i'm so incredibly annoyed with my honors students. they can be so heinously hoity-toity-nose-high-enough-to-drown when it comes to sharing space with "the great unwashed," but when it comes to doing work, they put out the shizziest crap ever. i still have another 2 hours of grading to do and i feel like i'm wasting my time.

on the upside ...
i had a kid moment today. mateo (whom i often call hideyo when i get het up ... i try not to look too into it. their names are just similar!) has really grown and grown up so much in the last two years. he was so dorky little boy last year. couldn't do any work. couldn't keep it together. just wanted to play football and occasionally flick a booger at a girl. now he's taller, taking his work seriously, cutting class less, and generally just busting ass in school -- a totally new paradigm for him. he still got two f's on the progress report b/c of some major missing assignments and he was so incredibly despondent about it in class. it's just so interesting to see a kid who has NEVER done school be upset by poor grades. i could see that he was ready to throw in the towel and be a poor student again. i mean, admittedly, it's really hard work to be good. but i pulled him out of chem (many thanks to jenny for fielding the honors class) and we went to take a walk and let him talk it out. and he was so honest about it. about how he was feeling and how he wanted to do well. and so we talked about next steps, and i offered a few words of encouragement. something along the lines of "honey, you've been busting your ass so hard lately. and we're all so proud of you, and we'd hate to see you throw in the towel at the first sight of trouble. keep going." he immediately made up a geometry benchmark after school and now he only has one F to deal with. :) this is what i love about being an advisor. i don't think i was born to be a teacher. i think i was meant to be a life coach.

Lord, thanks for reminding me even though this job seems so thankless sometimes, You are present and that You can use me.