Last Day

It was the last day of the regular semester. (The following week was finals week.) And I caught an extra period in the classroom three doors down--the "opportunity" class. 

(It's no longer called opportunity. It's now called BEST or something. Basically, it's a self-contained class of kiddos who were behavior problems on the general middle school campus, and now they've been isolated into one class. It's a step or two before the alternative education center.)

As it turned out, it was also the last day for the student teacher, and festivities were planned. 

The class had an instructional aide and another adult (whose duties were unclear) as well as the teacher. So, I sat back and followed their lead.

First, the class did a thing where they listed what they were grateful for. But they focused on what they were grateful for about the student teacher. This was a surprise for him as well as a tribute. 

Then it was game time while the IA attempted to make s'mores in the classroom's air fryer. The s'mores actually turned out pretty well. An air fryer gives the marshmallows just the right light brown color, although the IA had to play with the timing a bit before she got it right.

The game was Avocado Smash. It was new to me. The IA said they had never finished it before, but this day they did. They actually got a winner.

And that took us to the end of the period. The next period (with a different sub) they were going to watch a movie. (I was able to set up the movie for them. I know what a nightmare it can be to get that working, so I was quite happy to make sure it would work.) 

Not what I was expecting for my extra period assignment, but it was a pleasant surprise. Usually I have kiddos bouncing off walls. (It's been a long time since I covered an opportunity class.) 

Chasing a Raccoon

I decided to take the week off, so to speak. I did work last week, and I have some stories, but I'll post those next week, when we're all back to work (sort of). Which means today I'm doing a #ThrowbackThursday for the holiday. This post originally appeared on November 5, 2009. Enjoy. 

Today was day four with the opportunity class.

First thing this morning, they came in, sat down, and did their work peacefully. A minor miracle.

As they were working, Jake had a story to tell. I thought I'd share:

Jake had a run in with the police last night. He was out late, and he was running. The police pulled up beside him, flashed a light in his face, and asked him what he was doing.

Jake explained that he was chasing a raccoon.

Jake saw the raccoon earlier. He tried to take its picture with his cell phone, but it was too dark. Then the raccoon took off. Jake decided to chase it.

("Why?" I asked. What would he want with a raccoon? "I wanted to kick it," Jake replied. I tried explaining why this was not a good idea, but Jake didn't see my point.)

The cops told Jake that this was dangerous. The raccoon could attack and scratch him up badly. Jake could get rabies. Then the cops let Jake go ("I didn't even have to get in the car," he marveled).

Jake was relieved. He is on probation. He could have gone back to juvie.

Was any of this true? I have no idea. Jake told it convincingly. It could be true.

I'm never sure what to believe, so I listen and reserve judgement.

I remember this week. In my nightmares. This class no longer exists as the teacher now teaches something else somewhere else. How she put up with these kids for as long as she did, I have no idea.

Negotiation

This week for #ThrowbackThursday is a reminder why I do not like to cover opportunity classes. These are the classes that students end up in due to behavior issues (and it doesn't help that they need to make up credits). This post originally appeared on July 21, 2010.

Yesterday's two students today grew to five. Only Santiago returned. Carlos was mysteriously absent. And the dynamics of the room completely changed.

To start off the day, I had three students who refused to do any work. They sat and talked. (At least they weren't doing anything worse.) Eventually, they got the first assignment packet done (I warned them that it would be done or they would be working outside until it was done). Then, since it was the first day for two of them, I asked them to copy the class rules and daily schedule.

They didn't have to think. They didn't have to answer questions. All they had to do was to copy already written out stuff onto a sheet of paper. It should have taken them five minutes tops. But they were having none of it.

Diego wanted to look something up on the Internet. Either Santiago or the other boy told Diego of this video or something. Diego wanted to see it. So, he set up a computer.

The computer had been disconnected for the summer. I didn't touch it. Diego spent a good 20 minutes finding the right wires, connecting things, and turning the computer on. It took a while for it to boot up. But then he needed a password to log on, and that's where I had him.

