St. Foo Girl and Othello

I have a student who, when I tell stories about her, I call "St. Foo Girl." Because about two weeks ago, she told me to shut the fuck up in class. Get it? S.T.F.U = St. Foo. Anyhow, she said it multiple times. I think it's the worst thing I've ever been told by a student. I usually do well with the generally unpleasant girls, because I'm generally laid back and am not a confrontationalist but a talk-to-you-after-class-or-in-the-hallway kind of teacher. She, however, took her generally unpleasant self - and she comes to class only half the time - and then was not only rude to me, but to her classmates. I asked her a couple of times to be quiet, and then I very clearly told her to be quiet, and that was her response. I'm still dumbfounded by it.

In other news, I'm starting Othello tomorrow, and am pretty damn excited. I've never taught it and barely knew the story until about a week ago, but love it. Teaching Romeo and Juliet to 9th graders is one of the highlights of my school year every year, and now I'm excited to use the same Shakespearean teaching strategies with the more advanced Juniors.

Lastly, I've been up and down about the Juniors this year, but now I'm decidedly up. There are two classes of advanced Juniors at our school, and it seems like the other class of them is always embattled with their teacher, who is my friend. My kids, though, are cool and chill* and still work pretty hard. Or, at least, they read well (much better than they write), and it's fun to delve into the literature with them. Or at least about twenty-five of them. I've got pretty good at ignoring the ten who bring me, and the class, down.

The beginning of Persepolis went awesome. The kids are hooked.

*Probably because their teacher is cool and chill.