Teacher, are you young enough that you still have to worry about child molesters???

December has been pretty crazy. The title of this post, "Teacher, are you young enough that you still have to worry about child molesters???" was a for real question Oasting and Juan asked me on one of their kicks to try to figure out how old I am. They always manage to keep me on my toes!

Finals started the first week of December and continued for two full weeks. The kids had an hour and a half of testing, then a 45 minute break, then three 45 minute review sessions for upcoming tests and then were done at 12:30. Seemed straight forward enough.... Until I realized the day before Thanksgiving, that I was going to fly home the next Wednesday for a week. (Yes, I booked tickets one week before flying out!) I had an interview at the University of Minnesota, the Twin Cities campus, for medical school. I won't hear back from them until the end of January, which is when I'll probably try to make my decision about where to go. Anyways, things got a little crazy with trying to get everything lined up for being gone for a week during finals. It all worked out ok for the most part though. Well, at least the trip home did! I got to see my family, my grandparents, aunt Tiffany, and cousins Jake and Alex. I made it to Mankato for two days to get to see all my friends as well as Aunt Linda and Uncle Vance and some of my favorite professors down there. I had my interview, and then just got to relax at home. It was really, really nice!

I got back a week after I left, excited to be back and see my kids. Until I got a phone call from Micah, one of the teachers that had covered most of my classes for me, informing me that Juan had taken the answer key to my biology final when he briefly left the room. Ugh! So, to deal with the fact that he probably saw at least the first page, possibly the first two of my answer key, I changed the first two pages of multiple choice to oral short answer since I didn't have time to get anything else printed. Problem solved, right? Or so I thought..... Until I collected the note cards I had allowed my kids to use on the final and realized that three of them (Juan, the one who took the key to "count the pages only!", was not one of them) had the answers to page two and three of my test written on them. Grr! So, I figured they had to have gotten more of the test than I realized and decided to fail the three with the answer on their cards, Juan, and Oasting, who had ripped his note card up and thrown it away after I specifically asked for it. Unfortunately, in the Dominican system, the final is automatically weighted as 30% of their final grade, and passing is a 70%, so if you get a 0 on the final, unless you had a 100% going in to the final, you can't pass the class. So, I had a really long chat with the principal about all of this, and we decided to make the entire class retake the multiple choice and matching sections again (the parts that had letter answers, which is what the cheaters had gotten a hold of), and to make the five that were more directly involved in cheating retake the entire final without a note card their first real day of Christmas break. Anyways, needless to say, I had five furious kids on my hands, but we got it worked out. Unfortunately, I found out that the day Juan took the test from Micah was NOT the day they had gotten access to the answers. They had actually gotten them the week before by walking up behind me and copying them over my shoulder one day when I had taken them outside to review since their room was so hot. So, that was frustrating for me, because they told me who did it, and thinking back on it, it makes sense, but I can't prove anything, so I can't do anything about it besides still fail the five I had originally decided to fail. Anysays,Jennie, the principal, called all the parents on Monday and explained the situation. And, then on Tuesday of this week, all five had to come in and retake the final. Monday, when all the parents got called about it, four of the five were at school, so I just took care of getting them their books back, and finding their notebooks and study guides and stuff. Gilbert however, wasn't at school.

So, I wasn't really sure what to do about that, until after school, when I was standing out in the parking lot with two of my kids, when I noticed that there was a grown up man walking out with a biology book... who looked like he could have a 14 year old... who looks like his 14 year old... who had Gilbert's little sister with him. So, I asked him if he had Gilbert's notebook too, since that would help him as much as the book, and he just glared at me. So, I switched to Spanish, knowing full well he speaks English, and asked again. He kept glaring at me, so sticking with Spanish, I asked him if he wanted me to go look for it, and he started yelling at me in Spanish about how nothing at the school was every kept quiet, and how some people were in to everyone's business. So, I ignored him, and walked inside to look for the notebook. And it would just happen that the keys to the ninth grade room were missing that day... But the room is really, really easy to break in to, so I just popped the lock... And then realized that he had followed me inside. He proceeded to yell at me because I didn't have permission to be in the room. I was so confused and he kept ranting... Until he asked me how I know about all this. And I was like, Umm.... How would I not, still slightly confused. All of the sudden his jaw just dropped, and he's like "WAIT! Are you a teacher???" He thought I was some random kid... And at least stopped yelling when he realized that I was Gilbert's biology teacher. Ugh!

