i'm still here

I hope you haven’t given up on my blog! I almost did. This past month has been nothing short of insane and when I have free time I just am not in the mood to sit down and type. But I will be seeing many of you soon and I should probably update you a little bit.

But I have a meeting in about 2 min so this may be pretty short.

Not long ago I realized how much I really do care about the students I work with, it started with my 6^th period math class.  A female student who gets distracted pretty easily, but does what I ask her to unless she’s having a really bad day. This particular day she was sitting very quietly and looked close to tears so I asked her what was wrong and she just shook her head, because if she tried to talk I think she wouldn’t have been able to hold the tears back. Then I saw folded on the corner of her desk her progress report.

“Is it your grades?” I asked, at that point she pulled her sweater above her face and began to cry. It took all my effort not to cry also. I started recalling all of the times I was in the same position; frustrated with school, my grades, afraid to show my parents and thinking that there would never be a way to understand the material (especially math). I started telling my student about this and reminded her about our after school homework help. She still couldn’t talk but shook her head yes and now our relationship is better than ever.

But that wasn’t the moment I realized how much I loved my kids. That same evening we hosted what is called a “Family Engagement Night” where we invite the whole school and there families to come and participate in different games and activities and then we provide them with dinner and give out prizes.

One student who came stayed afterwards to help with clean up. I really like this kid, he gets bullied a lot because he wears nail polish and reads all the time. He is a little odd, but he’s in my drama club and very respectful and we joke around a lot, some times when he has a lot of aggression I let him punch my hands for awhile and that actually seems to help him a lot.  Anyway, I’m digressing.

Turns out the reason he stayed so late was because some students have been threatening to shoot him as he walks home (he lives about 3 blocks from the school)

I cannot comprehend a 14 year old having to stay late after school because gang members are threatening their life.

Also the weekend before another student I work with was shot and missed a week of  school because he was recovering in the hospital. I have so much more to say but there is still a ton of work to be done before I can finally come home. I love and miss all of you, God bless and I’ll see you soon!!