It's so utterly unfair that I tend to get colds when I am the most busy and stressed out. I understand why it is, but it's still unfair. So I am snuffling my way through the week and my kids don't know me well enough or care enough about me yet to give me a break because I don't feel good. So they are just sort of going for the jugular today and I am almost letting them because I stayed up too late last night and my sinuses hurt.

There. Done whining. I have taken on a lot this year, which I felt like I should do. The last two years of teaching I felt very okay about not running any clubs or doing extra duties. I think you need to do that at first, just to get a handle on yourself. But I know that it is time to step up my commitments. So this year I am running the after school program and am trying to start a club for girls. I have a lot of good ideas, I think, but am having a hard time actually implementing them. It is fun to say, "We are going to have a mentoring program where the older girls mentor the younger and women from the community come and have lunch with the girls." It is less fun trying to figure out where to get these women, how to persuade them to come here, convince the principal to buy lunch, think of activities for the girls to do together, etc. Money is a huge issue. Where to get it? I am going to get it together, but it is going to take a lot of work. I have always thought that I would love a job where I just think of things and others do them. Oh, wait! I can be a principal some day!

The after school program is already mostly set up, but I don't know how I am going take having to stay at school until 6pm two days a week. I generally start to twitch about three minutes after the buses leave the parking lot and cease to be able to imagine staying for one more moment. I will handle this, as well.

America's Next Top Model starts Wednesday, September 21st. 8pm. Two hour special. I can't wait.  ¶ 1:05 PM

  Well, the start of the year has been rocky. The administration didn't really have a good schedule in place from the start so they keep trying new ones. The problem with changing schedules while the kids are in school is, of course, that change turns children into confused monsters. So my kids never know where they are supposed to be, I have many kids who are not enrolled in my class sitting in my class at all hours of the day, and I keep taking them to lunch at the wrong time. This situation is driving everyone crazy, but it has to be temporary, so I guess that is okay.

My kids this year are very different from last year. They are much more mature, so far. I read a story about a mentally disabled boy in class and no one laughed! I was shocked. Last year I would never have been able to utter the word "retarded" without loud guffaws and a lot of jumping up and spinning about. Also, they do their work! I mean, they actually take out paper, have pencils, and turn in both class work and homework! It's unbelievable.

They are so good that I don't have any funny stories. A year like this could kill a blog.

I did have my first parent conference. We all came in thinking it would be a conference about a boy's "special needs", meaning his need for read aloud instruction or something. But his mother, instead, told us about how this boy's beloved older brother has just been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend. When she said the brother's name, I remembered reading about him in the paper. His girlfriend was found dismembered in a barrel. As soon as she began talking about the brother, my student began sniffling and by the end of the meeting was sobbing uncontrollably. The mother sat stoically and unflinching as she explained that talking about her oldest son had this effect on her youngest and asked that we avoid talking about it. She also let us know that her son had been dealing with much teasing from his classmates because of this.

I guess we all know that murderers have brothers. I didn't expect one to be in my class. Can you imagine being that mother? It isn't like a drug-related murder-- which would be bad enough-- but a murder like this? To know your older brother did something like that, or your son would have to be unbearable.

Maybe school can be a distraction for this kid, if we can keep the other kids off his back.  ¶ 7:45 AM