Diego asked me to log on to the computer. I told him I would as soon as he finished copying the classroom rules and daily schedule.

Oh, the whining. He begged and pleaded for me to log on. I repeated what I wanted. He sat and complained. So, instead of taking the five minutes to do as I asked, he spent a half hour trying to wear me down and get what he wanted.

Finally, he figured that he was getting nowhere with me, and he was ready to copy the classroom rules. But they were written in cursive, and he couldn't read cursive (oh, the horror!). I told him that one of his friends could read the rules to him so that he could write them down. Somehow, they managed to waste more time on that.

Then, Santiago offered to let Diego copy his copy (he printed). Diego was done in moments. Then he asked me to log on to the computer again. I reminded him that he still had one more thing to copy--the daily schedule. He wailed. I hadn't told him that!

I knew he was going to do that. I had been careful to say, "copy the class rules and daily schedule," every time I said it for just that reason. He only battled me for a couple minutes before he finally relented and copied the daily schedule.

True to my word, I logged on for him (after I checked to make sure that the copies were done). Unfortunately, he was unable to find the thing he was looking for.

All that drama for Internet access, and he couldn't even find whatever it was that the boys told him about. I think I enjoyed that failure a little too much.

I did see Diego after this in non-opportunity classes. He actually matured a bit and was less of an issue in a regular classroom.

A Question of Belief

"What do you believe?"

Um. Well. I...uh...

Why am I the only one who seems to think this is a rather vague question? Marcus didn't think so. And he pressed me on it. For an hour.

On the one hand, I appreciate his curiosity. But, he had work to do. Work he wasn't doing. Work he would have neglected anyway, but I'd have rather not been his distraction.

Most days I can wave this question off. Whether or not the students really care (and aren't doing it as a way of getting out of doing their work) isn't my concern. When I'm there, they usually have an assignment. And while I don't forbid discussions of belief (so long as no one is denigrating anyone else's, an open discussion about the topic I think is a good thing), I'd rather they remain on task.

But it was me and two boys. So, pushing the question aside was harder than I thought.

Marcus is a very inquisitive student. Maybe one day he'll figure out how to channel that in a more positive manner.

Pandora's Box

This week's question was actually posed to me by Marcus. (Opportunity is good for the blog, at least.) Well, it wasn't in this form, exactly. The treasure chest idea was his, though, so I should give credit where credit is due...

What if you were walking in the desert, and you came upon a treasure chest containing all the answers to all the secrets of the universe? What would you do with it?

A Mystery

It was day 2 of my 4-day assignment in opportunity. Before I left the previous day, I made sure to shut down the computer and turn out all the lights. (This is normal procedure for me.) So, I was shocked to arrive to a room with lights on and the computer not only on but logged in under the teacher's password.

(Every teacher and student on campus has a personal log on for the computer network. We subs even have one, albeit one that we all share.)

Had the teacher returned?

But I knew he was out of town. 135 miles away. Family emergency. The kind of family emergency where I would not expect him to drive back to town just to check his classroom.

Did I forget to shut things down?

Was the teacher back? Had things changed and no one told me? (Wouldn't be the first time I got to a room only to find the teacher present and be sent back to the office.)

No one arrived. The bell rang. I let the boys in. I started class...

An hour later the instructional aide arrived. (His usual time.) I pulled him aside and asked him about it. Had the teacher come by?

The teacher I was subbing for was also the football coach. He has assistant coaches. Who use his room and his computer. (Assistant coaches I was most grateful for. Otherwise, I would have also been covering football. Did that once...)

Of course. I should have realized.

So, I was not shocked to discover the room in the same state when I arrived the rest of the week. (Which was a good thing. Computers take a long time to boot up.)

My Punishment

I get the distinct impression that the sub caller hates me.

Sure, she calls me. Frequently. I work just about every day. But how else do I explain this wake up call?

