School is in session…

So, today was my first day back at school. It was…uh……. long. I haven’t really gotten back on a good schedule yet so I was more then a wee bit unhappy to hear the alarm go off. I had to snap out of my sleepiness, however, as my kiddos were in fine form- yes that was sarcasm. I gave out the classic assignment of writing “What I did for my winter vacation” and then immediately wondered why I had asked. When I excluded illegal activities, the assignment became much more challenging, lol. Aside from their legal indiscretions most of my kids really did have less then ideal holiday situations- which I suppose explains the illegal activities.

Fortunately by the end of the day everyone was getting back into the swing of things. It was a positively beautiful day- 69 in Watsonville, 66 at home, blue skies, light breeze. When I got home we took a lovely walk on the beach to watch the sunset, and all was well.

I am, however, facing a more serious dilemma (more serious then all of my students spending their holiday drunk and high, I mean) with a new student who started today. She just got out of juvenile hall, her mom is mute and deaf and mentally unstable and chases her around with knives, her dad is in prison- I don’t know exactly why but in general her background is “as bad as it gets” according to the teacher I work with. As one would expect, her behavior is somewhat confrontational and argumentative. Louise wants to expel her already because of her behavior, but I feel like we should give her some time to settle in. She’s not horrible, and if we kick her out I really don’t know where else she will go, except back to the hall. But, I don’t want to set a precedent that kids can argue and not get suspended. Hmmm… we shall see. I’ll figure it out tommorrow, as for tonight…sleep, beautiful sleep.