Short Skirts and Rainy Winter Days

At my school, the dress code says that girls skirts have to come to atleast mid-thigh when they are sitting. One of my students, Savannah, wears a skirt that is mid-thigh when she is standing. However, she almost always wears leggings with it, so I don't say anything.

But yesterday she was not wearing leggings with it. We were in the computer lab working on their letters to a legislator. Everyone was working, so I thought this was the perfect chance to talk to her. I just said, "Savannah, could you come here for a second." Now, I have to tell you that Savannah is one of my best students. She has tons of personality, she works hard and she does well.

So when she came back to where I was, she leaned over and said, "This is about my skirt isn't it." I replied, "Yeah, how did you know?" "I just had a feeling. Would you like me to go change?" I said yes and off she went to the locker room to grab her gym shorts. Amazing!!!! It was just that easy. I gained a lot of respect for Savannah at that moment. Kids can be wonderful.

I was expecially grateful to Savannah for being so repsonsible after having a very infuriating discussion with one of my other students. We have been working on this letter to a legislator project for two weeks now. It was due Friday. On Thursday while we were in the lab typing up our final draft, one of my not so favorite students asks me, "Since I am not doing this project - since you never explained it to me - can I work on my CTE homework?" AHHHHH!!! I just about lost it! I couldn't believe she had the nerve to say that to me. No other student seemed to be having a problem, just her. Everything had been done step by step in class - it was fool proof. Or so I thought.

I told her we would discuss it later. After all the students were working, I stepped out of the lab to talk to her. She tried to blame me and then tried to blame her mom and then said that her mom would not let her do her homework for punishment. When I reminded her that all of the work had been done in class, she again, blamed it on her mom. I wanted to strangle this girl!!! At any rate, I gave her until Monday to have the entire project completed. It is worth the equivilent of 3 quizzes, we shall see how it goes.

Add to that, that the next day I had a student cheat on a quiz. One of my best students told me that she saw this kid cheat last week and told me how he did it. She wanted me to know so I could watch for it this week. Well, sure enough, he did it. I wrote him a note and told him I knew he had cheated, so he could do one of two things: 1. Come talk to me and confess and then we could work something out or 2. Not talk to me and I would give him a 0% on both quizzes. He chose not to talk to me about it. I lost a great deal of respect for that student and I am extremely disappointed in him. Student-led Conferences are coming up in 2 weeks (basically parent teacher conferences, except the students come with their parents.) You had better believe I will be chatting with his parents. I figure that in the mean time, they will notice that his grade dropped from a B+ to a D in one day. I am going to let him try to explain that to them.

Now for the rainy winter day portion of my title. A year and a half ago when I lived alone in my aunt and uncle's basement apartment, I went for a lot of walks. It was during the Fall, so the weather was gorgeous. Living by myself stunk and no one was interested in getting to know me, so I filled my evenings with long walks. Since then I have become a huge fan of walks.

In honor of my long walks, I decided to go for a walk today. I had straighted my hair today, so I was a little bummed when it started to rain on my walk. It was only a drizzle, so I did not worry about it. My walk was wonderful! Walks are so refreshing and lovely. I can just think and in the mean time enjoy the beautiful scenary. The homes around where I live are amazing! They are classic homes that all have their own character. I love the area I live in.