Front entrance of Duke Ellington School of Arts
My mentor teacher, in all of her grandeur!
I absolutely love it here. The transit system is great and all the history is bomb. I love the museums and monuments and all the free shows. It's fantastic. Everyone is so nice too. Well, everyone except my students. They give me dirty looks and wonder who the White impostor is in their classroom and then when they find out I'm going to be their teacher they all treat me with RESPEK.
I love my school. I'm student teaching at Duke Ellington School of Arts. My life will get extremely busy in about 10 days and I'll be teaching lessons everyday. I teach ancient world history and geography. Both of which, I know nothing about... so I'll be learning along with my students. School starts at 8:30am and it takes me an hour to get there. School is out by 2pm so the students can focus on their arts until 5pm. My mentor teacher is Ms. Moore. She's fantastic.
That's her on the left.
There was an incident in the lunchroom with a girl who thought I was a fellow student. And when I approached the front of the lunch line (since teachers automatically get first dibs and jump to the front... and I had a staff meeting in 10 minutes and needed to hurry and get my food). While walking up to the front of the line, this tall black girl turns around and sees me and says, "Hey white girl, who you think you is, coming all up in my grill, thinking you can just prance on up here and cut me off like that, when I been waitin' in line for 20 minutes?" She is standing with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised looking me up and down repeatedly with her head bobbing left and right while she's talking. "Girrrrrrrl, you gots another thing comin'. You best not be throwin off all ours groove by comin' up hurr like dis." I responded in the most White and teacher-like response as I could, "I'm sorry, I beg your pardon?" Not gunna lie, I wanted to egg her on a bit. It worked. She went from pissed off, to ULTRA angry. Meanwhile her posse of girls were creepin' up behind her and surrounding me in a half circle. And she puffed her chest forward and leaned way into me and got right in my face and said, "Don't you be coming up hurr wit yo white phrases and Crap*, you don know who you dealin' wit. PSH... being all condescending and full o' yoself!"
And right before I peed my pants from sheer terror, I calmly said, "Oh, I don't believe we've met" I put my hand out, "I'm Miss Wright, I'm a new teacher here at Duke Ellington." Her entire demeanor changed. She said, "Okay yea, okay. I see. You can jump in line wit me anytime. Uh huh... thas jus fine... aint that right girls?" And her posse nodded their heads and agreed, while they slowly backed away from me. She shook my hand and said, "I'm Alivia, pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss.. Whad'yu say yo name was?"
"Miss Wright."
"Miss WHITE? Oh.. now thas ironic.. and a little un-fo-chu-nit."
I was trying not to laugh because this girl was quite the character and I thought she was funny but of course I had to remain a professional mantra, and I corrected with, "No, Miss Wright." and she laughed and said, "Well thas good, cuz you's about to get eaten up round here if yo name was Miss White."
And right before I peed my pants from sheer terror, I calmly said, "Oh, I don't believe we've met" I put my hand out, "I'm Miss Wright, I'm a new teacher here at Duke Ellington." Her entire demeanor changed. She said, "Okay yea, okay. I see. You can jump in line wit me anytime. Uh huh... thas jus fine... aint that right girls?" And her posse nodded their heads and agreed, while they slowly backed away from me. She shook my hand and said, "I'm Alivia, pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss.. Whad'yu say yo name was?"
"Miss Wright."
"Miss WHITE? Oh.. now thas ironic.. and a little un-fo-chu-nit."
I was trying not to laugh because this girl was quite the character and I thought she was funny but of course I had to remain a professional mantra, and I corrected with, "No, Miss Wright." and she laughed and said, "Well thas good, cuz you's about to get eaten up round here if yo name was Miss White."
I was waiting for my sandwich to be made and she said. "I apologize for my previous comment, jus disregard that. Also, please disregard my previous stare atchu. I di-int know you was a figure of athor-i-tee."
"It's just fine Alivia. We'll consider it a clean slate between us. We're all good."
She said, "Okay, yeah. I like that. Clean slate, I like you. That sounds good. Hmm mmm"
I was able to walk away with my dignity and luckily in one piece. Turns out, Alivia is in my 3rd period class and when she walked in and saw me she was of course SOO nice and she told the other students how cool I am and gave me some tips on how to handle the students in her class. She's building up my street cred and got the other kids to like me. So that worked out well.
*= Word was changed due to inappropriateness of original text
"It's just fine Alivia. We'll consider it a clean slate between us. We're all good."
She said, "Okay, yeah. I like that. Clean slate, I like you. That sounds good. Hmm mmm"
I was able to walk away with my dignity and luckily in one piece. Turns out, Alivia is in my 3rd period class and when she walked in and saw me she was of course SOO nice and she told the other students how cool I am and gave me some tips on how to handle the students in her class. She's building up my street cred and got the other kids to like me. So that worked out well.
*= Word was changed due to inappropriateness of original text
I like your narraration of the story!! it reminds me of to kill a mockingbird!!! you should write a book about your experiences there.
ReplyDelete-Boo
Chanel,
ReplyDeleteHahah. That's hilarious. How you get yourself into these sit'chations (my attempt at ebonics) is beyond me. My favorite part was "not gonna lie, I wanted to egg her on a bit." ...Little malcontent. :-P
<3 Gare
OH BABAY Gil, ya'll dont know whats youz getchn yo self in to. ahhhh heh nah.
ReplyDeleteCHANEL!!!!! You are so great. I only wish I could witness this firsthand so i could write a primary document about it. I love you. Miss you mucho Miss. Fly White Chic.