my karate/juijitsu works

I found this out today because I broke up two fights. They really weren't that bad, in that the kids are just a little taller than my waist, and by the end of the day they were all playing together again. So yeah, I really can block punches effectively. (Someone should tell Father David that sparring with little kids in class really did help in knowing how to gently handle these little angry souls.) I got to thinking too ... cats are going to scratch things, so we give them scratching posts. These kids are going to punch things (walls, windows, desks, chairs, doors, each other), so why aren't we giving them something appropriate to hit when they are angry? A safe way to get their anger out. I think that it would be really cool to bring my wavemaster (a standing punching bag) to class and let the kids whack at that when they lose it instead of damaging each other and property. I wonder if the school psychologist would let me bring it in?

Oh, and miracle of miracles today - my kids were quiet for half an hour. I read to them about Prometheus while they watched the hermit crabs and colored hermit crab coloring pages. They really like the Greek myths. I read them King Midas this morning too. They also adore the hermit crabs. They want me to keep them in the class. I told them, instead, that if I stay on as a long-term sub (which is looking pretty certain) that I'll buy them two hermit crabs to keep in class and they can name them. The kids also decided that they want me to stay.

This morning was really rough because the other middle school teacher had a conference for the first two hours, so I had all the middle schoolers in my class this morning. I think that I managed to teach math and language arts to about half of them. Uber super props to Dee too for her amazingly awesome idea of teaching them about pi, diameters, and circumferences using pieces of string. The kids LOVED it and were amazed when all the circumferences of the circles divided by the diameters equaled around 3.14. Finally one kid exclaimed, "Hey! That's pi!" I love that kid! Too bad he was just visiting from the other class ...

Also, I'm going to start teaching them Spanish on Monday. My little guy who is at a 2nd grade reading level is a native Spanish speaker. I asked him (in Spanish) if he wanted me to teach him how to read in Spanish too and he opened his wide soft brown eyes at me and whispered, "¡Sí Señora!" I think that I want to test this theory that if kids are taught how to read in their native language that reading will transfer well into their second languages. Seriously, that would totally explain why he has trouble reading in English - he never has learned how to read in the language of his heart -Spanish.

Josh had a good day today. Much less tiring than yesterday. And hey, it's the weekend! He can relax now!