Journals

Monday, April 19, 2010

More Journals

Oh, please read them all. They are fantastic.

The best April fools day thing I can think of is im going to call my mom after school and tell her i got arested. I think She might have a heart attack. Thats my fools and all I got.

If my parents came to school with me I would be so embarrased. Because they might say to run faster in P.E. and in history say Oooo Ooo pick Carl. And for lunch they will say get fruit and something to drink and that would be really embarrasing. At science It would be like torture because they would always ask questions. At math I would hate because my parents would make me pay attention to the math teaacher. I would be having bad dreams for the rest of my life. But if I had to go to school with my parents when they were little kids that would be a hole diffrent story.

If my parents came to school everyday it wouldn't be good. I would probably be more good, and be a better student. I would be a better student because my parents would be watching my every move that I make in school. It would also be a good thing because I wouldn't have to pay my own lunch.

I f I could go on any field trip I would go on the music field trip because they go to Disneyland and Boomers and they go swimming and they meet Micky Mouse and Goofy. They play music at fancy hotels, they have concerts. But there is one bump in the road $400 dollars!!!! No! No! No!

My mom and dad embarassed me a lot of times. My mom came with me to my friends house and she was laughing the whole way for no reason. And when we got there she stop and when we were about to go she started laugh again.

I would like to get "Mexico" tattooed on my abs. And I will get te amo it means I love you. I think my mom will say what the Hell did you do and she will ground me for a long time. Then when I'm not on punishment I will try to get another.

One year ago: More Journals

Three years ago: Forgetting to Substitute

Five years ago: No News is Good News

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A Loss

(I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why) Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me. He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me. We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.

A New Prison, Part Two

Second very long part of the prison visit report. After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk. First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea

Bronwyn Harris, Author

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