I should be in bed but I just wanted to say this: It's Veteran's Day and I got a day off in the middle of my week! How great is that? I was worried it would be an unproductive day, but I did so much!

I deleted bad photos from a wedding I just took pictures for, went bowling, finished grading a stack of tests, starred the best photos from the wedding, had dinner with my sister and then a second dinner with my good friend Felipe, then played board games with him and some of his Young Life guys.

And by the way, I went bowling with a big group of junior highers, many of whom are my own students. I was VERY reluctant to spend my day off with my students, but I did, and it was fun (mainly because I kicked their ass at bowling).

Ahhh, there is nothing more satisfying than feeling caught up.

There is this student teacher at my school right now who I have a bit of a crush on... I'll just leave it at that, because I don't want trouble, or drama. :) But she's super sweet. I hear her heels clicking through the hall and I freeze, waiting for her to pass my door.

She wears sexy glasses and is quiet but beautiful-- my favorite type.

The Halloween Costume

There is a girl in my class who I'm pretty sure views me as some type of father figure. At the very least, she looks up to me, which is nice. That is probably the only reason why I put up with her ridiculousness so much, because she is the quintessential Class Clown.

At the beginning of this week when students were talking about costumes for Halloween, this particular student announced "I'm gonna be Mr. V for Halloween!" This is a 12 year old Mexican girl. She continued, "But Mr. V, I don't have curly hair so you're gonna have to straighten yours."

What kind of backwards logic is that?!

THE KIDS THE KIDS THE KIDS

Sometimes teaching feels amazing and sometimes I feel despair. One of my classes out of five (1/5 or 20 percent or .20) is just so smart! It has 33 students, all seventh graders, all simply beautiful, precocious, able young people. That class happens to be in my first hour of the day, and the rest is downhill from there.

In one of my lower-level classes, I am constantly telling this one kid who thinks he is SO smart to just show his work. He is able to do a lot of the problems in his head, but I insist that he shows his work so I know that he knows. Right? One of his recent homework assignments actually had this written on it:

"Uhhh!! Mr. V look I showd my work happy now! ?! :] Erick"

I just wish you could hear his voice. This kid talks sooo funny! Just imagine Al Pacino in Scarface as a 12 year old boy. The kind of guy that says "Say hello to my little friend." Cuban-Miami tough guy speak. Now read that again out loud. It makes me smile every time.

The Librarian

I've officially finished one month of full-time work at Santa Barbara Junior High and boy am I tired! I think I've figured out that if I go to sleep by 10pm each night I will be feeling just perfect for the next day. But I haven't actually gone to sleep at 10pm yet!

There is a girl who is in 9th grade this year who I taught last year. She is a quiet little Mexican girl who I taught how to solve the Rubik's cube. She is a pretty good artist and her family is very poor. Every time I talk to her, she lives in a different place with another family. Her mother and her and her two younger siblings take over a room or two in a place with another family and that's how she lives. Without much.

So she stops by the junior high as she walks home from school sometimes and visits her old teachers, myself included. She was asking me how she can do community service hours and I told her she could work at the library! I told her she should just get a job there afterwards and wouldn't that be nice to get paid so she can buy her own stuff and not have her mom take her clothes and give them to her sister? We were dreaming about all this stuff and guess what?

The next time I saw her she had picked up an application to work at the main library (that she had never been to before) and was already filling it out. I need this sort of encouragement when I begin to think that my kids are worse than squirrels on coffee.

Alright alright. I'll try to be a little more diligent here since I know you are all dying to hear about my escapades in the classroom.

I've been teaching full time for three weeks now. What the heck?!

Today in class this 8th grade girl says to me, "Mr. V. There's a rumor going around that you have a six-pack. Is that true?"

Whoo hoo! Welcome to junior high. I don't know where in the world that sort of rumor started, but I kinda liked it so I didn't really confirm or deny it.

For those who are unsure, a six-pack in this situation refers to abdomen muscles, not alcohol.

I got a job! I'm the new, official, 7th and 8th grade math teacher at Santa Barbara Junior High school. The day that I interviewed the principal wasn't there, but I got this text message from him later in the day:

"Word on the street is you did exceptionally well today."

How about them apples?

Oh, and I'll be making 42K this year. A nice step up from my baby 15,000 last year haha. So if you want, I'll buy you lunch. But you gotta ask first.