the Corner
I could hear him long before I could see him. K and I were walking up Main Street last night, returning to our car after a night out, and I could hear an amplified male voice in the distance.
“Most likely a street preacher,” I thought, although sometimes the Black Hebrew Israelites make an appearance on the downtown sidewalks. As we approached, though, it was clear it was an evangelical street preacher.
“You need Jesus! If you don’t know the name of Jesus, you need to invite him into your life…”
It always astounds me how these guys say nonsense like that: we live in America, in the damn Bible Belt. There is no one in this area who has never heard of Jesus. It is utterly impossible, regardless of your religious views, not to have heard of Jesus while living in South Carolina.
“There is no one walking on Main Street,” I said to K, “who might be thinking, ‘Now this Jesus fellow — never heard of him. Who is he?'”
As we neared, we had to stop at the corner to wait for the light. Our street preacher started going on about the perils of living a self-centered life, completely oblivious to the irony.
“Here these people are, taking advantage of the lovely weather to enjoy their favorite restaurant’s outdoor seating option, and they have to listen to this jackass as he gets his saving-the-world fix,” I said to no one in particular and everyone in earshot. One guy laughed a little, most everyone else ignored my stupid comment.
I wanted to say that to the preacher himself, and came close to doing just that, but in the end, I decided not to add to the guy’s persecution complex.
Date Night
Walk-a-thon
Open House
Tonight we had open house at our school, an opportunity for parents to come and go through their child’s schedule, meet the teachers, and see what their child’s daily reality is like.
The only parents who ever come are the parents of the students who work hard, give their best all the time, and show excellent citizenship and not the parents we really need to talk to more often.
It’s easy to make generalizations about that, but as I grow older and more experienced, I try to resist that temptation. There could be any number of reasons why the other parents didn’t show up, never show up.
A Good Day
Last year, it was a much more frequent occurrence: the day winds down, and I realize that by some miraculous aligning of the stars and kids’ hormones, impulses, and desires that every single class has been productive. I walk out of the building thinking I’d done something, thinking that perhaps everyone had learned something. At the very least, everyone engaged in some reading or writing.
Today was only the second day this year that I’ve felt that way…
More Notes
Cheating, I know…
Notes
International Video
International Festival 2023
Serve
Today’s Cheerleaders
The Girl’s varsity team played a big rival tonight. The rumor is, one of the girls on the team is the next Journee, the powerhouse hitter we had last year who was number one in the state and number eleven in the nation. They already beat a team that beat us at a tournament this year, so it was going to be a tight match.
The first two sets, though, we won handily: 25-20 both sets. The third set we jumped out to a big lead only to lose it. The fourth set we jumped out to a big head only to lose it again, but we managed to regain it and win 25-23.
Among those cheering were the girls that came to Mauldin’s summer volleyball camp. They were there to cheer on their instructors/mentors, and boy did they cheer.
The Response
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Absent
If any of my colleagues ever suggested — or simply thought (then how would I know?) — that they were more productive a given day because I wasn’t there, I would feel such shame that it might be difficult to show my face again among those folks. I would reflect on my behavior, on what I’d always considered my contributions, and I would likely realize that I shouldn’t have simply been second-guessing myself; I would realize I’d had a completely false self-image.
Today, several students were absent, with most of them were suspended. The types that are likely to get suspended are the types that are likely to disrupt class, and so today, two classes that generally leave me wondering about my decision to stay in education were absolute pleasures. They were productive, polite, focused. They were unlike they’d been in a long time, if ever. (Is it really only September? Are we really only in the second half of the first quarter?! I feel so tired of it all that everything in me screams that it must be March.)
What if I tell these students that? How would that conversation go? I think we all know: they would be indifferent. At least one of the students admitted openly that he is disruptive because he knows it annoys other students, and he likes to annoy other students.
Several of them will be back tomorrow — will it be business as usual? No. I’ve seen what we can accomplish: if they are unwilling to cooperate, I will do what is necessary to protect the education of all the other students.
The Reality of Teaching
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Conestee Sunday
“Let’s go for a walk at Conestee this afternoon,” K suggested after lunch. She and the Boy had gone to church while I stayed home and did school work and the Girl headed off to work, so we hadn’t spent any time together as a family. Yet as is often the case these days, “time with the family” really only means K and I with the Boy.
The Girl, almost 17 now, has her own life: she hangs out with friends, meets them at football games, goes to dances with them, drives them here and there. She has volleyball and work along with her heavy load of AP classes (all four classes she’s taking this semester), which means when she’s home, she’s usually doing homework. Or sleeping.
Soccer
Changed His Mind
At Work
Chess Club
The biggest group ever.