http://www.edwize.org/a-day-in-the-life-part-2 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:46:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.edwize.org/a-day-in-the-life-part-2/comment-page-1#comment-66456 Alistair Wed, 20 May 2009 23:04:31 +0000 http://www.edwize.org/?p=4417#comment-66456 Thanks, Yo Mista. I completely relate to that story. I coach tennis at an urban high school in the Bay Area. Once last fall, while I was feeding balls to one of my players, she shrieked, "Eww! A condom!" Sure enough, just inside the baseline was a used condom. On another occasion, one of my players asked me to quiet a group of students who were disrupting her match. As I approached the group, I realized they were passing a joint. They saw me coming and didn't even attempt to hide their behavior. One kid looked at me and generously asked me if I wanted a hit. I politely refused and asked them if they wouldn't mind moving away from the courts. They moved. As the graduate of a suburban high school, this kind of behavior is CRAZY. I would've been expelled for something like that. But these kids didn't even blink an eye when they say me coming. And why should they have? I didn't know their names. I wouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd. But that's teaching at an urban school. I've learned to just laugh this kind of thing off and focus my energies on what I can affect, the students I see every day. Thanks, Yo Mista. I completely relate to that story. I coach tennis at an urban high school in the Bay Area. Once last fall, while I was feeding balls to one of my players, she shrieked, “Eww! A condom!” Sure enough, just inside the baseline was a used condom. On another occasion, one of my players asked me to quiet a group of students who were disrupting her match. As I approached the group, I realized they were passing a joint. They saw me coming and didn’t even attempt to hide their behavior. One kid looked at me and generously asked me if I wanted a hit. I politely refused and asked them if they wouldn’t mind moving away from the courts. They moved. As the graduate of a suburban high school, this kind of behavior is CRAZY. I would’ve been expelled for something like that. But these kids didn’t even blink an eye when they say me coming. And why should they have? I didn’t know their names. I wouldn’t be able to pick them out of a crowd. But that’s teaching at an urban school. I’ve learned to just laugh this kind of thing off and focus my energies on what I can affect, the students I see every day.

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