MSA TESTING: DO NOT DISTURB

wow. yeah. been gone awhile. Prepare for an onslaught of posting.

we just finished our standardized testing this week, so the dark cloud of teaching test prep was gone and things were looking up. But then I remembered where I work. But I'll get to that in a minute. A few other things first.
-The testing schedule was, of course, completely stupid, but whatever. I had to take my homeroom class upstairs and get another class and bring them down and test them in my room. In the process of all this moving, Somebody tells a kid in the class that I am getting, "Wow, y'all are lucky. You get to test in Ms. Vinson's room." Everybody's favorite IST, Ms. Sperry, (who's in the hallway) says very loudly, "WHAT IS SO FREAKING SPECIAL ABOUT MS. VINSON?"
Wow, bitter much?
Later on, she asks me if I heard her say that. Well..seeing as how I was STANDING RIGHT THERE. She then says, "Oh, haha. I mean, do you give them food or something?" What are they, stray dogs? No, I don't give them food so they'll like me, LADY.
And while we're on the subject of the lovely Ms. Sperry...
I have this kid. Jaquan. He's kind of a whiny jerk. But, I have discovered that as long as he is not hot, he'll at least attempt his work. So my classroom has two fans. One is the "Class Fan" and one is the "Jaquan's Fan." Jaquan will stroll in, assemble his workstation of desk, chair and fan in the corner and do his work. Ms. Sperry was all in a tizzy. "Why does he get special privileges? Why are you treating him different?" Blahblahblah. LOOK! maybe it's not perfect. But here's the deal. I have to work in this building everyday and I have to NOT have
the desire to blow the place up. If kids treated me the way all these other teachers get treated, I would feel inclined to BLOW THE PLACE UP. So, if Jaquan needs a fan and a corner to get his work done and not be an asshole, THEN THE BOY IS GETTING A FAN. I don't think it is an unreasonable compromise. OH! and I believe it is MY classroom.
Right, so, moving on. I was having a conversation with another social studies teacher. This teacher told me that Ms. Sperry told HER the story of Jaquan and his fan, but said it like I'm doing something wonderful. Something along the lines of, "Well, all of Ms. Vinson's students are always on-task and working. I don't know how she does it! She even lets a kid have his own fan so he'll do his work. Maybe you should observe her classroom to see how she does it."
I swear her goal in life is to make me think I'm crazy.