Mentoring

Last week, we begun mentoring certain students. Those students. I was initially not assigned any students to mentor, but I seem to have picked up two. One of them is a girl in my homeroom class who started off the year as #1 Goody Two-Shoes, but has since made the wrong friends. She is smart, and works hard, but she talks A LOT. And gets involved in a lot of drama. At the moment, she wants to switch homerooms because she doesn't get along with certain kids. I doubt they'll switch her, because she's not quite at the level of the higher class, but I have no doubt she'll settle into this class again. She's a sweetheart who has some bad friends. Although, there aren't a lot of 12-year-olds who make good friends. She does have this habit of talking, though. In fact, the day after she declared herself my mentee (one being mentored), I had to call home because she was talking all throughout my lesson. She cried at me. The next day she was my best friend again, spending a couple of periods in my room because she needed a break from her "friends". Whew. 12-year-olds are complicated.

My other mentee adopted me late last week. I didn't particularly think she needed a mentor, because she's usually a quiet girl, but she's been involved in some middle school drama lately. I invited her to my room at the end of the day, during my prep on Thursday. I asked her about herself, and heard more words from her than I had all year. She came here from Jamaica about a year ago, and her voice has that gorgeous singsong quality that can only have come from an island. She sings in her church choir. I'm excited to get to know her.

My weekend was surprisingly snowy, and my boyfriend got stranded in Charleston after a medical school interview. I had the sniffles. I played on the ambulance, but there were no emergencies. Not exciting, but I still love weekends. Weekends are better when you earn them.

My classes seem to be getting better. Each week, I "have" more students than the week before. There are challenges, especially when I lose my temper, but there is improvement there. Today I introduced SF to another class, and they were pretty excited. It's still really, really challenging, but it's getting better. Unfortunately, I've hit a bit of unmotivation this week. I need some motivation. Hopefully tomorrow will help. Tomorrow is training #2. Sub day. No kids. Sleep until 7:30. Nice.

I have a new reader, the only one who has ever been able to share a room with me. It lasted a whole year in college. She is rocking the business world in NYC (and bought me sushi).

Does everyone still make a wish when blowing away eyelashes? Last night, I realized that I wished that school would continue to get better. I think that's a good sign. Even subconsciously, I know I'm making progress.