I got a surprise phone call sixth period today to let me know that I had to take my next period class to the auditorium to get their class photo taken. Their homeroom teacher also came down so she could be in the photo, but since I don’t have a home room class I ended up spending pretty much the entire time sitting in the corner watching kids get their pictures taken. And by “entire time,” I mean an hour and a half – we spent the entire double period waiting for the other classes to get their photos taken, collecting and sorting the picture forms from the kids whose parents wanted photos, trying to arrange the kids in such a way that they all fit in the picture and were visible, but no enemies were standing next to each other and fighting. Now one of my classes is two periods behind because of a photo that a grand total of THREE of them even ordered a copy of. At times like this I really wish I taught at a charter school.

The only good thing about the picture day fiasco was that because I wasn’t responsible for any particular group of kids, I got to just walk around the room and talk to random kids one on one. As much as some kids can be terrors when they are in the classroom trying to impress their friends, almost all of my kids are really sweet and fun to talk to on an individual basis. I spent about 20 minutes chatting with Shadasia, who can drive me crazy in class with her constant need to be the center of attention (once she loudly tried to “pause” me with an imaginary remote so she wouldn’t get behind in her notes while she sharpened her pencil), but is awesome one on one because she is pretty hilarious. She reminds me of those super-charismatic kids who have their own shows on the Disney Channel, I feel like I would totally watch “That’s So Shadasia” or “iShadasia.” But today I was shocked to learn that as outgoing and fun as she is, she apparently still has all the fun self-esteem issues of a typical twelve year old: she actually refused to get into her class photo because “I’m the only girl in my class who has a roll across my tummy when I sit down” (she is kind of chubby, but she’s definitely not fat and I think she’s pretty adorable). Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:

Shadasia: I don’t want to get up on the stage for the picture because those girls (points to popular girls from another class, also waiting for their class picture) will talk about how I look.

Me: Why do you care what they say? I know what students say about me and how I look all day, but do you think I care? Do you think I go home and worry because some random person doesn’t like my outfit or my hair?

Shadasia: Yeah, but you’re an adult. I’m still a kid, and so those kids’ opinions still matter to me. I’m not that mature yet.

I sort of feel like her ability to analyze it at that level proves that she actually is that mature, or pretty close to it. And I did eventually manage to get her to join her class photo by a dramatic speech about how I will always regret not being in my sixth grade photo because I was embarrassed about my braces… while it may not be technically true, it was rather effective.

Ugh, and now it’s 7:30 and I’m still not at home, because stupid Lehman college is making me take a neuroscience class that goes from 6 to 9 as part of my science certification. Apparently my degree in neuroscience from MIT is not sufficient for their rigorous standards… The professor spent the first fifteen minutes explaining how we’re going to have to read journal articles for homework, and then asked us to raise our hands if we’ve ever read a journal article before. It was pretty funny, because you could instantly tell which half of the room is TFA people and which half is actual Lehman graduate students by who raised their hands and looked exasperated, and who looked incredulously around the room at all the people with raised hands. Yes, I am an elitist jerk.