Anyways, my retake kids did well. All scored 1 to 2 percentage points lower on the retake but one, who actually scored 4 points higher. So, that was good. And I argued with the principal for a long time over it, but she finally gave in, and is letting me count it as if it was the first time they took the test so it doesn't show up on their permanent records. Because I really feel that a really bad decision you made when you were 14 shouldn't show up when you are applying to colleges. So, everything is worked out there.

This week, we also had Christmas parties, the Christmas program, which wasn't very Christmas-y at all and involved belly dancing, and parent teacher conferences where I got yelled at by another dad whose kid failed four class (none of which was mine, by the way!) Now, we are officially on Christmas break. All my roommates flew home today, so I'm here by myself until Tuesday when my family gets here. Yay! It should be a fun break with them all here! Hope everything is well with everyone! Feliz Navidad a Todos. Merry Christmas!

Or in very strange cases, from animals

Wow! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to write. Sorry about that! Life has been pretty crazy around here lately. School is going pretty well for the most part. Living in general is going well. I’m learning a lot of Spanish, which is great! I love it when I can carry on a whole conversation in Spanish. It really helps out a lot especially with my kids that don’t speak much English because I’m able to help them out in Spanish.

Ninth grade is going well. They are crazy as always. They are the chattiest bunch of high schoolers. This week, they started finals. On Monday, Rosanna, the Spanish math teacher, was sick so they asked if I could give the ninth grade their test. No problem, right? Wrong! School starts at 8:00. Jennie had all the tests… And she didn’t show up until almost 9:00. Which makes controlling 24 crazy ninth graders for an hour with nothing to do just hunky dory. Oh wait, 25 ninth graders! There is a new ninth grader, who apparently they decided it was best for him to start finals week. It seems like it would make sense to me to have him wait until January, but that would be too easy. Anyways, the ninth graders are pretty out of control, when all of the sudden, all the girls start screaming and jumping on their chairs. It’s about then that I realize that Frankie is kicking a dead mouse at me. Obviously since I was the only female in the room not standing on a chair shrieking, the only logical thing to do with a dead mouse would be to kick it at me… Haha! They are way too crazy!

Tenth grade is a little crazy too. Although, they are getting much better! However, they are still crazy. Chris tells me all kinds of interesting stories and about things that he wants to do when he grows up. In homework room one day, Luis, one of my kids that really struggles in math, asked me what I was doing all afternoon. I was like, “I was correcting ninth grade biology tests all day. I’m kind of a nerd like that ” He looks at me funny and is like, “Miss Scislow, you are not a nerd. You are hot!” So, the hitting on me never ceases.

Eleventh grade is good. They are probably my favorite class. They are very smart and very motivated as a whole. They are fun to work with, willing to try anything, and like to have fun while learning. We have a good time. We had a little bit of a scare the past couple weeks though. Federico told me on Monday of the week before last that he didn’t feel good. He asked if we could close the windows because it was so bright his head hurt. He looked just awful, but Jennie wouldn’t let him go home, so I let him pretty much sleep through my classes. Anyways, he wasn’t at school the next two days, but was back on Thursday, looking just about as sick as he had on Monday. On Friday, his little sister Alondra asked for his homework because he was in the hospital with dengue. Dengue is basically like West Nile Virus, but it can be a lot more severe, especially if it’s not caught early. Anyways, he had a rough time for a while, and didn’t get out of the hospital until Wednesday morning of last week. He’s doing much better now though, thankfully, and seems to be on the mend!

The seniors are a handful. The boys are just not motivated as a whole. Three have yet to turn in a single thing from this grading period. I don’t know what to do with them sometimes. Fortunately, they behave for me and listen in class. They are just terrible for other teachers, but apparently since they think I’m “hot”, they don’t sleep in my class and don’t try to disrupt things. I’ve heard them in other people’s classes though, and I wonder how some of the teachers get anything done with them! The girls in that class are a lot of fun to work with along with Chris and German. They are all very dedicated, hard working, and motivated.
Anyways, my kids are crazy, generally slightly inappropriate, totally in love with me, but a lot of fun to work with usually. However, I am very thankful for a much needed break. I’m flying home tomorrow for a week to interview at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. So, I’ll get to see my family and friends and relax a little before coming back for a crazy last week and a half of school before Christmas break and my family coming down! It should definitely be fun!