overheard in the hall

i overheard paula tell our security guard that i was a great teacher.  yay!  

the look.

i love my school, mostly my kids.  they've only been a part of my life for the past 3 months, and i can't imagine no knowing them, not being around them.  they can be such a headache & handful  and so great all at the same time.  they have so much life and personality and are so refreshing to be around.  they are so real.  my kids at miller were very sweet, but it was definitely not the same.  i want to do so much for them.  be available to them.  to let them know how much i care about them and want them to succeed.  i just realized i'm afraid to be hard nosed with them.  why?  i don't know.  they see things and live things every day that are so adult.  so scary.  so dangerous.  so reckless.  and the do it every day.  they witness friends and family shot at, and sometimes they don't want to go to sleep because of the gunshots.  i can't even imagine.  i really believe dr. moore's philosophy that, "you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar."  but i need to be firmer with them.  i'm not doing them any favors by allowing them to walk all over me.

the other day i asked one of my kids to do something, and when they gave me grief, i gave him "the look."  the other kids sitting there just watched.  it was a stare down, and i won.  jordan said he hates "that look" because it makes me get whatever i want.  i told him it wasn't the look, but the fact that i was the teacher.  he said it wasn't that i was a teacher, but because he respected me.  that he cusses his other teachers out, but that he would never do that to me, because he "hella respects" me.  it was such a great moment.