back to work

It was my first day at work in over a week and already - issues galore. Before school, one of my boys came in with his grandpop. I haven't seen the boy since the week before Easter break. His mom was going through some issues and she thought about taking him back to Puerto Rico with her. When she didn't show up for parent conferences, I assumed that they did go to PR. Today his grandfather told me that the mother was having some problems with cocaine. She checked herself into rehab, then left, then went through withdrawal. The family tried to get her to go back to the hospital, but she signed herself out. So now the boy is living with the grandparents, about 40 minutes away from the school. The mother is still talking about Puerto Rico, but the grandfather wants to take her to family court. What a mess. The boy doesn't seem to understand what's going on - he just said his mom was "at the doctors."

In other news, Frequent Absentee Girl is at it again. I went to our secretary on my break and said, "Deb, what's the deal with Absent Girl?" She sighed. "I called mom's cell phone. She said they're on their way back from New York. She thought they'd make it back on time." Honest to God. That mother just doesn't get it. She knew we had school today, she knows her daughters have missed 25 days of school already this year. What is her problem?

And Frequent Absentee Girl's runner up (12 days last trimester) missed the entire morning due to an eye appointment. She had a week and a half off! Why couldn't they schedule the appointment for one of our days off?

Grrrr....

But. It was nice to be back on schedule and see the kids. And I got a lot of stuff done in the classroom. I love teaching in the spring. This is the time of year when I see the kids make incredible leaps in their reading and writing, and I can do some really cool projects with them.

Only eleven weeks of school left!