"She stabbed you with a sharpened pencil?!"

Today has been a relaxed, restful day -- much needed after a rough week.

Thursday and Friday at school were tough days: we were all short on sleep, the kids are always rowdier at the end of the week, and now that they've gotten to know us, they are testing us. It's no longer a just a blast; it's really hard work too. (but still fun and rewarding.) We've had a lot of disrespectful behavior and several fights lately. The kids are great in Week 1, devious but well-behaved in Week 2, and in Week 3, they start to test us and show their true, not-so-angelic, colors.

A girl who put no effort into being at Breakthrough (no homework or participation in my class and enough attitude to go around) was expelled on Thursday after beating up a younger girl. I - and everyone else who taught her - was happy to see her go (is that too harsh?), but she really hurt the other student and couldn't care less about our program. We've had some severe "play fighting" amongst the boys and an increase in shrugged shoulders, rolled eyes, and sneers. It just makes it that much tougher, but at the same time, it makes me appreciate the quiet, well behaved, inquisitive students even more.

My students are becoming experts in specific parts of the brain and are presenting for 60 seconds about their expertise regarding the function and location of their assigned brain part. The first group to share was not great, so I will now talk with each one before to prep them, and encourage them to stand up straighter and talk more clearly -- behavior becoming for a true expert. The presentations continue this week along with our much anticipated sheep brain dissection. About half the kids are excited and half are reluctant, but I hope I can pull more of them in -- I was grossed out in the corner my first time with a brain dissection, but now I love it (excluding the pungent smell of formaldehyde...)

I have absolutely no internet on my computer now, so I will have to post from school or a friend's computer (like now). Adios...

[update at 10pm: although my wireless internet died, my LAN now works, so I have resurrected the internet. additional highlights today include: talking to the super cool Travis lots and lots (choquack!), eating a mango and talking with Albert.]