(no subject)
TINA! COME GET SOME HAM!
IT'S OVER!
one year dead and gone. So it goes. I feel really good about. I feel really gross right now, though. Went out dancing last night to celebrate, had a blast, said goodbye to some friends, came home. It seems that regardless of how late I stay up these days, I can't seem to sleep in. Ever. I woke up at 8:20 this morning, after going to bed after 3:00am. Dammit. Oh well, I guess I'm a grown-up now.
On another note, my mother has influenced me. She has suggested that I try going for an extended period of time without drinking alcohol, and I am actually interested in trying it. I'm not sure for how long, but I want to make it longer than the last time I did this. AKA longer than 2 weeks. It's just that, lately, I haven't been finding anything in the bottle other than a gross feeling in the morning. I'm sure I would have had just as great a night last night if I stuck to soda.
I guess there is a time in life for this kind of behavior, and I feel like I need a break from that time. I know I'm young, and that I have a lot of time that I should party, but nonetheless, I need a break from it all. I guess I'm just tired from the WHOLE YEAR I just spent teaching some very energetic high school kids. Man, I'm so in love with them all.
So all three of my students who I took under my wing are graduating. Remember Jesus? The kid who just turned 21 on may 24th? After a long year, with many struggles, a few fights, in and out of AEC (alternative school), the frustration, dispair, anger, disrespect, everything... He will walk with the class of 2005, as the first member of his family to graduate from highschool.
Omar. This kid walked into my class room swearing, and he walked out of it swearing too. One of the funniest, yet most disrespectful people I've come across in my life. At the beginning of the year I kicked him out of my room for blatantly cheating on a test and then swearing at me for taking it from him. The kid who was tardy 4 days out of 5, and then refused to do any work whatsoever in my class for the first 9 weeks of school. The kid who put gum in another student's hair, was fond of calling other students "mongolo" and "joto", wrote it on my desks, and generally ceased my class from functioning whenever he wanted to.... He turned his life around. His language is still bad, and there are moments of disrespect towards other students (rarely), but he became one of my most reliable, hardworking, successful students. His reading and writing made amazing progress, and we have parted on very good terms. He will graduate on Tuesday as well.
Finally, Gilbert. A 20 year old father and husband, this kid eventually chocked up 85 absences in my class. I don't know how it's possible. That's 2-3 days out of each week that he missed. Almost half the days of the school year. He's a smart kid, he just has a lot of trouble accessing information because he reads at a first grade level. He's very aural, so when something is read to him, he is good at analysis, relative to the average Lopez High School student. His attendance simply came from the fact that he's a father of a four year old boy, and so he needed to work to support his family. Finally, in the last six weeks, he began coming to school every day, and making up all the work he had missed. Once he began working, and being successful at it, and he finished barely in time with an overwhelming amount of writing to do. He will walk with Jesus and Omar.
Some of my other students will graduate as well, but there are none who I am more proud of than these three. They overcame tremendous personal struggles to complete their high school careers. I'm not saying I'm the cause of their turn-arounds this year. I'd like to think, though, that the timing was right for these boys, and me and the other teachers they worked with clutched this opportunity and led these boys to success.
IT'S OVER!
one year dead and gone. So it goes. I feel really good about. I feel really gross right now, though. Went out dancing last night to celebrate, had a blast, said goodbye to some friends, came home. It seems that regardless of how late I stay up these days, I can't seem to sleep in. Ever. I woke up at 8:20 this morning, after going to bed after 3:00am. Dammit. Oh well, I guess I'm a grown-up now.
On another note, my mother has influenced me. She has suggested that I try going for an extended period of time without drinking alcohol, and I am actually interested in trying it. I'm not sure for how long, but I want to make it longer than the last time I did this. AKA longer than 2 weeks. It's just that, lately, I haven't been finding anything in the bottle other than a gross feeling in the morning. I'm sure I would have had just as great a night last night if I stuck to soda.
I guess there is a time in life for this kind of behavior, and I feel like I need a break from that time. I know I'm young, and that I have a lot of time that I should party, but nonetheless, I need a break from it all. I guess I'm just tired from the WHOLE YEAR I just spent teaching some very energetic high school kids. Man, I'm so in love with them all.
So all three of my students who I took under my wing are graduating. Remember Jesus? The kid who just turned 21 on may 24th? After a long year, with many struggles, a few fights, in and out of AEC (alternative school), the frustration, dispair, anger, disrespect, everything... He will walk with the class of 2005, as the first member of his family to graduate from highschool.
Omar. This kid walked into my class room swearing, and he walked out of it swearing too. One of the funniest, yet most disrespectful people I've come across in my life. At the beginning of the year I kicked him out of my room for blatantly cheating on a test and then swearing at me for taking it from him. The kid who was tardy 4 days out of 5, and then refused to do any work whatsoever in my class for the first 9 weeks of school. The kid who put gum in another student's hair, was fond of calling other students "mongolo" and "joto", wrote it on my desks, and generally ceased my class from functioning whenever he wanted to.... He turned his life around. His language is still bad, and there are moments of disrespect towards other students (rarely), but he became one of my most reliable, hardworking, successful students. His reading and writing made amazing progress, and we have parted on very good terms. He will graduate on Tuesday as well.
Finally, Gilbert. A 20 year old father and husband, this kid eventually chocked up 85 absences in my class. I don't know how it's possible. That's 2-3 days out of each week that he missed. Almost half the days of the school year. He's a smart kid, he just has a lot of trouble accessing information because he reads at a first grade level. He's very aural, so when something is read to him, he is good at analysis, relative to the average Lopez High School student. His attendance simply came from the fact that he's a father of a four year old boy, and so he needed to work to support his family. Finally, in the last six weeks, he began coming to school every day, and making up all the work he had missed. Once he began working, and being successful at it, and he finished barely in time with an overwhelming amount of writing to do. He will walk with Jesus and Omar.
Some of my other students will graduate as well, but there are none who I am more proud of than these three. They overcame tremendous personal struggles to complete their high school careers. I'm not saying I'm the cause of their turn-arounds this year. I'd like to think, though, that the timing was right for these boys, and me and the other teachers they worked with clutched this opportunity and led these boys to success.