The fun just never ends, does it?

January 31, 2006

Ms. -----:

At 8:01pm and 8:06pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2006, I received two prank phone calls. The first came up as a restricted number, and the second came from telephone number ###-###-####. The caller’s voice sounded the same during both calls. I traced the second call to:

---- -----
--- E --th St
New York, NY 100--

The first conversation was muddled and hard to understand. I could only make out the word “bitch” as the caller hung up. The second conversation went as follows:

Me: Hello?
Caller: Yes? Ms. K---?
Me: Yes, this is she.
Caller: Um, was there any homework today?
Me: I was out sick today. Who is this?
Caller: Yeah, ok. You fucking hoe. You fucking bitch. (laughter)
(I hung up.)

I wanted to make you aware that these phone calls were placed, in hopes that you would speak to your sons about the company they keep and the way they choose to spend their free time. Please make it clear to them that I could easily press charges for harassment and involve the teacher’s union in this incident. I gave my telephone number out to my students and their families because it is important to me that I am accessible for questions or concerns about my class and homework. Their actions merely punish a dedicated teacher, and such abuse of that privilege is intolerable. The time that I have spent on those phone calls, the number tracing, and this letter are time taken away from the grading and lesson planning that I was in the middle of.

Please contact me as soon as possible to acknowledge that you have received this letter.

Thank you,

Heh?!

I've done my share of stupid things throughout my life, but I've been confident that throughout each thoughtless incident here and there that I have maintained a baseline level of sanity. Tonight, however, I realized that I really have lost my mind.

I wasn't feeling so hot at school today after an annoying fight with my boyfriend last night, so I decided to go home earlier than usual. Much earlier. I actually left when the kids did at 2:30. I had grand plans of sitting down with my teaching books and laying out my lesson plans for tomorrow and the next week immediately when I got home. Instead, I passed out cold after reading two pages.

I them woke up at 7:45. Shit. Supposed to be at work by 7:50 at the absolute latest. Class starts at 8. Frantic. Threw clothes on, crammed my stuff in my backpack, RAN out the door. I flagged down the first taxi I saw, but it didn't save me much time because the streets in my neighborhood all dead end at various housing projects. Taxi took me as far as it could, ran the rest of the way. Encountered a custodian at the front door, messing with the lock. He's standing directly in my way.

"Excuse me."
"You need to get in?"
"Yes."

As I'm sprinting up the five flights of stairs, I'm thinking, 'what a schmuck. Of course I have to get in. Why are you standing directly in front of a door and asking a question like that?'

8:03 Finally upstairs in my classroom. Things are unusually quiet. Where are the children?! They should be lined up at my door, hitting each other. Where are the other teachers? They should be fighting over our only copy machine in the office because the principal rolls in at 7:55 to unlock it. What is going on? I double, triple, and quadruple check my watch, confirming that it's after 8. I walk down to the gym to see if anyone else is around, still sweating and slightly out of breath.

Finally, I consult the calendar in my phone to confirm that it's not Saturday or something. No. Not Saturday. But it IS still Thursday, and it's 8 PM- NOT 8am.

I am such an idiot. So now that I got 5 hours of sleep this afternoon, I guess I can do those lesson plans now...

Big day...

This is it! My kids take the NY State ELA exam today and tomorrow. Their scores determine whether they go onto 8th grade. No summer school for 7th graders in NY this year. I'm not sure why they got rid of summer school AND moved the test to January in the same year. Seems like a bad experiment, but I'll leave that alone for now. I think I'm more nervous than my kids! :) I hope they do well... I have to go to school now. I'm bringing them bagels, juice and mechanical pencils. Wish us luck! :)