Sad, but...

...nothing I could have done. But I keep thinking "What if I could have said just one more thing to encourage a better choice?"

Several of our students will be assigned to a couple alternative campuses because of one really bad choice, taking or supplying a prescription drug. It started with one of my 5th period students who came to class 1) late and 2) "altered". She was acting more strangely than usual, enough to make me hang by her table and do a sniff test. Not smelling anything tell-tale, I called the AP to come up and talk to her, see what was up. The student left with her and did not return.

As we go through the rest of the day, other teachers are commenting about kids acting weird, and having to get someone to take them out. Then two other students are escorted out of class by our constable, but they were not acting "weird". Uh oh. In all it was 11 or 12 students. Plus one busted for pot again. A few of them are my students, not bad kids really, not the ones who give me problems in class. I just can not fathom taking a substance that you have NOT ONE CLUE what it will do to you. At least alcohol and pot are knowns. (Not that I condone it, but the effects are known).

Another student, not mine (don't even know who he is) was caught with my keys, Friday. I had been missing them since Wednesday afternoon, but figured I set them somewhere different in my room and that they would eventually turn up - it's happened before. Said student must have come into my room and taken them after school Wednesday afternoon when I ran down to the bathroom or copy room. He was caught trying to steal drinks from the locker room in the gym.

So now I keep a more vigilant eye out for kids acting weirder than usual, and I must remember to take my keys and lock my room EVERY time I leave. I hate that! It takes negative energy to not trust, and I do now!

One nice little plus though. At dinner with a couple friends of mine (one is an elem principal) he was talking about 2 of our elementaries who blew the cover off the 5th grade science TAKS test last year. I mentioned it to my principal, and he is setting up a meeting with theose principals (him, our director of instruction, and me and my co-dept chair!) to see what exactly they did. It is nice to finally see that we might have a definite direction to head next school year!

TAKS reading is Tuesday for our 8th graders. That means walking around watching kids take a test A L L D A Y L O N G . The kids complain that they are bored - at least they can put their heads down and nap. We have to walk around and monitor! At least I will get lots of miles in walking that day!