April 18, 2010: Another Fast Weekend

And just like that the weekend is over. Good thing is it was pretty productive. Got a bit of yard work done as well as cleaning out the gutters on Saturday. Sunday consisted of a couple of birthday meals - Chuck's and Mercer's. Chuck's was earlier this week but we went to brunch today to celebrate. We ate at Joyce's Family Restaurant in Fuquay. It was some really good home cookin'! Good enough to rival Mama Dip's Kitchen! None of the food would be suggested to anyone looking to lose weight before the summer. Dinner was Applebee's for Mercer's birthday, which is actually today. To compensate for brunch, I decided to have a half order grilled chicken caesar salad, followed by a trip to Ben & Jerry's (oh well, there is always tomorrow).

From the Classroom

Friday, 1st period was interesting. It went smoothly from the start, but something unusual happened towards the end of the period. The class had finished taking a test and a few students who were absent the day before were taking notes from the board when I heard quite a bit of discussion and conversation outside my trailer. When I stepped outside and stood on the stoop of my trailer several students, around eight, began to scatter in all directions - not running, but walking briskly - some walking away from campus, some back onto campus, but none I was going to be able to catch neither by my chasing them or calling on the phone for an administrator. So I had to let them go. However, down the sidewalk I recognized one of my student who was talking with his mother. As it turns out, she had returned to campus to drop off a student at school, I am not sure if it was a friend of the family or a younger sibling, and saw her son, not in class. We met on the stairs and we had a pleasant conversation about her son who has a habit of not being in class and who did not do well at all last semester. The thing of it is that if he were to come to class regularly he is smart enough to easily pass the class, most likely with a grade in the 80s at least. We spoke to him encouragingly though we clearly showed our disappointment with his performance. I told him that I was there to help no matter what and that there are many opportunities to get and turn in missing work and gave all of my professional contact information to his mother. Despite having caught the student skipping class, I felt good about the situation and am confident that is the student commits to being in class, he will do well and I would work with him regarding his third quarter grade.