I would say life is hard out here in these streets...but it's not...compared to school

So, things are going a bit backwards and forwards in school. I'm making progress but sometimes there are just setbacks. Lets review:

School

comments I've had - 

kid: are we gonna do the flash cards again? (an activity I put together to help them improve their wack spelling)

me: no not this week.

kid: good 'cause it was really boring

me: 

*trying not to cuss about the amount of words they all got wrong and how they need practice. The game was wack because their reading/spelling is wack*

kid: why you wear dat? (my favourite F21 necklace)

me: why not?

kid: but I dont like...

me: 

*shade, thrown*

#SideNote

Shade, has made it's way into my vocab recently thanks to my babes Gwynne and miss Tamar Braxton

The UrbanDic definition  is:

1. Shade

acting in a casual or disrespectful manner towards someone/dissing a friend

throwing shade, acting kinda shady

2. shade

Can be used as a noun or verb.

Noun form = illegitimate behaviour

Verb form = typically accompanied with the word "throw" or "throwing," as in to "throw someone shade" meaning to act shady, fake, or funny around or towards them.

Person 1: They went to the club and ain't even invite us!
Person 2: Shade!

OR

My man been throwing me shade because I haven't been around as much.

If you wish to see it live in action, being thrown and the announcement of it's language press play...excuse quality issues, the vid is not mines:

#Back2It

Another setback, after having been here for THREE MONTHS some of my students still call me Miss Emma! And they do it confidentlyyyyy. Sometimes consecutively without realising that's not my name!

On the teacher front I feel like I'm doing better, but things aren't exactly fantastic.

Most of the staffroom MeanGirls attend my Zumba class and we seem to have an unwritten agreement where I smile at them hopefully and mouth a franglais greeting, they acknowledge me with eye contact then proceed to dole me out a healthy slice of air pie (click for UD definition) until I see them in the halls the next day at school. 

So far though, the secretary has been one of the first to break the ice, giving me a cuddle and saying something about Zumba I failed to understand. But I laughed awkwardly and gave a big smile saying 'oui, oui!' as I was desperate for progress and friendship. We now have one on one talks in the staff room - she talks a mile a minute and I can only gather 60% of what she's saying - if she, or any of them have realised this (and they probably have) they don't give any indication and don't complain about my compensatory smiling and nodding...- but she still talks to me which is nice.

One of the P.E. teachers who is married to a Cameroonian and bonded with me over my complexion which is similar to her sons' (cafe au lait I'll have you savoir, and trust, it came about in a much sweeter, friendlier way than it sounds) also talks to me at school and Zumba -result!

The other P.E. teacher however, is basically faysty (just rude..), and I can't figure out if it's on purpose or not. She never speaks to me at Zumba, or at school, whenever I say bonjour or salut- as I say to all the teachers in school, she just looks at me. Like, point blanks me, in more ways than one. And she's always giving me the side eye/cutting her eye at me in the corridor. I know, I know what you're thinking (awkward if you're not but still). I thought it anyway...It's because I'm black isn't it. Well, I obviously not in any way prove this, but my good old racial paranoia instincts never fail me. But it might not be strictly racial, it could be because I'm a foreigner/immigrant/anglophone/really young (looking, especially). So I suspect prejudice in general.......I'll keep you posted as I investigate further.


X