"Could you cover four days...in opportunity?"

NOOOOOOO!

(Last week, Monday was a holiday. Otherwise, it would have been five days.)

What is opportunity? I think this conversation explains things:

Marcus: I used to be a good kid. It wasn't until I got sent to [alternative placement school] that I turned bad. I started hanging around with those guys. They're not bad guys, but it wasn't until I met them that I started tagging.
Me: Why did you get sent to [alternative placement school]?
Marcus: I brought a knife to school.

I've covered these kinds of classes many times before.

The class had four students. Each sat in a different corner of the room.

Oh well. At least they make for interesting blog posts...

The Fight

I have had four in-classroom fights in my career as a sub. The fourth happened on Friday.

It was the same opportunity class that I've talked about so many times before. I thought they were difficult when I had five students. Currently, the class contains 18 (although 6 of them were absent). And a couple of them were just itching to get into it, anything, with someone.

Jonah's thing was making wadded up paper balls. Big ones. He'd take a sheet of paper, wad it up, then add a second, then a third, until the thing was softball sized. This didn't bother me. At least he was doing something that wasn't antagonizing someone else. I warned him, though. As soon as he threw it, I was going to kick him out of class.

Jose had to argue with everything I asked him to do...

(Okay, I know that it's not a good idea to have two characters with names that start with the same letter. And yes, these names are not the students' actual names. But both boys' names did start with the same letter, did sound similar, and were hard for me to keep track of.)

Jose was the tough guy. Later I learned that the rest of the students were a bit afraid of him. They would do what Jose asked of them. Too bad he didn't use his powers for good.

It was passing period for the rest of the school. Three boys decided that they wanted to leave the class, so I got them back in the room. I shut the door, and the class exploded (figuratively).

The next happened so fast that I have a hard time keeping the timeline straight. But first, I got hit in the back of the neck by one of those flying paper balls. I went to call the office for backup as someone was going to leave, I just wasn't sure who yet. And that's when Jonah threw his softball-sized paper ball, hitting Jose.

In the midst of this, I talked to the office and told them that I needed assistance.

Jose wasn't about to take this insult, so he jumped over a table and flew at Jonah, swinging his fists. Jonah defended himself. I yelled, but I wasn't stupid enough to jump between the two of them.

Then it was over. I'm not sure if the door opened before or after the two boys separated. Behind the door stood five adults including a counselor, the principal, and security. Jonah and Jose left, and then it was a matter of settling the rest of the group.

The class was not pleased with me. They argued that Jose was just responding to Jonah's thrown paper ball. I disagreed. Jonah was gone the moment he threw his ball. Jose only made the situation worse.

But in the end, two of the worst offenders were gone for the rest of the day. This helped me, if only a little.

I understand why the teacher needed a break from this group. I don't know how she does her job every day.

Break In Fail

Opportunity class again. The group has gone crazy. But rather than tell you about all the idiotic things they did (read: throwing things and mock fights), I'm going to relate the one thing that made me laugh.

The room had this kind of a door handle/lock thingie:

There is a key that will keep the latch hidden so that the door can remain unlocked. I had the room unlocked. (My issues weren't in keeping kids out of the room.) But then it was time for snack, and before I left the empty room, I made sure it was locked.

When the latch popped out, I noticed a piece of scotch tape hanging below it. Upon further inspection, I saw that someone had put that piece of tape across the latch kind of like in movies when someone wants to make sure the latch won't engage (usually so the hero can sneak into the place after hours).

They used scotch tape.

No way that heavy duty latch could be held open with scotch tape.

They think they're clever. They don't realize how much they don't know. (I wish I could be there when they try to sneak in later. I would love to see how they react when they learn their scheme didn't work.)

On another note...

My contest ended Wednesday night. I got three entries. I don't want to decide amongst them, so I decided to award all three the prize. I'll be emailing you either today or tomorrow to work out details. (Briane: your profile doesn't link to your email, so I'll DM you on Twitter.)

