Let's see where this post ends up....

I've tried three different times to write today and each time I just delete what I've written because it is totally lame. Dead end. Going nowhere fast.  So, I thought I'd sit down and just do a stream of consciousness post and see where that takes me. It may be lame, too. Oh well. Nothing much is going on today. The boys are really trying my patience. Duh-duh would not do his math and then he fell off his chair and bumped his head and started crying. I held him for a while. He got his math done.  That reminds me of when I was teaching junior high. Boys would just fall out of their chairs. For no reason. It was the strangest thing. All the sudden they'd be sitting on the floor with a kind of shocked look on their face (not that exaggerated shocked look that they get when they do it on purpose, but want you to think they didn't, but a real honest shocked look). I'd roll my eyes and tell them to get back in their seats. They wouldn't cry, though. And I didn't hold them in my lap. I had one boy who was falling out of his seat all the time. He had a really tough adolescence. His mind and body just wouldn't do what he wanted them to do. I still remember this little interchange one Friday morning while getting ready for a spelling test.
Me: Ok, class,  first word, "spelling"
J: Uh, Miss H., I need a piece of paper.
Me: Does anyone have a piece of paper that J could borrow?
Nice girl who is always prepared, takes a piece of paper out of her binder: Here J.
Me: Ok, class, once again. First word, "spelling".
J (waving his hand wildly): Uh, Miss H. I don't have a pencil.
Me: Does anyone have a pencil that J could borrow?
Another nice girl who is always prepared, pulls a pencil out of her backpack and loans it to J.
Me: First word, class. "spelling".
SNAP!
J: Uh, Miss H. could I sharpen this pencil?
Now, you might be thinking, "He needed to be prepared.  Why didn't you just start the spelling test and have him catch up?"  I don't know. I guess he was a kid who needed grace. The thing was, he was a nice boy. He had a part in our school play that he did brilliantly. We put on the play Tom Sawyer and J played the town drunk to perfection. Sometimes we wondered about that. But, he actually grew up to be a nice young man. At least he was last time I saw him.  But, I'll never forget that kid. Some of them, you just don't!