I've moved this blog from it's previous home. I hope by doing this to ensure that no one I love will ever accidentally stumble upon it and read something that will hurt them. This is like a diary. My husband and I have a rule: If one of us dies, the surviving partner cannot read the deceased journal/blog for at least a year. Hopefully, I'll go first because I don't know if I can handle that or not. LOL
The worst offending family member, my paternal grandmother, with whom I lived for many years growing up, is completely out of the picture. We are all better off that way... It kills my dad, because he thinks that everyone should love each other and family is sooo important, but I've told him to get over it (and supposedly so has she). After my grandfather died a few years ago, we tried to forge a connection, but I think we both knew that it just wasn't really there. With him gone, there was not reason for me to come around, unless, of course, I wanted to be told yet again that she loved me more when I was thinner. Which I didn't.
Oh, yeah there is one thing: Summer school. The only thing that my students are required to bring everyday is something to write with. I provide books, paper, calculators, and anything else they might need for a lesson, but I can't afford to supplie fifty students a day with writing utensils. This is well known among my students.
I have a student who didn't have a pencil on Monday. I usually charge a quarter, but he was broke so I cut him some slack and loaned him one. Did he return it? Of course not. Supposedly he left it on the desk, which is most likely a lie. Tuesday, he comes in without a pencil again. (Incidentally, I had this student in the regular school year and this is not a new argument between the two of us.) As he sat with a quiz in front of him and did nothing for about 15 minutes, I finally asked him, knowing already, what was wrong. No quarter, no pencil. He hadn't returned the one on Monday, so I felt no remorse for refusing him. The logical thing would have been for him to borrow one from a classmate, but instead, he went to sleep. That brings us to today, Wednesday. Guess who didn't have a pencil AGAIN!!! And, he looks at me with this grin, like he honestly can't believe that I wouldn't give him one. Luckilly another student needed to buy one and was kind enough to buy an extra. Sadly, it was a third student that made the suggestion. Three-day-pencil-forgetting-boy didn't even care enough to try to borrow one yet again.
The saddest part of all of this? He's paying to be here. Summer school is not free in our district. $85 of his parents money and he's going to fail because he refuses to bring a pencil with him.
TBF, I taught a relatively difficult lesson on trig functions and everyone who was willing to pay attention and participate really learned something. That was very gratifying. There were a few who wouldn't follow simple directions such as, "write this down, you'll need this info for the rest of the day" and therefore got REALLY lost, REALLY quickly, but as I said, those who were willing did very well.