Missing the Hint

Friday I was back at the continuation high school. I got to cover the opportunity class. (I've covered this class lots of times.)

It was the last period of the day. Another student came by to "visit".

This happened all day. Students popped in, said "hi", and left. Most wanted to see Ms. G, so when they saw that she was out, they turned around and left. This was fine by me.

This last student, however, didn't want to go. But his presence riled up the inmates. He couldn't stay.

Me: Where are you supposed to be?

Student: This is my 6th period class.

Me: It's 7th period. Which class should you be in for 7th period?

Student: I have permission to be here. See. (He held up his pass.)

Me: Okay, you have permission to be out of class, but you can't stay here.

Even after this, I still had to use the words, "I'm kicking you out," before he got the hint. (Although, at that point it was no longer a hint.)

Things didn't calm down that much after that, but at least I didn't have that one student irritating the other boys. (I think they were showing off for him.) Friday was a very long day.

What's Number One?

It's been a while since I covered the opportunity class. I really hadn't missed it.

Opportunity is where they send students who are very low on credits. They did next to nothing in their other classes and usually have behavior issues as well. Lots of behavior issues.

I spent an hour trying to get them to do something. Anything. (They claimed to be finished.) When I finally got them settled, it was time to go over the work that they had done. On page three of their packets was a grammar page.

They were to have underlined all the nouns. Oscar, who had been as difficult as the rest of them, read off the answers to number one. And he was correct. I attempted to get someone else to give me the answers for number two, but they were arguing amongst themselves. Oscar proceeded to read off all the underlined nouns.

I was impressed. Oscar was mostly correct. He only missed one, and the rest of his errors had to do with including the modifying adjective with the noun.

We were on number three when Jimmy had a question. What was the answer to number one?

I ignored Jimmy. If he had been paying attention when we went over number one, he would have heard the answers. Instead, he was flipping off his neighbor. Oscar moved on to number four. Then five.

We had gotten to about question eight when Jimmy decided he had had enough. He got up to go.

He was half way out the door when I asked him where he thought he was going. He was going to report me to the assistant principal. I wasn't giving him the answer to number one, so therefore I needed to be reported.

Yeah, because his lack of attention was my fault.

I eventually got him to sit back down. I gave up on going over their packets, but I did get them to do their math. I'm still not sure how I managed that.

I'm exhausted. And there were only five students in the class.

Random Opportunity

Another day in opportunity...

I've complained enough about these classes. Today was just as bad as it usually is. But there were a couple notable exchanges.

It was early in the day. One boy informed me that he was going to be deaf by the time he was 40. He told me he listened to his music too loud. I replied that if he turned down the music, it might help save his hearing. The boy explained that he needed the music loud when he got home. He used it to drown out the yelling of his parents.

A bit later, the lone girl in the room asked me to open the door. She said it was too warm. (It's been unseasonably cool lately. At the time it was about 60 degrees outside. I was cold.) I said no.

She continued: "It's too stuffy in here. I'm burning up. Have you ever ridden a horse? You should. It's fun."

I almost got whiplash the change of subject was so quick. Yikes.

And I get to see all of them again tomorrow. If you don't hear from me again, send out a search party. Who knows what they'll do with me.

Just Plain Mean

It's been a while since I was last in the opportunity class at the continuation high school.  There is a whole new group.  Only one student is left over from the last group.  So, they did not know me, and they did not realize that I do actually know the routine.  But, of course, this was not the issue of the day.

Ana was the issue of the day.

She started out the day as the best worker.  She finished her first assignment and asked for another.  This was a bit of a shock, as the others in class weren't working.  They were discussing their weekend and explaining to me that they could, in fact, use their cell phones in class (this I was not buying).

Then group two came in (there's one group that comes in first thing, then a second group that starts an hour later).  Oscar was in group two, and apparently he's a neighbor of Ana's.  They sat together and started discussing stuff.

