46/365 History: Chatty Joey

It took me longer than it should have to realize that Terri and Joey were tight. You know, when you assume you're in on the joke and then realize you don't know what's going on? It took me until November to see it. By then the mums were planted in the garden and I was busy doing other things. I liked my classes and my job in general was invigorating. In retrospect, it was my favorite year of teaching ever.

Terri had a favorite student, and 8th grade girl in trouble, and that situation as well was closed to me. But she would leave campus to handle things about this girl, and Joey would take her class for the afternoon. That's fine, I mean, substitute teachers exist, but Joey would spend the whole time chatting with the girls and inviting other older girls back to that classroom. From my math class. At one point in early December I finally announced to my seventh and eighth graders that while Joey was a very nice fun gal, they were not going to be leaving my classroom to play. My seventh graders seemed to understand. I had the most allies in there. "I think she's kinda weird," Caitlin admitted.

My eighth graders, well, there were only 5 girls in there besides Terri's favorite. Three of them nodded at me like they knew what I meant. The other two sat quietly.

The next time Joey subbed for Terri, Terri pulled me aside before she left for court. "Kate and Polly asked if they could help Joey organize the new computer room. I figured it would be ok. I talked to Sr. Fern--here's their hall passes."

She didn't smile smugly or act like this was a victory. She just handled me. The note from Sr. Fern said that as long as the girls didn't have a test, they had her permission to help out.

It's not like I could punish Polly and Kate, either. They were both super-sharp in math, and the last three years before I arrived had been second/verse/same/as/the/first with bad math teachers teaching basic skills all year long. I had pushed them, and the seventh grade, into pre-algebra, and these two, along with another girl and two of the boys, hadn't even blinked. A's across the board. My test schedule was published at the beginning of the year: every other Friday was test day, regardless of where we were in a chapter. I couldn't fake a sudden test.

Joey didn't knock on my door and have a conference or anything--the girls were there from lunch time until dismissal. They didn't bother to shut the door. My students could see straight in.

I complained to Sr. Fern the next day. She sighed and shook her head. "They're in 8th grade," she started, I'm not sure why. Then she started again. "Joey told me they'd be setting up the computers. Was that not what they were doing?"

"They were sitting in there chatting. Joey was setting things up and the other two were entertaining her."

"Ok, then that won't happen again," she shook her head, taking a note of it. And it didn't happen again, as long as she was in town. And until Joey became a full-time volunteer computer teacher.