Last night, Liberto's cousin Carlos called at 9 p.m. I was sleeping soundly in the easy chair, having missed the entire movie we were watching, a terrific foreign film about WWII in Poland. Liberto kept repeating "Conyo" which I've come to know well as the Spanish equivalent of s----. When he got off the phone, he told me that his sister, Zaira, had been held up at gunpoint that day in front of the Chacon family home in Caracas. Metal-barrel-right-on-the-forehead kind of gunpoint. The guy then pealed away in her car. Thankfully, that was the only harm done. Later, through GPS tracking, the police found the car abandoned on some street. If that weren't bad enough. . . Liberto immediately phoned the familia to ask about it. Not only had Zaira been held up that day, his sister, Grelia, who lives in Coral Gables, Florida, had her car stolen that day too. Gina, the third sister, was visiting from Caracas, and all her money was in that stolen car. Now she's penniless. I'm not sure how much Grelia can help her out financially right now, since she and her husband are struggling with unemployment and cut work hours.
Next week, Liberto is going to take a few days off and drive to Florida on Thursday to spend a long weekend with his sisters.
Some of the students in my classes are getting on my nerves in a big way. I hate the concept that even though they do not want to be there and do not want to learn, it's my job to force them to want to, somehow. On Thursday, J., one of the 4th block troublemakers, came in at the beginning of class, shouting "What the F-----? What the F-----?" at the top of his voice. I went right to the computer and wrote him up, requesting, PLEASE remove this student asap! Five minutes later, the intercom came on, summoning him to the office. Another one of the chronic repeater-troublemakers was absent that day because he had to do community service for an arrest. Without the two of them, the class was the best and quietest I've seen all semester.
I have another student in the second block class who has proven difficult. She is always tardy, and then makes the grand entrance, running her mouth loudly as she comes in. She blurts out constantly, talks, and doesn't do the work, even though she's smart. I've given her alternative assignments to make them more challenging, but she doesn't do anything. She sits with a defiant expression, like a child saying "You can't make me!" I've already phoned her parent, and now I've set up a parent-teacher-guidance counselor meeting. In fact, I've had the guidance counselor set up a lot of parent meetings for next week. This semester, I seem to have a lot of students with behavior issues, academic issues, or both. I wonder if it's just bad luck of the draw. I went to observe a male teacher who teaches 9th grade comp lit, because I wanted to see his approach. His students did not say one word even before he walked into the classroom. They sat in their seats in complete silence, not once turning to each other for chitchat. My students would never enter my classroom and sit in silence if I was not there. I'm going to drop in on some other ninth grade teachers' classes just to see how their classes behave. I'm honestly not sure anymore what is supposed to be "normal" as far as the degree of silence.
Shawn called again a few nights ago. He's doing well, and says they get "lots" of sleep every night, from about 9 p.m. till four or five in the morning. He said about 25% of the initial group has dropped out.
This morning, Tom, a colleague, unexpectedly phoned Liberto and invited him to go shrimping for the day. Since it's a beautiful, cool, sunny day, Liberto abruptly cancelled his plans to go to the office to finish a sideline project he's been hired to do. I, on the other hand, will race against time trying to read Killing Mr. Griffin and Old Man and the Sea, for class, as well as planning activities, and grading papers.
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