I wasn't really listening, but Ana's vocabulary relies much too heavily on words best not used in school.  I told her to watch her language several times.  She'd look at me with a "what?" expression, as most of the time she didn't even realize that an F-bomb had passed her lips.

First, I told Ana to stop.  She informed me that I did not know her well enough to call her Ana.  She told me to call her Ms. Hernandez.  Then I didn't say Hernandez correctly.

She only got nastier after that.

She and Oscar were discussing something.  As is my habit, if I hear something that needs comment, I comment.  Ana informed me that I was not allowed to enter her conversation.  That was not my job.  Why she thought that she and Oscar were having some private conversation, I have no idea.

Then she objected to my watching her.

Later, I learned that she had only been in the class three days.  She had been placed in the class because she had hit someone in her other class, and they needed her out so that things could "calm down".  The office ladies are sure that she'll be kicked out of this class pretty soon.

The opportunity class is always such an adventure.

Medical Misunderstanding

I've got one last story from the opportunity class before I go back to my regularly scheduled summer.  (Well, at least I think this will be the last story.)  I think this happened on Wednesday, but the week is already getting a little fuzzy.

It was later in the day (Santiago's last hour). The students were busy ignoring their assignments.  Gilberto had a question for me: "What's the name of that disease where your blood turns into water?"

I had never heard of such a thing, and I said so.  Gilberto asked what blood diseases I had heard of, and I listed two.  Nope, these weren't it.  I said that I didn't think there was such a thing as what Gilberto described, but, "I'm not a medical expert.  I may never have heard of it."

Gilberto started laughing.  He was saying and doing things that I did not quite understand.  Then I figured out what it was he was referencing.  When I said medical, he heard medical marijuana, and he was reacting as such.

I attempted to explain that the word medical has nothing to do with illegal drugs (generally).  But he was having none of it.  Apparently, I had admitted to...  I'm not sure what I had admitted to.  There was a not in my sentence.

But these kids hear what they want to hear.  And when they don't understand, they make assumptions, and no amount of explanation will dissuade them from the conclusion they jumped to (often over distances as vast as the Grand Canyon).

Every time I used medical after that, I was greeted with fits of laughter.  They mimicked...well, you know.  However, soon enough the conversation drifted onto something else.

Did they get any work done?  Of course not.

Early Exit

I am done with the opportunity assignment even though the teacher has not returned.  There's this thing with teachers laid off becoming subs, and they get first pick of assignments, and...  I'm not going to go into it.  Friday turned out to be my last day.

I spent the day helping the new sub.  Again, long story.

All week I've been battling them about the time that they get off school.  (I outlined the opportunity schedule here.)  They're supposed to get out at about 1 PM.  They know this.  But they want to get out an hour earlier.

Add to this that Friday was not a combined day.  This I explained to them.  More than once.  They complained. Still, I didn't see this coming.

On Thursday, three of them threatened to leave an hour early.  When the bell rang (not their bell, and they know this), they walked out.  I thought Gilberto was gone.  I could not see him anywhere.  I rang the office, and suddenly, he was standing right outside the door.

He got me.  Okay then.  I don't mind that, so long as he didn't leave.

The same bell rang on Friday, and three of them walked out.  Santiago was done with his day, and he was allowed to leave.  However, both Carlos and Gilberto walked out, too.  We called them back, but they ignored us.

The other sub called the office to report them.  She was told to fill out referral forms.  She was also told that she shouldn't have let them leave.

This was very unfair.  It's not like we can lock the door from the inside (the office said to leave the door closed, which it had been).  If two of us couldn't keep the boys in the room, I don't know how a closed door would have helped.  (Sorry, venting.)

Then Diego 2 was called up to the office.  His parents were there to pick him up.  The rest of the class was incensed.  How come they couldn't leave?  I told them if they could get their parents to come and pick them up, then they could leave.

