The Girls of Middle School

What I wouldn't give to have high school female students again . . . to teach them. (just to be clear)

My latest teaching gig has been at a middle school, with the worst grade possible, seventh. Teaching high school was an easier adjustment. I remembered what things were like in high school and could then relate to the kids. Unfortunately, I forgot what middle school was like. These are my strategic kids. Read more about this class here.

I intercepted a note circulating the room the other day, started by none other than Clarissa. (Clarissa should change her name to Loquacious.) The note read: "Do you think I'm pretty? 4m-Clarissa." Apparently "4m" means "from." There were marks tallied under a T-chart, with columns designated for the two possible responses: "yes" and "no." There were more marks in the "yes" column, and I had a feeling it was because of her "popularity." This popularity runneth over so much that Clarissa has been featured even in homework assignments. When one of the spelling words for the week was "conceited," I received numerous spelling sentences saying "Clarissa is so..." She's also one that is so fashionable, she'll point out that she's "probably seen my whole wardrobe in two weeks." Her mouth runs off as though her mom (with a different last name) will always have her back. I'm amazed that her eyeballs have yet to roll back into her vacant skull when I tell her again that she needs to turn back around in her seat.

Then, in the same class, there is Ja'tiece. If anyone stands up to Ja'tiece, she will not back down. She's the overweight girl who knows how hot she is. She can be extremely amusing when she erases part of my warm-up on the board. But as soon as there's a phone call home, when Ja'tiece returns, I know she had a "discussion" with her mom. This lasts for the rest of that week. When she returns, her disrespect for adults makes a triumphant return. But damn her for always turning her work in on time. She's the perfect example of the student that teachers hate. She will pull off a "C" and even ace a test here and there and then mumble "fuck you" in the same day and claim nothing was said.

Desirea is an interesting one. Already at full-spread acne stage (similar to my junior and senior years of high school), I can hear her voice from the hallway as she approaches my room. She will challenge me at points and say "I don't care" as she's given a detention, and then a half hour later, apologize with a volume that everyone in the class can hear. She never hesitates to give me a compliment when I'm not chastising her for lack of focus. She will thank me for calling her mom and teaching her the significance of her education, then get into the typical "Shut up"-"No, you shut up" argument with a classmate.

I have to take on leaders too, such as Cynthia. Cynthia has no eyebrows. They were most likely dispatched because she saw an older cousin with the same look. (Maybe she should have seen a Whoopi Goldberg movie first) She draws her eyebrows on, unevenly might I add. She is currently in competition with another Latina at the school, an 8th grader, for what me and a couple of teachers have dubbed the role of "Prima Latina." Cynthia is smart though. She has people to do her fighting for her. She has people to go with her (Desirea) when ditching and then being taken to the truancy center. She even tried to organize a walkout in regards to the immigration laws being debated in Congress. She got fifty students to join her, yet they didn't know what to do when three administrators stood in front of the door. There's nothing like an "F" student leading the way in a political statement. Cynthia will end up preggers if she doesn't change her role models soon. Her note is at the bottom of my "Strategery" post.

Magda and Jessica are also deserving of a name change, but having two students named Garrulous would be too much for this world. They fall into a special category. They are the ones who will do their work and all the while chatter away. They turn around and grin cheesy smiles at each other. There they sit with their Cs, yet their conduct grades rest at an "N." Their parents are easy to get a hold of. They will argue with each other in class, from across the room, hate each other at the beginning of Period 7. Then after a five minute passing period they will return the best of friends. On top of that, even after I've either given them detention or a phone call home, they tap and knock on my window from outside and squeal "Goodbye, Mr. Montoya!"

I long for the days of female students that don't scream for attention, and if they do, their target is the boy with whom they're smitten. They are calmer, quieter, and certainly more mature, easier to manage in a class size of thirty-six. If they hate you, they won't bother speaking with you, just get in class and get out. If they do happen to have a crush on you, they understand boundaries, and rather shy away from interactions, keeping their secret safe.
The attention getters that certainly get mine, along with much of my energy these days, are not worth the meager pay.