the ST, day 3

Today was day 3 with the ST.
She was in on a day that was not a Thursday, so there were (of course) a few kids who asked, "What are YOU doing here today? It is NOT Thursday!" (gotta love teenagers, you always know where you stand with them.)
She had to finish up a test she started yesterday with some English 11 students (they got huge bags of candy out of it, which immediately stopped their complaining and helped them make 20 new BFFs! LOL)

Thankfully, she is finally getting a little more comfortable. I asked her if she would like to get up and walk around while kids were working on essay outlines and/or study guides and I think that helped her feel a little more comfortable. The kids are getting used to her, but a few are still harassing her or refusing her help when it's offered. They'll warm up after a while.

She asked me yesterday if her just sitting near my desk is a distraction and offered maybe finding another spot. I had to remind her that with any student K-12, her just being there is a distraction. It's something new, a change in the schedule, a full moon, a shift in the weather... it's a distraction. But I also told her that the longer she shows up, the less that will happen. When we discussed how some of the students reacted today, I reminded her that any change in the schedule immediately draws their attention, and teenagers immediately need to address it. That's just how some of them are and it's something every secondary teacher (well, any teacher in general) needs to recognize and know how to deal with.


Another great thing about today? We have a new student in our English 9 class who is a few years older than the rest of the class. He's lived a life and found out that dropping out was not what he wanted to do, after all. There is another student in our English 9 class that was in one my classes last year and now has to repeat. He's been debating dropping out because he just isn't into school (and pretty much hates everyone there, including me).  While I was circulating, I overheard a little bit of their conversation where the older Eng 9 student was telling my repeater about how dropping out is not the way he wants to go and giving him reason after reason after reason. It was really nice of him to do and I told him so after class. I said that I think it was good for the repeater to hear because it was coming from someone who actually experienced it. His response was not so hopeful (he said that he tried, but the repeater will probably make his own mistakes and end up not listening to a word he said), but I still told him that I was really proud of him for trying and really appreciated the effort to "save" him.