All this made the last hour of the day so much more peaceful.  Only Diego 1 remained to rile up the class.

I'm not going to miss them.  Okay, I might miss them a little.

Folding Paper

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, after Santiago finished his work, he would go and get paper.  He then constructed some flower from it.  It wasn't until yesterday that I had the light bulb flash.  Santiago might like another challenge.  (I looked online for what this flower looks like, but I've had no luck.)

Several years ago, I covered a 7th grade English/world history core class.  (I mentioned them here.)  They had a unit on Japan, and one of their assignments was to fold an origami crane.  Unfortunately, the instructions were less than helpful, and I was unable to decode them.  Since I returned to that class again and again, I looked to the Internet for help.

I easily found this instruction sheet.  I printed out a copy and tried it.  After that, I saw how hard the instructions the class had were to follow, so I let various students look at my printout.  They easily made the crane from those.

I held onto my printout.  I put it in the folder I keep for emergency fill in activities.  I easily laid my hands on it yesterday.  I was going to give it to Santiago.

The instructional assistant (IA) made copies so that my copy wouldn't get lost.  And then Santiago angered the IA, so she didn't give him the sheet.  (As I feel it my duty to back up the IA in such circumstances, I didn't give it to him either.)

Today was a different day, and when Santiago finished his first morning assignments (with minimum fuss), I gave him the crane instructions.  He was ready to learn a new paper folding trick.

Two other students in the class were interested as well, so I gave them each a copy.

The instructions are very detailed.  They were also a little over the heads of the students.  They needed help.

I'm not sure if they had trouble with all the words, or if they just didn't have the patience to sit and read.  I had to translate everything.  So, I showed them the next step, and then I walked away.  Santiago made a mess of his first attempt, but he made like three or four today, and the last one looked pretty good.  Diego 2 (there are actually two Diegos in the class), made five or six.  Diego 1 (the boy mentioned yesterday) couldn't get through a second attempt.

After this I insisted that certain assignments get completed.  And things went downhill from there.  The less said about the rest of the day, the better.

Negotiation

Yesterday's two students today grew to five.  Only Santiago returned.  Carlos was mysteriously absent.  And the dynamics of the room completely changed.  

To start off the day, I had three students who refused to do any work.  They sat and talked.  (At least they weren't doing anything worse.)  Eventually, they got the first assignment packet done (I warned them that it would be done or they would be working outside until it was done).  Then, since it was the first day for two of them, I asked them to copy the class rules and daily schedule.  

They didn't have to think.  They didn't have to answer questions.  All they had to do was to copy already written out stuff onto a sheet of paper.  It should have taken them five minutes tops.  But they were having none of it.  

Diego wanted to look something up on the Internet.  Either Santiago or the other boy told Diego of this video or something.  Diego wanted to see it.  So, he set up a computer.  

The computer had been disconnected for the summer.  I didn't touch it.  Diego spent a good 20 minutes finding the right wires, connecting things, and turning the computer on.  It took a while for it to boot up.  But then he needed a password to log on, and that's where I had him.  

Diego asked me to log on to the computer.  I told him I would as soon as he finished copying the classroom rules and daily schedule.  

Oh, the whining.  He begged and pleaded for me to log on.  I repeated what I wanted.  He sat and complained.  So, instead of taking the five minutes to do as I asked, he spent a half hour trying to wear me down and get what he wanted.  

Finally, he figured that he was getting nowhere with me, and he was ready to copy the classroom rules.  But they were written in cursive, and he couldn't read cursive (oh, the horror!).  I told him that one of his friends could read the rules to him so that he could write them down.  Somehow, they managed to waste more time on that.  

Then, Santiago offered to let Diego copy his copy (he printed).  Diego was done in moments.  Then he asked me to log on to the computer again.  I reminded him that he still had one more thing to copy--the daily schedule.  He wailed.  I hadn't told him that!  

