Summer School 13

It's the first full week of summer school at the alternative education center, so I should have loads of good student stories, right? Nope. 

I mean, that's actually good news. This is the school where the misbehaving kiddos get sent, so a boring (blog-wise) week means I got to do my job with minimal disruptions. But this is the blog. 

Time for a Thursday 13, then...

1. At the moment, the school has nine students. This is the school they get sent to when they're expelled from their home school, so low enrollment is good. Besides, since the schools weren't on campus for most of the last school year, no one got expelled.

2. Of those nine, I have five students. One has been absent entirely thus far, and a second only showed up for the first two days, so I effectively have three students. (The first absent student is out for reasons the school is aware of. The second the school has been attempting to contact to find out where he is.) 

3. The schedule is four periods. First and second periods are two hours long. I have one student first, two students second, my prep is third, and I have one student fourth. He is also in my second period class. (One of the absent students is in first and one is in second, so that would up those totals if they ever show.)

4. Anson is in my first period class. He's a bright kid. 

5. I have Brandon and Vincent in my second period class. Vincent has missed a couple days. Brandon hasn't. So, there've been a couple days where I just had Brandon. 

6. I have Brandon only in my fourth period class. Brandon is pretty sick of the sight of me, I imagine. 

7. I had intended to keep the classes on the same schedule, but on Monday another teacher pulled both Brandon and Vincent from class for counseling, so that class is now a day behind. (Brandon does something else in fourth period.) 

8. As I mentioned last week, I chose The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as their work. I found audio online, so we listen to the book, and then they get an assignment that goes along with what we read. 

9. I had attempted to keep the assignments light and fun, but Vincent and Brandon have stopped paying attention. So, now they get comprehension questions. At least for now.

10. Because of the nature of the school, when they arrive in the morning, they have to give up their phones and they get wanded down (metal detector). They are clearly used to this as no one makes a fuss. They wait until the last minute to come onto campus. They busily try to get all their messages attended to before giving up their phones.

11. At the end of the day when they get their phones back, they're all engrossed in them. We adults laugh at this. (Of course, we adults don't have to give up our phones during the day, but I know I'm barely on mine while I'm working.) 

12. The aide who wands them down and collects phones is also in charge of passing out the school breakfasts and lunches. The students complain about the food. Rightly so. The lunches are terrible and insufficient. But the food is provided from the district, so we at the school have no control over it. (The principal has been officially complaining.) 

13. Although, Vincent hasn't complained as loudly. See, he has a crush on that aide. (She's young and cute, so it's not surprising, really.) It was completely obvious to everyone but the aide. The principal gave her a heads-up, though.