Some Days Start Better Than Others

Hey folks, this is my first time writing from my new gig as 5th Grade Special Education teacher in my beloved adopted borough, The Bronx. This blog originated out of the frustration and boredom I suffered at my previous job as Attendance Improvement/Dropout Prevention coordinator at a high school in the great borough of Brooklyn. Anyway, today finds me keeping my perspective and my smile even though it's only 10 am, and so far I've been met with the following obstacles:

- A broken passenger window on my Jeep. Fools aint take a damn thing b/c the radio isn't removable. They left me with nothing but shattered glass. Knew it would happen sooner or later b/c they do this to cars quite often. We park under a bridge by 87. By our building, the last building on Sedgwick Avenue. The only thing close to it is...a police precint. Go figure. I'm thinking it's an inside job, to get us to pay for a parking spot in our gentrified, overpriced apartment building. It might work. I'll let you know.
- A moody school secretary. Is there any other kind? I'm giving in my direct deposit information, and she's like, "Put it in my mailbox," which is a conditioned response to everything anyone asks her. After taking 10 seconds to not find her mailbox, I left in on her desk. Politely. Not wanting to help me will only make me ask for more help, for some reason.
- A p.a. system that gives me announcements for the other school in my building instead of mine. So I get useless interruptions instead of useful information. I go to the aformentioned school secretary for help, and I get a nice "Put it (the custodial request form) in his mailbox." But I was a step ahead. I filled out two. One for his mailbox (I've called, left it in the office, talked to a janitor, and talked to the principal), and one for her desk. After explaining my plight, not so nicely, all she could say was, "Oh, ok." They've had enough halo from Mr. Collins here. Time for the horns.
I'm sure my day will turn. I'll update you later.

Bet you didn't think about this when signing up for Facebook, high-schoolers: Colleges are looking at your pages to make judegements about you. Don't be too upset. I've judged folks by far less. Anyway, this is what I read on MSN.com: "The Wall Street Journal's September 16 edition featured an article titled "College Applicant, Beware: Your Facebook Page is Showing" that, with the help of a survey by Kaplan, finally confirmed the truth -- people, all kinds of people, are interested in an individual's cyber self. This new survey included feedback from 320 selective schools, of which 10 percent use social-networking sites to evaluate applicants, a fair amount of whom admit to being negatively influenced by what they find."

The Electrifying conclusion: You know you gotta change that AIM name. Because it's right there on your page, and the adjective that's in front of your nickname may reveal what kind of drunken, whorish things you're gonna do once you're in collge, but you gotta get in first. You might wanna do like I did when I interviewed for my job by covering my Black Supremacy tats, then exposing them to my principal right after I got hired. In other words, front for what you want, and when you get in, go in, so to speak. Those privacy settings are too easy to get around. Also, you may wanna evaluate your "Wall," (especially if you're my friend) you "Gifts," (I see too many thongs) and other applications.