Lagoon tomorrow!!!

Don't worry. Tomorrow I'm going to Lagoon as a teacher chaperone. HECK. YES. I stinking love Lagoon. And I'm excited to go with my wonderful 8th graders. I will miss them so much. The 7th graders can be endearing...but for the most part, I love my 8th graders more. I made my 8th grade classes take class photos and they weren't all that happy about it, but still. I love pictures and I'm planning on making a cute scrapbook and writing memories about various students. I would put them up on this blog, but I can't due to privacy laws.
Two students in my second period, I call them the bromance boys because they have the craziest relationship, weren't even looking in the picture. So during 7th period I called them down to get a picture of them. They are so funny. They know they have me wrapped around their finger, but it's okay. One of the 7th grade girls in that class period asked me why I didn't act like that around them. I told her I play favorites HARD CORE. (My 7th period is...hmm...tricky to say the least.)

I can't believe this week is half over. I was not looking forward to Monday or Tuesday because they were still "academic days," but I knew that most of my kids would be passing their classes and they wouldn't have any other homework to work on, so what were we going to do for 85 minutes? Free time on the computer I guess. Sheesh. I did help a few kids pull up their grades at the last minute. I had one student stay in my class during my prep period and get the rest of his assignments completed. I told him he should be proud of himself because he worked really hard.
**Interesting story about him actually. We'll call him George Washington in case I need to use his name again. Yesterday I pulled him out of his 3rd period science class to come work in my class. He was taking a test and the classroom was total chaos. There was no way he was going to get that test done...and done well. It was practically a party in there and he was just sitting at his desk staring off into space. So when I came into the room and told him he was coming with me, he said, "Yes!"
I told him to do his very best on his science test because the more problems he got right, the less test corrections he would have to do. Well, he got a 72% on his test!!! I made the biggest deal out of it. (He hasn't passed a single science test in months.) With the re-works, he got a B on his test. I was so proud of him.
Well, after we finished completing assignments during my prep period, I was rambling about how great he was and how he should be excited and proud of himself. He wasn't sounding that excited though, so I said, "George Washington! Show some excitement and appreciation! I helped you pass like three classes." He then said, quietly and meekly, "I got one up by myself." I had to pause because he was right. How dare I take credit. He did the work and I was so proud of him.
I hope that I never take credit for something that my students accomplish. They need to hear positive feedback and they need to know that they can get their grades up by themselves and they can do well in school. They can do it!

-Ms. Damron-