Kids really do say the darnedest things.

Oh Bill Cosby.

Alright, so the fourth graders have been working on Geometry, angles, rays, lines, line segments that sort of thing. Today, to get in a little review, I passed out the geoboards and rubber bands. When I was a kids, they were wooden with real nails pounded in, but someone must have decided that that wasn't safe (rightly so I suppose) because now kids have these plastic ones:

Clever right? It's a great way to do review and have kids still using their hands for more than drawing. Tactile learning. Love it.

Moment that Mattered: I passed out everything and had the kids just play around with them for awhile. That's always easier than jumping right into the lesson because all they want to do is play. This way, they get it out of the their system and after about ten minutes we can get down to business.

As I was admiring one kid's creation another boy, Robbie said, "Rubbers, I need more rubbers." I quickly looked up wondering why a kid would be talking about condoms in my class (and for that matter the fourth grade) and saw him searching around his desk and on the floor. I cracked up. Then Fred, (whom I think had the same reaction I did) another fourth grader (with older brothers) said, "Robbie, you mean rubber BANDS." Robbie answered, "I know, that's what I said, I need more rubbers." Hysterical. The best part is that Mr. Rama is his dad! So after school, I went and found him and told him the story and he cracked up too.

Next funny thing. My students were in Performing Arts and I was running around doing stuff. Ms. Tenny stepped out of her classroom to do something, so I stepped in, happy to see my old sixth graders (now seventh graders.) We starting talking about my clases de espanol because they were so excited about it. I told them that I got all A's and that I was really looking forward to class starting again, which was tonight. Lucia said, "Hablame" (Talk to me, I think that's how it's spelled.) So I said, "Sobre que?" (About what?) and she said, "What does that mean!?" It was pretty funny.

However. This class. This professor. Hard. I think I understood about half of what he said. I think I'm in for it.

And the stories continue...

So I knew that Lucia has had an awful childhood, there have been hints from other teachers that have worked with her. I know that she was taken away from her mother a few years ago because her mother was on drugs and put with her father here in the La Pasa. She certainly had an a hard time with me a few weeks ago. I'll tell that story first.

A letter was passed around during performing arts class in the morning that said that Lucia was the class slut and that she went out with all the boys and that (the person writing the note) wanted to kill her (Lucia.) The letter was ripped up and put in the trash, but after hearing about it, I rescued it and put it back together. Upon looking at the handwriting, I deduced the author. The students were unable to meet with Sr. Callejo about the letter until the last hour of school. However, I saw the student I thought was the culprit, Marianna hung around Lucia all day, trying to comfort her.

That afternoon, after a long conversation with Marianna in Sr. Callejo's, she finally copped to the note and was really upset when she realized she was going to have admit to Lucia that she in fact had written it. She along with another girl, Denise who had gone along with the note, received in school suspension for three days. Lucia was devastated. After the ordeal was over, I shared with her my story of losing faith in my high school "friends" my senior year and how things like this stick with you. I talked about how there comes a time in everybody's life when they feel absolutely alone and that when that time comes you learn to depend on yourself and think about what you want and what you want to be instead of what your friends want. She took this in and agreed that it might be nice to focus on what she wanted to do for a change.

Today, I learned a little more about her life before she came to Alma De La Rosa. She handed me a story she had written and asked me to read it and tell her what I thought about it. The pages in the worn notebook she handed me told how in Oklahoma they had had no place to live, so they had lived in her mother's car for a few days before finding a shelter. Living in the car made her sad. The shelter was better but there was nothing for kids to do there. Her mother was diagnosed with diabetes. There was a time in an elevator when her mother collapsed because of her diabetes. When she fell over a crack pipe rolled out of her pocket. This started the process that ended with Lucia being taken away from her mother. A bit of a happy ending; the court decided a few weeks ago that her father could have sole custody and she really enjoys spending time with her step mother and her little step sister.

And I wonder why I have problems sleeping...