During the middle of a class activity this afternoon, a student
approaches and says, “Teacher, there is a boy with no pants in the
library.”  My colleague walks over to
the classroom library to discover Nathaniel standing in the library
perusing the bookshelves with his pants around his ankles.  After
the ensuing inquisition, my colleague discovers that apparently he
didn’t know how to wipe himself after using the restroom so he decided
that he just wouldn’t pull up his pants for the rest of the day.   

Well, six months later, I discovered that my little girl was actually a little boy.  So Mei became May … short for Maynard.  My itty bitty lizard soon grew to be over two feet long. 

I really loved my May.  Although he never came when I called him
and never did any tricks, he was always good company.  Like a
typical lizard and like me, he just liked hanging out.  Last
spring May became sick and passed away.  It still somewhat
surprises me how much I miss him.  Giving away his cage was hard
… it was like admitting after all these months that he really is
gone.    I’ll try to post a picture of my baby next time … Toshi has all the good ones on his computer.

On a lighter note, I think that I need to take a class in foul
language.  In both of my classes this week, the professors used a
litany of four letter words.  My third grade sensibilities were
shocked.    I guess that when
you work with terminal AIDS patients, drug addicts, the homeless, and
schizophrenics, you don’t often say things like “goodness gracious me”
or “for goodness sake”, whereas, in third grade “the ‘s’ word” is
stupid.  I think I’m experiencing culture shock. 

As we were introducing ourselves, one woman said she works as part of
the PART team. Everyone nods their heads knowingly, and  I’m
thinking, “The what?”  Then the instructor asks her what the PART
team is.  Now I’m thinking, “Oh … good.  I’m not the only
one who doesn’t know, and now she’s going to explain it.”  Then
the woman replies, “The PART team is the new name for the PET
team.”  Then the instructor gives a nod of recognition, and that’s
that.  I definitely felt like a gargler (see post below).  Teaching has a billion acronyms, and I’m just getting the hang of those.  Now I get to learn a billion more. 

I had a crier at school today.  This
boy has said about 5 words to me in three days of school.  He
started crying for no readily-apparent reason and continued off and on
at the drop of a hat throughout the day.  He has been referred for
psychological testing with no result.  One thing I do know is that
he is suffering from debilitating perfectionism.  Any tiny
“failure” sends him into a crying fit, albeit a quiet one.  The
only way I could get him to participate in P.E. today was to tell him
that anyone who did not participate would receive an F.  That did
it … he shot up out of his chair.  I guess the fear of getting
an F outweighed the fear of potentially doing something incorrectly
during P.E.  Aiya! 

On a more serious note, one of my coworkers, Alicia, experienced a
horrible personal tragedy this week.  She left two weeks ago to go
on an African safari with her grandson and was due to return last
night.  Yesterday morning we received a call at school from
Alicia’s daughter telling us that her longtime live-in boyfriend had
passed away.  Apparently he died in their bed and nobody found him
for five days until the neighbors called the police to report a
suspicious odor.  Alicia’s daughter said that the mattress was
soaked with blood and even after some work by a biohazard crew, the
house still smelled horribly.  They found out that the boyfriend
had been terminally ill but had never told Alicia.  If she had
known, I know she wouldn’t have taken the trip.  I just can’t
imagine coming home to that news.  When her daughter called us,
Alicia was still on her way home from Africa and they’d had no way of
notifying her.  I just feel so awful for her.  There just are
no words …

Too tired for cutesy pictures today … maybe tomorrow.  Hope all are well….

I survived!  Actually, today went
by in a flash.  Because I taught a second/third grade combination
class last year, I got to keep my second graders this year as third
graders.  That means that half of my students aren’t new to
me.  It was great to see all of them, but familiarity breeds
naughtiness.  No honeymoon period this year.  They fell right
back into old habits.   Two names on the board already!

I
was probably most excited to see that my former second grade student,
Moses, returned again this year.  Moses is my little Jeff
Spicoli.    “Teacher, what’s that little line thing?  A minus?  Oh, I don’t do minus.” 

Moses is one of those boys who drives everyone crazy, but I just love
the kid.  He’s a handsome boy … very athletic and charming but
naughty and a few crayons short of a box.  Every once in a while
he just announces out of nowhere, ” I love school!”  You’ve gotta
love a kid like that. 

I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out some way that my
students could help Hurricane Katrina victims, and I finally came up
with a plan.  For every point students earn in the next two weeks
on Accelerated Reader (a computer program that tests students’
comprehension of books that they read ) I will donate $1.  My mom
has also offered to donate $1 for every point.  I then plan to
give the final donation to Best Buy where they are offering to match
any donation.  That means that the students can “earn” $4 for
every point in Accelerated Reader.  The students seem really
excited about being able to do something to help.  I’ll keep you
posted on their progress. 

Hey,
I just realized that ten years ago this week I was arriving at Harvard
for my master’s program.  Do you know what that means?  Only
one more year of student loan payments!  Woohoo!  Don’t get
me wrong … just the experience living in Cambridge was worth every
penny, but it sure will be nice to put that $300 a month into savings
instead of writing that big fat check.