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2002-01-14 - 6:39 p.m. One of my students (one that I mentioned in my last entry about having shared some private jokes with him and how he is one of my angry young skater kids) threatened to commit suicide today. On Friday I guess his CDs got stolen. This kid lives for his CDs and music and I am guessing he had hundreds of CDs with him that got stolen. Today I gave grade printouts. I don't remember what his was, a C or a D, but he got very upset. He then asked me about a reading log and I told him how to do it correctly and he told me how he thought it was supposed to be done and I said it wasn't and he got mad and said, "I guess I'm just stupid then." A little later he exploded and ran out of the room, but he came back. He seemed to have calmed down by the end of the period. Well, I guess the next period he went by and saw the girl he wrote all his poems about kissing her new boyfriend. Apparently his parents are also getting a divorce right now. Well, he went to the PE teacher and said something to the effect of planning to blow his brains out. The PE teacher sort of grabbed him into a hug and my student just started bawling. You would never expect to see this kid cry. Anyway, I guess all the steps you have to take when a kid says something like that have happened. I saw him later on today and he seemed okay. I'm still worried about him. He's always so up and down and is just explosive in general. I really want this kid to do well and not get kicked out of school and I hope everything will be alright. I'm not going to say anything to him tomorrow because I am sure he has had quite a few different teachers talking to him about it by now, but I'm going to try to be extra nice. I'm always nice to this kid but I can't help to feel like his grade printout was on top of everything, you know? Keep him in your thoughts (or prayers if you do that) for me. Speaking of angry young skater kids, I had a really good day with my other one during seventh period. The whole class had a brief discussion on the use of the phrase, "That's so gay," and the word, "fag." I think they got my point. Sometimes they just don't. But they were actually the ones that started it after someone said, "That's so gay," and someone else said that Ms. Boombastic doesn't like that phrase. They wanted to know why. They actually said, "Well it doesn't offend anyone because we all know each other and none of us are gay." I made the point that even though they might not be, there are probably people thinking about it and trying to decide whether they are or not. I also pointed out that they have no way of knowing if anyone is related to someone or friends with someone that is gay, so you could still be offending them. If this is sounding familiar, it is because I have this discussion probably once a month since it always comes up. Sigh. Oh, but anyway, the other angry young skater was actually contributing to class discussion and talking to me one on one in a positive and non-angry manner about missing work. That is always a plus. There is just something I love about this kid, and I'm not sure what it is. I do really enjoy the fact that EVERY SINGLE DAY he looks out the window and says, "I wish it was dry today so I could go skate." I also am getting the feeling that he secretly likes the book that we are reading because we were discussing after grade printouts whether we should have a makeup day or have the makeup day tomorrow and he said, "Well we could read today--we only have fifteen minutes left." I was shocked. Yes, it was partly because it was only fifteen minutes, but I am getting the impression he likes it because he actually follows along in his book and has his headphones off. :) I've been listening to a lot of random music lately. I got this two CD set of Smashing Pumpkins that is so good. I got it for really cheap from half.com. That is the best place to get stuff ever. I got two pairs of cool pajama pants at Wal-Mart tonight for only $7.98 each. I was so excited. The only problem is that I am wearing one pair now (ignoring the wash-before-you-wear rule) and they stink like Wal-Mart. All Wal-Marts have this nasty stinky smell. It is very distinctive. Please take a whiff next time you are in Wal-Mart if you haven't noticed. It smells like cheap discounts. No joke.
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