What the Shakespeare?

I am slowly feeling myself come back. In addition to the knee injury I sustained when I slipped on ice two years ago, I was stabbed in August. I wrote about it this fall but haven't put the post out into the world because of the circumstances surrounding the incident. Maybe one day. Suffice it to say, it's been a hard year. Harder than my first two years teaching middle school at my current school - which was surprising given how much I loved teaching middle school at a previous school.

A current high school student, from my first eighth grade class in my current building, was leaving a funeral as I was walking back from dropping my class off in the gym this week. In addition to the pleasantries we exchanged, he told me his class had set me up to fail; that they had been "evil." While I denied the claim of them being evil, I said I had known they set me up to fail. They were upset that I was not my predecessor and made sure I knew it. Enough of them fell into this habitual way of interacting with me that forming relationship with the class as a whole proved impossible for me. They even made me cry during the last week of school by posting on a Jamboard (remember Jamboards?) that when they went on the Washington DC trip, they realized I hadn't taught them anything all year long in their U.S. History class. Even though I had always known the cause of their ire, it was cathartic to hear from the mouth of a student who had been there that they had set me up to fail.

This year I am teaching both of my former fourth grade classes. Of course there have been shifts in the rosters, with students leaving and new students joining the classes. But by and large, I've known these kids since they were nine. And I've started to bounce a bit again. Just a bit, as I am still in fairly constant pain from my two-year-old knee injury. (I had an MRI yesterday and am hoping for actionable results.) I also stand on a lunch table seat when I have lunch duty to get the kids' attention rather than raising my voice or blowing a whistle... even though the lunch lady whose daughter is in my class (for the second time) always tells me I shouldn't in case I fall and injure myself further.

Today I unlocked a pretty huge achievement. I wore a necklace all day long. It's the first time I even attempted to wear a necklace to school since I was stabbed. I tried a couple of weeks ago to wear one and could only tolerate it for a couple of hours. But I didn't even feel the necklace today, except when I was showing off to my co-workers that I was wearing it.

But the biggest sign that I am coming back to the teacher I used to be comes from my interactions with students. I overheard a group of girls whispering about someone's new boyfriend and stage whispered back, "Sally Sue has a boyfriend!?" The tea turned out to be about a celebrity rather than a classmate, but my stage whisper did get the trio to turn their attention back to their work.

Yesterday my Catholic school seventh graders were investigating Renaissance art and literature, looking for humanist characteristics. They were excited to see we would be examining two works by Petrarch, whose quote had been a major launching point of our Medieval Times unit. They were happy to learn Petrarch had been a priest until they also learned he wrote over 300 love sonnets to someone named Laura. There was an uproar. So, I said, "When you are having that reaction, say, 'What the Shakespeare?'" They repeated that phrase several times throughout class yesterday.

Today, we were in the middle of reading from a letter Petrarch had written to his brother, a monk, as Petrarch defended his love of secular poetry, worldly interests, and individualism even as he had an intense love for God when there was an unexpected fire drill. As we settled back into the classroom after coming back in out of the rain, a student commented, "What the Shakespeare!?" To which a classmate responded, "There is no more Sigma. Only Shakespeare." 

To those in the know - that is a massive achievement unlocked for a middle school teacher in 2025. I feel like I beat the boss battle and won the game. At least for today. Although it is unlikely I will hear "What the Shakespeare?" in the hallways next week, I will hold onto the memory of this exchange for some time to come.