180 Degrees

So I ended one of my classes pretty upset with one of my students. He's a fairly recent transfer from another teacher's class and his reasons for transferring are NOT good. He was pretty good the first couple of days. Now he's completely out of control. He drives me crazy. No amount of trying to reason with him does any good. I keep threatening to call his mother in for a conference. That seems to scare him quite a bit but the truth is I don't have a current phone number and my attempts are fruitless. Fortunately he doesn't come very often.

Today I got a new bit insight into this poor kid. There's where the 180 degree turn comes. Now I just pity him. I just barely made this connection. Several months ago he stole my colleague's wallet and ipod. He was arrested and his mother was later arrested for trying to use the credit cards from the stolen wallet. No wonder I can't get a hold of his mother. She clearly has other things on her mind. My heart weeps for that kid. He still drives me crazy, but every kid deserves a parent who is looking out for his best interest.

I'm in shut-down mode. Eight days left and I feel like I can handle anything for eight more days. Beer me strength.