Hoochie Mama

Fast times at Larchmont School... Things are flying by. I've gotten into a pretty good routine. We need to arrive at the school by 7:30 AM, when breakfast starts. For whatever reason, we leave campus at 7:10 and get settled in to the teachers lounge by 7:20 (Larchmont is very close.) Next, everyone stares blankly straight ahead for 10 minutes. Every once in a while someone (me) mutters a stupid conversation starter that holds for about 30 seconds. Then we stare blankly again for 2 minutes. Dread makes people mute I guess.

My least favorite part of the day is from 7:30 to 8:15, when the kids show up in the cafeteria for breakfast, much wider awake then any of us. Why do all elementary school cafeterias have that funny smell to them? At least the two I've experienced had it. I think it's because little kids waste so much food. "Yes I'll have some peaches." "No, I won't eat any of them, but I will throw them in the garbage." Whatever the reason, the whole place smells like a mix of compost and floor cleaner.

Talking to the kids isn't really hard, it's just the resulting strain on the larynx (isn't that in your throat somewhere?) that's the problem. I act so damn fake that it hurts my throat. My voice is too high. My compassion is obviously spurious. Of course they don't know. They're kids. It's just exhausting. It's the part of the day where I do the most talking to a group of kids at once. You may be calling me a pansy, but it's rougher than you think.

My favorite part of the day is working with a 6th grade girl named Eliza. She's hispanic, not sure where her parent(s) are from. She gets special tutoring because she's so freakin far behind (she recently transferred from anotehr school.) I began by trying to explain what the rest of the class was doing (multiplying fractions), but I quickly backtracked to counting backwards from 30. But her progress has been astounding. She didn't have any confidence. She had learned a lot of the stuff I covered over the past 3 days beforehand, but didn't want to use it or be wrong. We shot through adding, subtracting, multiplying, and we're now on long division. She just did 112/8 flawlessly today. Bet most of you fuckers can't do that without your handy cell phone calculator. I felt like a proud parent. She's opened up a lot to me and told of her 4 siblings and parents. I met her little brother and he's the cutest little dude. But her parents speak little to no English. Tough.

Other than these parts, the day is pretty standard. I don't know if I mentioned in previous posts, but I work with 1st graders and 6th graders. The first graders my job is just to be there and help the ones lagging behind. 6th graders I usually tutor math to 2 at a time. It's rewarding. The days go fast. Can't ask for much more.

What else do you want to hear about? I'm struggling to think of things that will interest...

Late for dinner...