Adventures

Last week was full of adventures, both academic and literal.

Wednesday, I had a wonderful, heartwarming teacher moment that served to remind me why I wake up at 5:45 every morning to get snapped at by 7-graders. A particular student, who has a solid C-average in my class, asked me on Tuesday what he needs to do to get a B, because he wants to make honor roll (B or better in all classes). I told him, study for the test on Wednesday. On Wednesday, he took the test, and asked about every clarifying question in the world (not unusual for him), none of which I could answer. ("You should know that." "I can't help you with that." It gets old, fast.) I graded his test quickly, and then pulled him out of history into the hallway. I asked him what he did differently for this test. I listened to him ramble on for a minute or two about how he and his mother scoured his classwork and studied together, before I pulled out his test -- 88! And that brought his science average to a B! He jumped up and down. Literally. In the middle of the hallway.

Thursday we had an all day field trip to an outdoorsy, team-building locale. I had a blast canoeing and cheering my kids on at the ropes course. It was raining for a while, but since there was no indoors, we stopped caring after a little while. We canoed till it hurt, and raced each other back and forth. The kids had a blast, but refused to admit it. I was completely wiped out by the end. (and had a glorious nap on the bus. Really. Best 30 minutes of my teaching career.) I was a little wary, though, because at the start of the trip, the chaperones were lectured on NOT helping the kids, letting them figure things out on their own. I anxiously sat on my hands while a student, in a canoe stuck on a tree stump, started crying. I watched while two other pairs of students canoed over and helped. I watched as the stuck girls unstuck, and then joined us racing across the pond. I watched kids help each other all day, and it wasn't the kids who help in the classroom. A lot of the lower students, and the skills kids, were superstars in the wilderness.

Unfortunately, my 88 student made a bad decision on the trip. He and a female student were caught kissing on the bus. They received phone calls home, though no real punishment. I was a little disappointed about that, more so than any other disciplinary decision made by my superiors this year. They weren't suspended, and they won't be banned from our Boston trip. This frustrates me because, well, aren't we telling kids that it's okay for them to kiss on a school trip? Where is the line? Kissing is 100% okay, but what about touching? Over/under clothes? When do we decide it's not okay? I'm sort of in support of a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexuality in a school setting.

Fortunately, it is more and more likely that I will get my health class next year!

That night, I did my first interval run! I may have strained my Achilles (or, strained my calf while canoeing/hiking, or bruised my leg wearing hiking boots), but it was really fun and challenging. Of the eight planned intervals, 3 were at target pace, 3 were a little too slow, and 2 were a little too fast. I need to get better at running at a prescribed pace. I was able to recover enough in time for a steady 7-miler on Saturday, which took a couple of miles to get comfortable, but went smoothly by the end.

This week is a rest week for me, so I'm keeping it easy on the workouts. If only I could get a rest week for school!