meetings galore

i've been waiting for the weekend. today was the day of IEP meetings for a huge chunk of my 8th graders as we transition them to high school. the way the meetings get split is based on who the student's mentor is. so of 5 kids that i had to write objectives for, i only had 2 meetings.

the first meeting was for one of the most amazing kids i think i may ever meet. at the beginning of the year, when The Passion of the Christ came out on dvd all my kids wanted to know if i had seen it and what i thought. i hadn't seen it and i had no plans to. some kids didn't get it. this boy had the perfect response. "not everyone gets their religion from a movie." i was floored. he regularly says things like this at the most perfect times. he wants to be a pilot in the air force. i would hate to lose this kid to the military, and in the meeting today i could see that his mother feels much the same way. this woman is hugely responsible for what an amazing kid she has. sometimes kids just turn out that way regardless of the parent, this mother is awesome. from haiti, her kids were born in the bronx and now they are here. she'll be damned if her kids fall prey to the tv nation. i can see they won't. and the way this boy loves and respects his mother. i hope my own son turns out a fraction that way.

the second meeting was with my tough guy. big football player. one of my weaknesses, this kid. trouble maker with a heart of gold. he tells me how close he was to being in a gang before his parents moved him to small town america. i hear other teachers talk about how this kid will slash your tires if you aren't careful, or he'll make a good ditch digger someday. i'll be damned. he wants to play in the nfl, and barring that he wants to be a fire fighter. he is capable of either. this ended up being a phone meeting with dad because mom had to work. kid is not a huge fan of teachers but he would do anything for me and i don't take advantage of that. he knows i would fight for him too. his math teacher was the general ed representative. i had never really talked to this particular teacher but he won me over today. he sees what i see in this kid. anyone who gave him a chance would, most just don't. there are some kids you worry about when they leave you. this kid was gonna be one of them. after today, not so much. his dad had a story i know all too well. pulled out of high school by his dad to work. not a lot of options. now, he wants so. much.more. for his own son. a diploma or ged is not enough. college, that is the answer. they know he has struggles with reading but they're going to make it work. i believe they will. i expect this kid to surprise a lot of people, even me.

there was another meeting i would like to have attended. unfortunately, mom had a baby yesterday so they authorized the meeting to happen without them. a shame, because mom and stepdad need to know the truth about their kid. he does a lot of sexually inappropriate things in classes with his female teachers and he says ALOT of racist shit. it does not fly in my classroom. this kid is also apparently incapable of taking responsibility for his actions and mom and stepdad aren't doing a lot to combat that. they want to know "why does he have so many problems in miss teacher's class??" um, because she doesn't take his shit mom. everyone at school, for the most part, has his number, but mom doesn't. and likely won't. of all my kids this is mr. privilege. he'll skate by on being who he is. he'll leave one hell of a mess in his wake.

i told my prinicipal today that i want to come back next year. there was a question for awhile. if i was going to teach again this would be the place, i just didn't know what my future held. it seems that they want me back. i'm just wondering if, aside from things getting easier, is there some kind of "let down" after your first year. my 8th graders are extraordinary this year. i will miss them and i can't imagine a group like them coming around anytime soon. is that common?