I don't fight little kids!

Life has been crazy around here lately! It is definitely never dull at Saint David School. I've got quite the stories from the past two weeks or so! Last week was not a good teaching week. This week has been really good though. Crazy none-the-less, but really good!

Last week, like I said, was not a good teaching week. I had to deal with breaking up three fights. On Monday, I walk into ninth grade and it's chaotic because the Dominican teacher finished late and didn't have the kids ready, and they are walking around, trying to find their stuff, and it's crazy. And all of the sudden I hear Frankie scream the f-word. So, I drop my books and turn to see what is going on. And his pants, and boxers are around his ankles, and he's screaming at Alex while trying to pull his pants back up. Meanwhile, everyone in the entire room can see everything because Alex totally pantsed him, boxers and all. The next thing I know, Frankie's got his pants up and takes a swing at Alex. Alex kind of ducked out of the way and so Frankie missed. That gave me enough time to step in between them. I shoved Frankie really hard in the chest, which gave Marcel enough time to grab him from behind for me. Fortunately, Alex thought this was hilarious, because if he was mad too, I don't know that I could have stepped between them. Anyways, Marcel had Frankie from behind. And Frankie is little. He's like my height maybe and super skinny. And Marcel is really tall and strong-ish so he held Frankie until I got Alex out of the room and to the office. I told him he could go tell Jennie what he did. So, I finally get class settled down enough to start when Alex walks back in and says she's in a meeting. I told him he could go to the office and sit and wait for her to finish. So, like halfway through the class Jennie walks in and is like, "What happened in your class?" in her British accent. And so, I walked out in the hall and was like, "Didn't Alex tell you?" And she's like, "All he'll tell me is 'It was an accident. They just fell!'" And I was like.... "Well, Alex pantsed Frankie." And Jennie was like, "What does that term mean?" And I was like.... "Well, it means Alex pulled down Frankie's pants. And he pulled down his boxers too..." And Jennie in her thick British accent was like, "Are you telling me that Frankie was EXPOSED in your classroom???" And I was like, "Umm.... yeah....That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you." Lucky I didn't lose my job right then an there! Haha!

On Wednesday between classes, Jose was apparently picking on Gilbert. Jose said they were "just playing", but George said he was being mean. The rest of the ninth graders would agree with George about Jose being mean. So, George asked Gilbert, why don't you just punch him in the face and get it over with already! And Jose got mad and turned to George and was like, "You always talk about fighting George, but you never do! Let's go right now!" And George told him, "No, I don't fight little kids." And apparently Jose got up in his face and started pushing him, and George shoved him back and tried to walk away, but Jose wouldn't let him and pushed him as hard as he could into the lockers. So, George got mad and just decked him in the face. He decked him good and hard; Jose was super dizzy and out of it. Marcel ran over and was like, "Come on George, let's go to class." Logical thing to do after you just punched someone, right? (Marcel is actually really good about breaking up or diffusing fights.) So he grabs George around the shoulder and brings him into the classroom away from Jose. And by now, Jose is kinda coming back around and punches a locker since George isn't there to punch anymore. Well, school being incredibly logical as they are decided that Jose shouldn't be allowed back in class the rest of the day, but George should since "Jose provoked him". Now, I honestly believe Jose did provoke him, but that doesn't really justify decking someone. Even tho Jose probably deserved it. Then on Thursday, Juan and Chris almost got in a fight over something that happened when they were playing basketball. These boys!

