Well, as usual, substitute teaching never fails to provide insight, sadness, hilarity, direction, bewilderment, rage, joy, hope, education…and questions.
Last week was my first sub job for the fall 2008 semester. And the sweet cherubs did not dissappoint.
Here is the first installment of fun…
THE BACKGROUND
A very popular trend in the ‘education’ world is for students to write in a font that looks like they are a tagging gangbanger (cuz nothing says ‘I’m cool AND I’m smart’ than engaging in hoodlum activities). On Thursday, I confiscated this note (click here: confiscated-note-vhs-aug-28-20080001) from a freshman girl* in the Read 180 class. She chose to write her note according to the gangbanging trend. Please, please note how hilarious the reader’s reply is.
THE NOTE
And, the letter for letter translation for those of us who are not tagging gangbangers, goes like this
A-To _____
I an for contin at you fool So yeah my bad I jus hav3 a bad t3mp3r so srry bout da shyt that w3nt down
physco aka _____
B-Haha KK i suk at reading, do you mean there’s no beef between us?
A-Yeah that is actually wat I am saving so we cool now
*On Friday, through a class discussion, I learned that the author’s father died 4 years ago from a drug overdose. She sits next to the kid who’s mom died 3 years ago from breast cancer. The goal is to figure out how to balance laying down the law, still showing them compassion…AND teaching them something that the state requires.
The sad thing is when the lingo rubs off on you. Toyah lived with us for three years, and Ed is still prone to say “Who?” instead of “What?”. He said this in the company of white 30 somethings the other day and they gave him a funny look. He quickly said, “Oh, sorry, I meant what?” My husband is so old and so white, it’s funny!