Misc.

I really, really like my co-workers. I like them more than I thought you could like people you work with. Also, they make good margaritas.

One of the teachers at my school is out as gay. He brings his partner to staff get-togethers like Xmas parties and whatnot. I am ridiculously happy about this.

I am still in love with my students. But that happens every year. I do have my, um, moments, though. Last week had some of those moments.

I have two classes. I teach reading, language arts, and social studies to my homeroom. My homeroom is the bilingual class. Then my class goes to science and math and I teach the same subjects to the ESL/mixed class. My homeroom has a reputation for being angelic. The ESL class is the roughest class in 4th grade. I don't know what it is, it's just a wild group with more than its share of quirky kids.

One of the quirky ones is Nsima. The girl just can't seem to function in the classroom. She habitually loses things, but it's beyond absent-mindedness or even immaturity. I can hand her a paper and ask her to put it in the backpack right at her feet. She'll then lose that paper on the way from her hand to the backpack. She loses everything. I find her things all over my classroom, even in the sink. It's immensely frustrating. I even gave her a special bin to keep under her chair to store her things in. But it hasn't helped. She also has almost zero impulse control and doesn't get any social cues. She's pretty much a basket case and the other children just can't stand to be around her.

Last week at recess, a bunch of kids in Nsima's class came running up to me and their other teacher, freaking out and saying that Nsima had bitten Lydia on the thigh. I looked down at Lydia's pants and, sure enough, there was a ring of saliva on them, along with red residue from the hot chips all the kids eat. Nsima hadn't made it up to us yet, and before we could even look for her, another group of kids started howling that she'd slapped a boy. We hauled Nsima to the office.

It turned out that the kids had made up the biting incident, complete with fabricating evidence on Lydia's pants. She really did slap another child though, a boy who had nothing to do with the set up. Fully half the class was involved. The administrator who had to deal with the whole mess left right after giving them all detention. She just went home. I can't say I blame her.

Yesterday I had my very first puking incident. Right in the middle of a test, a kid in the ESL class just started projectile vomiting all over the fucking place. It was amazing. It was some kind of super-puke, I swear it was. I am not very squeamish about that particular thing, but one whiff of it sent me gagging uncontrollably. I really thought I was going to add to the mess.

Next week has to be better.