Past my Bedtime

I dread Thursdays every week, because I have grad school on the Upper East Side from 7-9:15.  Since the earliest I can leave school is 4:30, I don't have enough time to go home before class, so I stay late and do work, go to class, and don't get home until around 10:30/11pm....and lately I've been so exhausted I fall asleep before 10!  It's almost 11 and I think I'm only still up because I had to have a ton of coffee to make it through class.  I'm going to be a zombie tomorrow.

After my slightly depressing entry today, I had to make a quick post because I am so proud of two of my students today.  Arnelle, as I mentioned, is finally back, and she's shown a lot of initiative in catching up on everything she missed.  She came during lunch and stayed for an hour and a half with me after school today.  We worked on Biology (together, because I had no idea what was going on in Biology) and she caught up on about 3 or 4 days worth of Algebra in a half hour.  Without me even saying anything I heard her tell one of her friends she "learned her lesson and isn't going to miss any more school."  I also made her a "to do list" for tonight (things to study/review before she can make up a few of the 7 or 8 quizzes/tests she missed while she was gone), and I'm excited to see if she actually does it (I have a good feeling she will).  I think this one small little victory was something I really needed to show me that sometimes I do make a difference, even if it's just a little!

Cristy, who I haven't mentioned a ton in this blog, has also made me really happy the past few days.  She is currently failing Algebra and English (she has so much trouble with Math especially), but she's been working so so hard and watching all the Algebra concepts we were working on during the midterm review today finally click with her made me happier than I could express in words! I'm just really nervous because I would have sworn that she would get an A or B on the last math test, and she got a 65.  It'll break my heart if that happens on the midterm too.  I know she knows it, but for some reason a lot of my students freeze up on the tests.