warm fuzzies.

i have a new kid this year who has a special place in my heart. he's not a particularly good student (read: lazy as hell) but he's a really nice kid, really goofy, lots of little boy poo humor mixed with testosterone-laden bravado. at the beginning of the year, he kept on coming into my room after every period just to be a pain and tell me he was going to come hang out with me after school for some one-on-one time, whatever that means. hideyo calls carlos his "competition."

i've been shouting a lot lately at school ... and truth of the matter is, i wish i had more compassion for the plight of my children. with carlos, i've thrown him out of class on several occasions for being inappropriate, and now, he's not doing his work either. but unlike the other kids, who throw things at me and steal things out of my desk, when you shout at him, he gets the puppy-with-your-head-between-your-legs look and gets very sad. not sad enough to motivate him to work, but sad enough to make your heart melt and almost forget that he hasn't done homework for a month.

so i've recently assigned my first essay in the last year and then some. i know, i'm a bad, loser teacher ... but hey, if you were facing down the barrel of 101 sucky essays, you'd quake in your boots too. anyhow ... carlos of course, has not been following the process (a five step scaffolded process, mind you) and now the final draft is due tomorrow and he had NOTHING yesterday. hadn't done the reading or any of the intermediary steps. so i shouted at him after school, bopped him on the head with the readings, made him a schedule so he'd finish his work (and gave him an extension) and told him that if he didn't take advantage of my goodwill, that i'd be supremely furious with him for a long time.

well ... he did his work. he stayed after with me yesterday when school got out early. and he stayed today after school with allie and i until a quarter to five working on his outline. and even though i shout at him and throw him out sometimes and tell him that he needs a homework officer (in lieu of a probation or truancy officer like so many of our other kids need) to beat his ass to do his work ... he still told me at the end of the day "you know you're still my favorite teacher right, miss chiu?" *meltymisschiu*

the funnest part is that carlos has a new stepbrother in the ninth grade who's in our house. i believe i've blogged about him before ... how he was the little kid that big c put in a headlock in the first week of school? justin is his name, and he makes allie's heart melt. doesn't do a whole lot more than carlos does, but you just can't be mad at either of them. and even thought they're stepbrothers and pretty new ones at that, they call each other "brother" and they get along famously and they even look alike. they're going to be good looking kids when they're older, provided that they get their heads out of their butts. but for now, they are like a couple of bumbly puppies.

but man, carlos and justin are precious.