Out of the Mouths of...Middle Schoolers (pt 2)

So, I was talking with three students whose rides were late picking them up after school. Let's call them Doug, Johnny, and Jill. Jill and Johnny are twins. Doug is a 7th grader. Doug mentioned that his mom was coming from Wal-Mart. Johnny asked me if I knew where the ghetto Wal-Mart is. I replied that since it's 15-20 minutes closer to my house than any other Wal-Mart, that's the one I use. They all laughed at me, and then Johnny told me not to go to a certain other one because "They be racists there." Jill said, "Why would he care?" I asked her what she meant. She gestured at me and said, "Who's gonna be a racist to you?" We all kind of laughed, but then Johnny said, "Naw, they would. We've blackified him."

So, I'm officially blackified, apparently. However, the process isn't complete because Johnny then informed me that they have to get me off "them country love songs" and on to the "black love songs."

Also, 8th grade was extremely attentive for a guest speaker. Like, perfect for 20 minutes. Then it took me 5 minutes to get any attention after the speaker left. Ugh. That's all right. I'm starting line boot camp tomorrow. And I'm also raining down hard on my 7th graders today. I love how they can come in and take stock of the situation and be silent within a minute. Then knew I meant business this afternoon. First of all, it took us about 10 minutes to move from PE to the cafeteria. Then another 15 to move from the cafeteria to the classroom (including two do-overs). Then, I had to take a student back to lunch after we came back (we're the last class scheduled to go), and found the tables we used A MESS. And that's after my two "table washers" had supposedly washed tables. I was just all-around unhappy with them. So tomorrow (Friday) is going to be a trial day. I'm going to be all business, and if they comply we'll cut it off next week. If they don't, it will continue for a while. (All business means no talking in class, no getting up in class, and silent lunch).