This one is WAY cuter than my visitor was!

Yesterday was one of those days when I fantasize about working in a bookstore. At one point my principal and I looked at each other and simultaneously said, “I quit!” The past two weeks has been pretty intense (hence the dearth of blog posts), but culminated on this particular Friday with one kid choking another until he turned purple, confiscation of a toy gun and lighter,  a bloody fat lip, a report of sexual abuse, and a live mouse in my trash can that I almost TOUCHED when I reached down to fix the collapsed garbage bag. And this was all BEFORE 9:30 in the morning! The rest of the day didn’t get much better.

I had to go into school today, a beautiful spring Saturday, to catch up on all the things I couldn’t get to yesterday and can’t do at home. Ugh! When I got there I found out the the mouse apparently has a retaliatory friend. (Either that or the same mouse came back — a soft-hearted colleague took my garbage can outside and set him free.) Whoever it was had POOPED ALL OVER MY DESK!!!! Double ugh!

Many disinfectant squirts later, I opened my email, to find that a couple of fifth graders had sent me copies of their recent writings. I have no idea what the assignment was, but they completely cheered me up, because it’s clear that the work we’ve been doing in class councils and group have made an impact.

I’m really working on a blog post about helping kids understand Aspergers (I promise to post it tomorrow), but just now I need a little time for escapist fiction, so in the meantime, here’s something easy for me that I hope will also remind you that, even though sometimes things really fall apart, we do make a big difference in the life of our kids.

Here are the writing pieces, in draft form, that my students shared with me. I’ve left them unedited.

I’ll let you decide whether this writer has a disability or a particularly poetic sensibility:

bulliing, sexawel abuses

You get scared don’t know what to do                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     when you do know what to do you get fritend
If it is your friend is bullying you never want to tell
but you have to . to keep yourself safe if you don’t do
do it right away it will get harder to tell someone.

I’m going to ask this writer if I can have a copy of her final draft to use with other kids:

How To Be a Good Friend

I like to have good friend and you probably do too. Being a good friend is easy and this writing piece will tell you what is a good friend. A friend is someone you can trust. I know I need a friend to trust and I have  one thats you! A good friend is someone who will always be there for you when you need them. REMEMBER: Your friend can have other friends, although, if your friend isn’t spending any time with you than they are not a true friend. If your friend is hanging around with other people all the time, try hanging out with your friend and her different friends. Your friend might be hanging out with someone that doesn’t like you or someone you don’t like, if thats true than just talk out your feelings, alone and at a good time or just wait a little while for you to both think, about what’s going on.  You can write to your friend about how you feel. Remember: If your helping somebody else with a problem put yourself in their shoes!