This week has been good though. Tuesday was a slightly crazy day, but good none the less. I had chemistry lab with ninth grade. Monday night I still hadn't found a lab to do. So, I was researching easy, but cool labs online. The one I found that sounded cool tested the boiling points of various mixtures of water and alcohol. The practice was meant to be done with rubbing alcohol, but I couldn't find any here. I didn't look super hard, but I did try at the close colmados. Anyways, I was like, well.... I could substitute rum in here. Then I was like, it's school though... Hmm.... So, Kaitlyn was like, just call Jennie and ask her. So, I did. I was just like, "Umm.... Jennie, can I use rum in chemistry lab tomorrow?" And she was like, "Oh, of course! Let me run downstairs to see if I have a bottle you can use!" Never once did she ask what I would be doing with said rum. Anyways, she brought me a bottle of rum, which led to a slightly awkward handoff. Haha, she made me wrap it in a towel to carry it to lab, with honestly probably made it more conspicuous! Haha! Anyways, I had the first two hours free, so I decided to test it. Juan and Jose were in in-school suspension for a board punching and the George fighting incidents respectively, so I made them come test it with me rather than set everything up for them again another day. Anyways, everything was going smoothly, they were getting good data, everything was working how I planned when Jose was like, "Umm.... Miss Scislow? MISS SCISLOW!!!!" The entire beaker of ethanol had started on fire. It was a pretty cool looking fire, and I let Juan take pictures of it with his cell phone before I put it out. It happened once more with them before I made the necessary adjustments that I figured out avoid fires. Anyways, later that day when I did it with the rest of my class, Rony started his groups on fire. This one was also a pretty cool fire, and slightly more stressful, since I had a room full of like 25 ninth graders. So, I got them out of the way, grabbed the flaming beaker with heat resistant gloves and brought it to the sink to put it out. Well, it spilled in the sink and filled the entire sink with flames. The kids thought it was amazingly cool, and since it was just rum, I wasn't too worried about it being a really dangerous fire. I guess I'm glad everything here is cement block though! Haha! But wow, three fires in lab in one day! That's pretty impressive! They all thought it was a really cool lab though, which was good :) And only George and Rony pretended to drink any of it.

Today was a really good day. Maybe because I don't teach ninth grade on Thursdays? Haha! It was a good day all around! Teaching went well, and I had a couple kids just make my day. My senior boys gave me Hershey's kisses at lunch and asked if I would be their Valentine. After school, I ran to the office to check on grades for one of my kids, and Alex was in the office. And he's like, "Miss Scislow, Miss Scislow, Miss Scislow!!!!" so I was like, "Alex, Alex, Alex!" with a goofy smile before I realized there was a grown up with him. And Alex is like, "Miss Scislow, this is my dad!" So, I was like, "Oh, hi! Nice to meet you!" It's always a little awkward because I never know if I should use English or Spanish, but I knew they had just moved down from New York, so I figured I'd start in English since Alex had introduced me to his dad in English. And Alex was like, "Dad, Miss Scislow is the nicest, coolest, best teacher I've ever had! She's the best!" And I'm kinda blushing, and his dad was like, "That means a lot coming from Alex because he's very picky about his teachers. He hardly ever likes them!" And I was like, "Aww, thanks Alex!" And Alex was like, "Yeah, I've never had a teacher that was as cool!" And his dad was like, "I bet you've never had a teacher who is as pretty either!" Ugh! Even at school, haha! And Alex was like, "Yeah! If I was 10 years older, I'd marry you! Maybe I'll just have to wait ten years!" Lol, I like Alex. He's a little stinker, but he's a good kid.

Then, after homework room, Oasting gave me a huge hug and was like, "Miss Scislow! You are the only teacher that I can hug!" And I was like, "What? Why's that?" And he's like, "Because every other teacher, I'd probably just want to break their neck. But I love you!" Aww! Even my naught boys like me!

After school, I was walking home when someone across the street started jumping up and down and waving at me. And I was like, ugh! Because I hate getting hit on on the street. So, I ignored this person until he was like, "Miss Scislow!" So, I looked over and realized it was Arnold, one of my kids who lives kinda close to us. So, he ran across the street and I was like, "Hey Arnold!" And he was like, "You are going home very late!" And I was like, "It's because I was correcting your guys' math homework!" And he was like, "Oh, Miss Schumacher isn't going to correct our homework tonight because she has a Spanish test tomorrow." So, I laughed and was like, "So, what are you up to?" And he's like, "Stalking you of course!" (He always tells me he's going to stalk me. He's not a creepy kid, don't worry!) He was actually on his way to an internet place so he could do 'Miss Schumacher's' homework.

Anyways, as you can see, life is never dull here. I'm sure if you actually managed to read all this, you are incredibly bored by now, but hopefully you got at least one laugh out of it all! Hope all is well at home! Let me know how you are doing! I miss everyone lots!