We're baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Well, after somewhat of a hiatus, I figured I should rejoin the blogging world. Plus, it's summertime...which means a new crop of potential students, and a bunch of new stories :)

We started the summer session off in smashing style... the kids turn in their cell phones and electronics at the beginning of each day so that they will not be tempted to use them in the course of the day (if they do, the item is confiscated until the end of the summer). Five years of summer school and keeping the cell phones in a shoe box or plastic bag has not been a problem. Until last week, when, on Day 2, two nice cell phones (one a brand new enV3) and an iPod Touch disappeared from the box.

Lectures and debates ensued, culminating in, on Day 4, the enV being found. In the boys' restroom. In a toilet. Not in the shoebox placed in the restroom for the purpose of anonymous return. This resulted in all of the boys being called into one classroom, yelled at, then left, Lord of the Flies style, to themselves to figure out who did it or to peer pressure someone into confessing. (Since, if no one confessed, they were all getting kicked out.)

As they were called into another room one by one to have their last chance at confession, we got word from the counselor (the one doing the interviewing), that someone had claimed responsibility. At some point before this, Mr. DeBor had put on his "think like a 13 year old boy" hat and started checking garbage cans...somewhere around garbage can 9 or 10 he found the iPod. Now, the confessor claimed the third item was "in the bushes." So some of us went outside to look. Upon walking around the school building (not ours, one that we use for the summer), we noticed that is was surrounded by bushes. We looked, somewhat half-heartedly, especially since "looking through bushes for a stolen cell phone" isn't exactly part of the job description we'd signed up for...

The kid was eventually able to lead the counselor to the phone, which ended up not even being on school property, but in a neighbor's yard. Monday morning is when we find out of the Head of School will have mercy on him and allow him to return...or let him go.



On a more amusing note, I had a girl this past week refer to her "chiropractor"...while holding up a protrator. :)

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The boys are having a hard time getting used to wearing ties and shirts that are tucked in. One 8th grader came in to class looking a complete mess with shirt untucked and tie in hand. I told him to pull himself together and then join the class. When I got to him to check his homework, it wasn't done, meaning he had to go home (strict summer rules...). As he got up to leave, I realized his shirt tail was still untucked and that his pants were low around his hips, so I told him to tuck his shirt in.
"It is tucked in!" He explained, "My pants are just low..."

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At the beginning of the school year, kids always wonder what their teachers will be like. Nice or mean? Lenient or strict? Funny or boring? Sometimes they verbalize these questions in a normal way, i.e., "Are you strict?" And sometimes they just make observations, i.e., "You look like you could just go running around the school screaming at any second!"

Perhaps I look like I'm going insane? Or is that just what teaching does to you?
:)