Rambling...

Bullets... In my completely chaotic brain, so read with caution!!

I haven't rambled about work in awhile so I'll spit it out all in one post, so I can catch up with this crazy year... work with me.

• Since the start of '08 I have received four new kids, kept three. This year has definitely taken a turn from my last 8 years, (the juvenile offenders, gang members and street kids) and has gone back to what my classroom was in the first three years (truly emotionally disturbed, right out of the psych ward (literally, I'm not being facetious) kids. So it's been hard to switch my brain back to dealing with this population, but I have managed to survive.
• The first one (O) lasted for 48 hours. So I won't even bother to go into that.
• The second one (A) was sent to me after a 6 week stint inpatient. He has a personal aide. (which is very nice, as we get along great. It's hard to find help that you "click" with and she is a good fit in my room) so far, things have gone really well. He had an easy transition, and the other kids hardly notice him. He is really intelligent, and is still in the stage of going above and beyond to impress me. ie... if I assign a writing assignment of say a paragraph, he'll complete it, and then later hand me a revised version that is 5 pages long.
  
• The third one (J) is really angry. He is currently still being tested, but I don't know yet what will come of him. He won't talk to anyone, he is always "closed fisted" and quiet. He is extremely intelligent, but will not even pick up a pen. I can't imagine what he thinks about for 7 hours as he sits in a chair and refuses to look up.
• The fourth (R) started yesterday. Back to the street kid persona. This one has no emotional instability, but is just your typical juvenile offender. By 10am yesterday, he had refused to acknowledge a word I was saying, walked out of class twice without permission or an escort (which they need at all times) and told me to shut the F up, and get out of his face. I obliged, by sending him to the office, not to be seen for the rest of the day. This morning started off with some of the same, so I decided I would take the approach of becoming his very best friend. (this is me being the smart ass that everyone loves to hate) I decided that instead of going to art or gym, he would spend ALL of his time with me today. So when the rest of the class left for those periods... I turned on some music (C*lby call*it, bubbly song) and sat at my desk and sang every word while grading some papers. I also, asked him every stupid question I could think of, (of course I got no response) and I continued to be my very happy-go-lucky self to the extreme. Well, I think I "broke" him. By 6th period, when I reminded him that we could have all the same fun again tomorrow, if he continued to be disrespectful and do nothing, HE ACTUALLY OPENED A BOOK AND STARTED WORKING. I didn't think it would work that easy, but then again, I AM pretty annoying when I want to be!!!
• My Superintendent.. whom I LOVE, resigned on Friday. He's had it with a board that overturns all of his decisions, and feels defeated and sad that he could not protect his teachers when they felt they needed it... Also, he was sought out by a smaller district (we have 24 schools, over 2,500 employees) they have 4 and about 450 employees, and offered him a competitive salary. I will miss him greatly. I did see him yesterday, and made sure to tell him how much I would LOVE to go with him!!! The district is sooooo much closer to where I live than where I work now. It's definitely an option to consider.
• There are exactly 47 days left in this school year... I am counting down everyone of em!
• We didn't use 2 of our snow days this year so we are going to have a 5 day Memorial day weekend.. I am super excited about that.
• We start state testing on the 28th through May 8th. I AM SO DREADING those two weeks. I'll at least have the mini-vaca to look forward to.

I think that's about enough for today.... big day tomorrow... check out my ticker above!

Thank you for all of the kind words and prayers for my Nana... she is my heart, I'm praying for a miracle...

~Night all