Day 8

STILL getting new students in my class and losing others due to random schedule changes. It's crazy. Do I make the new kids make up all the work that we've already covered? Or do I excuse them and move along? I've seen a divide among teachers in this regard, and I never know which way to go.

I had a large number of kids in my "Club tarea" today because they didn't do their homework. Mostly from my 2CP class, whereas my 3CP classes and my 2H class all had their homework (minus the ones who were absent) on Friday. And even though I don't give them credit for doing their homework late, almost everyone showed up after school to do it with the exception of one straggler and two who made arrangements to come tomorrow. I make them do the homework. When they finish it in 5-10 minutes, I ask them how painless that was. They usually say it's pretty painless. Then they usually do their homework before class and don't end up with me in Club Tarea again. Of course there are others who make the Club a habit. I shall try to break their habit as soon as possible this year.

In keeping my resolution to give more praise, I made clear today to my 2H class how freaking fantastic they are. They always have their homework done, they learned about 40 vocab words on their own in just a couple days, they're starting to participate in class - they're great! I hope I don't jinx myself, as there are 172 school days left for them to turn around, and we don't want that! But they are great.

On a more somber note, we had a minute of silence today for the victims & survivors of the September 11th tragedy. I kid you not - it was only a minute and then nothing else for the rest of the day. I'm kinda on the fence about the handling of this anniversary. One the one hand, I think it deserves some attention while on the other hand I think that sometimes it's like beating a dead horse. We can't go back and erase the events of that day, but we also cannot forget it. We say that life must go on, but then we think about those for whom it is over forever. We'll always remember, but we'll try to move on. It's all that we can do.