Well since my students have to do community service, sometimes I am a chaperone at events that are outside my general repertoire. Take building houses for example, although I love the color pink, I am not a girly girl in the sense that I can lift at least 50 lbs and can hammer, measure, saw, etc, but these are not things that I choose to do on a regular basis. But for a good cause and for the betterment of my students (not to sound high and mighty or anything) I woke up early on two Saturday mornings, 11/22 and 12/6, and fought the cold and the rain to the south side of San Antonio to build houses.
I got to measure siding, hammer the siding to the house, and then paint. At first the students kind of stood around doing nothing and I quickly realized that as a chaperone I would not be able to just stand around and take pictures, say "good job!", or direct the operations, but that I would have to lead by example and get my hands dirty. Ugh! was my first thought, but after a while I realized that it was kinda fun putting all of that stuff together for a family that would otherwise be forced to live with family members or forever rent.
I even had something to bitch about. The site leader was a cranky guy who was obviously pissed that the majority of his crew that day were high schoolers. Everything that we tried to do was critiqued, so much so that his critiques began to contradict themselves. "You don't have to cut directly on the line that you traced as a measurement, they can be a little to the left or right" and in the next breathe say "You have to make sure that you measure so that the siding doesn't hang off the end so much' to which I thought, so it matters after all that we saw on the line that we measured. But alas, I am not in construction so my performance was not going to be 100% accurate the first time out.
Later, the site leader saw that I was standing next to some siding staring expectantly at a couple of students as they chatted amongst themselves. He asked what I was doing and I said waiting for them to notice me staring at them. He took it upon himself to motivate the girls and shouted "Hey, get her number and call her later we have work to do". Well naturally, in mother hen fashion, I was a bit annoyed that this man thought that poor little female me didn't have the authoritative bravado to get my students to do what I wanted them to do and felt he would exert his construction worker 'leadership' and embarrass my young students. I told the girls to ignore the man because he had very little power in the world and takes it out on those who he sees as having less power than him--a nice little circle of oppression--and vowed to myself, privately of course, that I would get him back. (I am not sure if doing so makes me continue the oppressive circle or champions the little guy and really have no desire to philosophically debate that idea since it made me feel great to blast the guy).
Later the same man was chatting up a couple of my tiny senior girl students and I needed him to use the power saw for me. I called his name politely. When he ignored me and continued to harass the jail bate I yelled across the build site, "Hey Pete! Get their number, call them later, we have work to do!" He pointed to the girls and mouthed 'your teacher wants you', but I corrected his error by saying, "No, I was calling you." Needless to say he stayed clear of correcting my efforts and away from fraternizing with my students too closely the rest of the day.
The second build day was better, but it was mostly my sophomore girls and they were pretty worthless. I was proud of one student in particular that was gracious and kind to the Asberger's syndrome boy that followed her around all day chatting idly about nothing because he mistook her polite listening for genuine interest. Not all children are bad, there are a few that will support us when we are old. I also got to know a particularly introverted student of mine while we waited 45 minutes for his parents to pick him up. (By the way, if you have children attending a school-chaperoned event, be on fucking time because somebody is missing time away from their family, friends, and fun to wait on you-not that I am bitter or anything) So dad is in the Mexican Mafia and mom just had a tumor removed and now she can tell the future. Mom was really nice though and I told her to call me if she saw anything major in the cards for me. Getting to know my students and their families is the BEST part of my job. Wishing you the best year ever...Mel
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