a reminder

"miss book, you're skinny"

ummmm...thank you?

and thus, another day with the 8th graders begins...


Nothing too awfully exciting happened today. As usual, conversation in the teacher's lounge scarred me for life...kids made me laugh...I got hugs from at least three students...I asked what the units for acceleration were and someone told me seconds...


I'm down to ten students in my physics class. One of them was asked to leave the school. It sort of sucks, but there was no other choice. He was a hard kid...one of the ones who has faced more challenges in his life than I can even fathom...one of the kids who's street smart...and may end up there. He'd been given chance after chance to apply himself and do the work he was being asked to do, and warning after warning...until the ultimatum came: pass everything by the end of the term, or you're gone. And he failed three. It makes me angry...that he wouldn't just do the work...but I guess there's only so much hand holding we can do until it becomes enabling...and ineffective. It sort of makes me sick to think about it.


And I tend to forget that I live in the city...and what that means. Like picking up the neighborhood newspaper and reading the crime blotter...and realizing that two of the prostitution charges were at the corner where the school is. Welcome to the real world.




i wish i knew why the formatting is crappy. it makes me mad.