Negativity is like a cancer.

The Honor Roll Assembly was this morning at 8:00. It's one of the events I coordinate each year - with a lot of help from the office staff. This year, the formula for sorting out the students with a 3.2 GPA or better was acting up and the secretary kept finding mistakes in it. She was on the phone to the data center trying to get to the bottom of it, and in the end, the invitations simply went out much later than they should have. So late, that parents GOT them in the mail yesterday. It was certainly far less than ideal, and I was embarrassed that my name was on the letter!

You just never know.

I’ve talked about Nick before. He’s the kid at school who is always “do-in good!”

Students in Nick’s class work on vocational skills, so Nick has a job he completes every morning. He puts two bundles of newspapers on a cart, and cuts the strap that binds them (he will mutter “ha HA! I’ve got you just where I want you now!” as he cuts the strap with scissors.) He then goes into the mailroom and puts one in the box of each teacher who subscribes to the paper.

Today, I was on the “receiving” side of the mailboxes while he and his teacher were on the “sending” side. His teacher was watching him, making sure he was doing a good job. He said to her, “This is my favorite day of the week!” She asked him, “Nick, why do you like Wednesdays so much?” He replied, “You just never know what will happen on a Wednesday.”

We need more Nicks. He’s a 90.

Another 90.

Kasey is a young woman who went to school here for three years... although if you add up the days she was actually in attendance, it was probably more like two. In that time, she was out of school suspended on various occasions for threatening kids, harassing others, and fighting. She was less than charming for most of her tenure here. She was truant so often that near the middle of spring semester of last year, I sent her packing... she was withdrawn from school. I was done with chasing her around.

90-10.

It is a day like today that I am reminded that the law of 90-10 really does exist. Ninty percent of the people in the world are wonderful human beings. Ten percent are pukey. We need to focus on the 90.

The AA Orchestra Festival is here at CMR and students from GFHS and the Kalispell schools were in our cafeteria eating during their lunch break. They were there at a strange time, lingering after our students returned to class.

Little victories matter.

 

It's hard to see this picture, but it is a picture of a retired teacher and a former student. The student is a guy who most certainly rides a Harley - tattoos up and down his arms, long hair - in short, he's a caricature of a biker. We were having drinks last night (emphasis on the plural) and debriefing a particularly trying week. We were talking about all of the bullshit we put up with at school and how important it is to hang on to little victories.

Who is in charge of this mess?

So in the statistics section of today's paper, I read this:

Besides the second announcement being a little untraditional, the name of the first mother of the second announcement made my stomach sick. Take a look at the news article from a few months ago. Maybe she can take her new baby to her sentencing in a Snugli. Who is in charge of this mess?