Day Thirty-four: To serve and protect

This morning I found out they are using the room attached to the woodshop for TAKS testing next week. My kids are going to stress when they find out that they can't be in there next week setting up the haunted house. Problem solving time!

Somehow I managed to distract my 1st period boys long enough to start the next project. At first I said we were going to take a break from the decorations, which they quickly jumped on to say they should have a free day. Funny. No, just a break from this to do something else. It really is hard to keep a straight face with them sometimes. One of my students has still been out for close to two weeks, since the day the principal pulled him out. I hope he's okay.

Second period led to one of the nicest things I've ever heard a student say. I've got a student in my 6th period that gets thrown into SMARTS a lot. In a fight or flight situation, he often takes off to keep himself from fighting. He wanders into my class often when he gets upset. When he showed up before class started, I asked who his teacher was. Another elective, so I knew there would not be a problem. I called over and asked if he could work in my class, just to cover my bases. When he got a little worried at the start of class when I was calling, I said, "Hey, it's okay, go ahead and have a seat." When we're trying to do something, I try to tell him when the reason behind it is to keep him out of trouble. Which is often. For example, if he's in my room, he's not in the hall getting in trouble for ditching. When he's there during a different period, I remind him that if he's in class he needs to work. Later, I saw him in the lunch line with another student. He turned to the other student and said, "She's like my mom. She actually cares."