High School Anxiety...

This week has been crazy busy again with work, but has been going well! For the past two days I have been teaching English at a Junior High that I have been too several times and it's been really nice to get to know kids in this age group. What makes me even more happy is that the grade 9's- 31 of them, that I teach have a really bad reputation with the rest of the school. The first time I was with the 9's I was terrified because I had been warned. But I think I get them and they get me. They know that I will not put up with anything and are actually pretty good. Although, there was that one kid...

The 9's had a writing activity to do and the goal was to explore descriptive writing and to try and write out of their element. Anyway, so I let them browse dictionaries/thesauruses to help them find some words and a student looked up the word "faggot" and began to yell out the meaning and laugh hysterically. Immediately, I called out his name and asked him to leave. The school board is taking this stuff seriously and any comment- joking or not is to be reported to the school board and action is taken immediately. There is a no tolerance policy especially now with all the gay teen suicides. It makes me sad that some kids are so heartless and that the homosexual issue is still well, an issue.

So, I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow because it will be my first day teaching High School English. It is a multiple day job, so I will be with the same kids for two days- if I can handle the first day that is... I figure it can go two ways. One, it could go well because these kids will have the choice to be there- it's their choice to learn. Or it could be bad- where kids will show up JUST so they can torment the sub. Oh, I don't know. I guess I'll just have to hold my head up high- especially because I'm sure 90% of the students will be taller than me :)

One last thing- our Halloween weekend was awesome!! We took Lucas to West Edmonton Mall to do some Halloween activities. The stores had candy so there were a ton of kids trick-or-treating and we also went to Galaxyland where there were a bunch of stations for the kids to go to pick up a special treat or prize. Lucas loved it!!!! But not as much as he loved watching Dan and our friend Mark go on the rollercoaster! Then in the evening our friends came over with their son and we took the kids around the neighborhood. We were out until 7:30 so by the time bedtime rolled around, Lucas just kept pointing at his crib and didn't make a peep. Here are pictures of our little octopus/spider (you decide!)and his second costume, Luigi (and Charlie as Mario)!!