I knew he was going to do that.  I had been careful to say, "copy the class rules and daily schedule," every time I said it for just that reason.  He only battled me for a couple minutes before he finally relented and copied the daily schedule.  

True to my word, I logged on for him (after I checked to make sure that the copies were done).  Unfortunately, he was unable to find the thing he was looking for.  

All that drama for Internet access, and he couldn't even find whatever it was that the boys told him about.  I think I enjoyed that failure a little too much.  

Not Going to Move

Today was the first day of school at the continuation high school.  Most of the students in the opportunity class didn't get the message.

I had two students today.

I threw work at them, and they sort of did it.  As the day wore on, they got less and less motivated.

After snack they have PE.  Santiago was at least willing to grab a basketball and go outside.  Carlos needed a bit more persuasion.  After I got them outside, they sat on the concrete steps and refused to do anything.

I considered it a victory to have gotten them outside.  Santiago had refused to do his math assignment earlier.  Carlos took forever to get through his work.  I told Carlos that if he didn't finish it by snack, he'd be outside until it was done.  That got him moving.

I stood over them, trying to get them to move.  There were basketball hoops.  Santiago said that he hated basketball.  Okay then, why don't I get the football?  Nope, he said that he hated football too.

Of course, they had both spent the morning resenting the fact that they had to be at school.  At least they did it calmly.

After they had been outside for the requisite amount of time (I let them off 5 minutes early), we went back in and I gave them the next assignment.  They did it, sort of.

Calls were made to the students who did not show today.  It's likely that I'll have a bigger group tomorrow.  (Insert scream here.)

Ringleader Redux

I kind of knew that my phone was going to ring this morning.  And when it did, I knew exactly what the sub caller was going to want me for--day two with the opportunity class.  Turned out that she needed me for a day three as well.  Sigh.  

I knew yesterday that the teacher was going to be out again.  There was an incident in class on Tuesday, and the teacher needs a couple days to recover (it's a big, ugly story for another post).  I had hoped that yesterday when the sub caller gave me a different assignment for Thursday that I would escape the opportunity class.  No such luck.  

Yesterday, the class worked so nicely until the 8th graders arrived.  Today, Enrique was back.  

Enrique had been in juvie.  He just got out, and now he's back at school.  And as before, he changed the timbre of the room.  Santiago, who had been pretty good yesterday, would not settle to do anything.  (And then I had to write him up, but that is also a story for another post.)  

First off, Enrique told me that I was supposed to remove his ankle bracelet.  As if I could do that.  As if I would want to do that if I could do that.  I'm not sure what reaction he was going for, but I don't think he got it  Then again, maybe he did, because until I sent him out on a "time out", he would not settle.  

I heard about his travels to Mississippi.  I heard that Susan was in juvie, too.  I heard various attempts at rap. And I was constantly going after him for his inappropriate language.  

And I get to deal with all of them (including Enrique if he shows up) again tomorrow.  

Familiar Face

Today I had an opportunity class.  I've blogged about them before: this time, that same week, still in that week, and a bit more recently.  The make-up of the class has changed a bit since then.  I only remembered two of the students from my last time in the class.

They started off surprisingly good, and then the 8th graders showed up.  Things went downhill from there.  After school I needed a little pick-me-up, so I went out to the local craft store.

I needed buttons for a top that I had knit (birthday present).  While I was there, I perused the yarn and some of the jewelry findings.  The continuation high school was forgotten.  I felt like myself again.

Then I heard a very familiar voice.  Two women were discussing something or other about the beads (or fabric--I wasn't listening).  I looked over at them.  One of them was one of the students from the continuation high school (she wasn't in today's class, but I've had her in so many classes that I remember her name).

I realized that I should have expected this.  I was just down the street from the school (only a couple miles up the road).  I know the girl saw me, but she was busy with the other woman, so I quietly walked away.

That was disconcerting.

It's not the first time I've encountered students out in public.  Usually they say something to me before I recognize them.  And usually it's not right after I was at their school.