Good Night

This week is "Dead Week" since it is the last week of teaching and instruction before finals begin next week. I am so ready for Winter Break!!!

Dead Week means all week I have been announcing to my students that my grade book will close on Friday after school. PERIOD. No more late assignments or make up work after Friday. I am done. I still have students making up material from OCTOBER! YEESH! I can't find extra copies of tests, can't remember where I put my answer key - I am OVER IT! This also means that all my athletes are pestering the heck out of me to update their grades so they can be eligible to play from now until the 2nd week in January.

At the end of the school day today, I had about 8 kids surrounding me at my desk. I had 8 different people in different classes all hollering at me, "Miz, did you grade my test? Miz, did you put it in the computer? Miz, did you find that test? Miz, why did you lose the answer key? Miz, how come you don't have anymore copies?" AUGH! I grabbed my spray bottle I keep on my desk that is full of water (used to playfully spray the kids who fall asleep in class) and started spraying in a 180 degree circle. The kids started shrieking and laughing. I told them I was exhausted and it was not my fault they do not have their grades updated. I am grading assignments that are WAY overdue. They calmed down (for the most part) and I was able to take care of everything they needed.

At 4:00pm, I called it quits in my room and headed over to the basketball gym. I have 2 basketball players in my classes. One is on the freshmen team and the other is a sophomore on varsity. All boys basketball teams played tonight.

My freshmen student breaks my heart. He has an insane amount of absences in my class because he can't get to school on time. According to him, his mother leaves for work about 6am, then calls him and his brother on their cell phones to wake them up. Apparently they do not hear their cell phones ring because they have been sleeping through these "phone calls." Sometimes the mom even forgets to call so then they really don't wake up. I asked him why he didn't just set the alarm on his cell phone and he said that he does, but because they do not regularly pay the cell phone bills, the phones get turned off by the carrier if they fall too far behind on the bill.

I was at IKEA a couple of weeks ago and saw some travel alarm clocks for $1.00. I bought one with the intention of replacing my current travel alarm clock that has the most in-accurate alarm ever. After my freshmen basketball player told me his story.....I gave him the new IKEA alarm clock. He smiled and said he promised he would get up in the morning and as long as he could get his older brother up early enough, he would be to school on time. I saw him play tonight. I met his grandmother and we watched him fly across that court. He is such a talented player. I really hope he can hang in there and keep with school long enough to really benefit from his talents.

My sophomore on varsity will hopefully be one of my biggest success stories. He started school about 2 weeks in. He is in my 3rd period Biology class and I have my prep 2nd period. With about 10 minutes left in my 2nd period prep, he walked in and removed his hat explaining he was a new student. He is full of "yes ma'am's, and thank-you's" which is refreshing coming from the school I am at. He started out first quarter with an A. Now, he has been making friends and is sitting next to a trouble-maker in class. He is down to a C now. I tried talking to him, but in front of his friends, he is Mr. Cool. So, I emailed his basketball coach. I said very simply; "He is EXTREMELY intelligent and I do not feel he is giving his best effort in class. Perhaps with the relationship you have with him, he may be more responsive to some academic advice."

He came in the next day (Tuesday) with a frown on his face the length of the Mississippi. I asked him what was going on and he said that his coach not only wouldn't let him practice with the team on Monday night (he made him run sprints all practice), but he would also be benched for the first half of the basketball game that night. In my head, I was thinking "FINALLY! A coach who takes academics seriously!" In my heart I was thinking, "Aww man! Why him?! Why not the 6 other kids who are real trouble-makers?!"

So, I showed up tonight to cheer on my two basketball athletes. The freshmen team lost and when I left after the 1st half of the varsity game, we were down too. It was nice to see my students outside of the classroom. Two of my girlfriends went to the game with me. I met them for dinner in between the freshmen game and the varsity game and they also seemed to enjoy the show.

I am tired though! I left my house this morning at 6:17am and just got home about 8:12pm. Long day. Very long day with a great ending!