A(nother) place to write

My students are nuts! Well as nutty as I am anyway. I’ve got a girl talking about those women with rags wrapped around their face, a girl talking about wet nails (who is also singing “This Magic Moment”) and another one talking about how she was from “save the children” on TV. The girl from “save the children” is light coffee skinned and her parents are white. One day she asked her dad why he was white and she wasn’t. He pointed to the TV commercial and said because he ordered her from there. She also said that when she was older she wanted a little sister and saw one of the “save the children” kids on TV and asked her dad to order her. The girl who was talking about the women with their faces covered wanted to know what they were. I said Moslem. She said “oh, I thought they were the Taliban”.

Today we got an order in from Target. I was disappointed because there wasn’t any cool stuff. Sometimes we get candy and sometimes we get juice which is nice to have in my cabinet for the students in class. It could be that someone else got to the stuff first but I don’t know. I think I should be the one collecting the Target goodies now since the teacher who was doing it has retired for all but one class, but she still wants to get the stuff, so I don’t have a say in it. I have 5 large cans of instant generic infant formula and 4 cans of Similac. No one has claimed it because most of the students are on WIC and don’t need it. We also got some shampoo, some cleaners, and some hair products. The things we get from Target are returns, damaged goods, products that have expired or stuff that didn’t sell. Since Target donates this stuff (which they might throw out anyway) they are our “partner in education”.

I wasn’t supposed to come in today because I thought my conference was 3 days long. It is but I didn’t sign up for any additional classes on Weds. So I decided to stay in town and teach and then leave after school. It is a good thing because the sub I was going to use needed to sub down the hall for a teacher facilitator whose grandson was having surgery this morning. The sub should be able to take my class tomorrow, barring absences in the other part of the building. I’m never absent and I should not be charged for this day. I am supposed to get professional leave for this and I hope that the secretary gets that right.

On the progress front I’ve had 3 students take and pass midterms this morning. My enrollment / attendance looks like it is up, but it is not meeting minimum stats yet. I need at least 3 more students to accumulate 12 hours. That seems as if it would be easy, but it often isn’t because some students just come and take their tests then leave. I think we are going to have to impose a rule that states that you cannot take your midterm if you have not accumulated 6 class hours for that term.
10a