An Interesting Day

So this post will not be offering any suggestions for you, but I felt the need to reflect on the interesting day I had today.

My morning went by very quickly since I teach 4 different classes periods 1-4. My lunch was spent fulfilling my coaching duties (cheerleading) and then the real interesting part began.

Sadly, one of my students lost someone in his family two nights ago. This was his older sister's fiance. My student's father left him when he was like 5 and this man has served as a father figure for him ever since. Needless to say, my student was very upset. He came looking for me at the end of lunch and stayed with me all through my 5th period planning, just crying and talking with me about what he was going through. My heart broke for this boy, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel happy and blessed that my students feel comfortable enough with me and consider me to be a person in their life that they feel they can go to when things get tough. He cried, he laughed, he had moments where he just sat in quite, but I really felt like I was able to help him. I walked with him to his 6th period class and explained what was going on to his next teacher and told him that I had my second planning period during 6th and if the teacher needed to send him somewhere to talk, he could come to my room.

On my way back upstairs I went through a completely different type if interesting situation, I was on the receiving end of a mooning. It was not directed at me, but it was class change time, so I got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I got to escort a young man down to the office for exposing his rear in the middle of a crowded hall.

I spent the majority of 6th period finally eating my lunch and working on IEPs until...

I see one of the seniors in our department being taken in handcuffs by the cops from my window. I am informed by security that this young man (just turned 18 recently) was found with large quantities of pot on his person and in his car. I am so mad at this kid. He was 56 days away from graduation and now he is going to be charged as an adult with intent to distribute in a school zone. There is no end to the lengths his case manager went to to help this boy make it through to his senior year and he goes and throws it all away.Of course his case manager is upset because she feels like she didn't do enough. Also, we had reported to his mother that we suspected he was involved in this kind of stuff based on behavior and friend changes and she told us it wasn't possible and that we should just stick to our jobs.

Finally, the day ended with cheer practice where I got to witness two of my juniors re-enact the Joanne and Maureen number, ("Take me or leave me") from Rent.

I know I intended this blog to be for helpful ideas, but I have yet to have a day with such a wide range of emotional and interesting situations all in one afternoon. I hope maybe you all can glean something from this, so it still feels useful.

Smartboard from a wii?

So my school currently has Promethean boards in a few rooms, but this is amazing. For any of you in a school that does not have any type of smart board, check this out.