Green

Being back at junior high as a teacher sadly hasn't changed my desire to appear cool. Just as I had hoped as a homely little asian girl, I secretly wish to be part of the in crowd. Except now the cool kids aren't the ones wearing brown lipliner and oversized windbreakers, but the popular teachers. You know, the ones with the relaxed swagger, casually acknowledging the legions of students who desperately wave hi to them, and whose slingback messenger bag bounces lightly on their hips.

There is one particularly cool teacher I envy. He teaches history of course.

As one student put it, "Oh, you know Mr. D, he's like HI-larious".

I wish I was Mr. D.
...
Upon one student complaining that the soft classical musical in the background inhibits his reading, Mr. D quipped, "Oh really? What was your excuse for not reading the last 14 chapters?"


When 2 male students came in late into his class and merely gave a head nod to serve as an apology, he sent them out to get late passes. When they had returned, they found their desks pulled to the front of the class, placed next to each other so that when they sat their backs were touching. He explained that they had to copy a ten stanza discipline poem BUT the one who copied the slowest would have to rewrite the entire poem again. If the two tied, they would both have to rewrite it-thereby ensuring that they would be against, and not helping, one another. He had the whole class, including the 2 boys, in stitches as he made the boys write furiously, encouraged the class to put in their bets, and gave sporadic play-by-play commentary.

Then while studying the Incas, he digressed to spend the whole period talking about the history of his favorite lake, Lake Titicaca.

How am I supposed to compete?