Kids are hilarious.

The second full week is behind us! I have now seen each of my classes six times, and I know most, if not all, of the names. We are testing at the beginning of the week, and I think/hope my kids are ready for it. I am back in the full swing of teaching now and couldn't be happier!

I have had a few hilarious moments with my kids. Here are the kids who are really standing out to me right now...

Deitrich Eichelburger. This kid is about 6' tall, 250 pounds, very dark skinned, well groomed, polite, sweet, bubbly, and has the best name of the year. It really makes me giggle every time! Earlier this week, a lady came in to ask me about a student who has a truancy problem, and as she was leaving, Deitrich asked if she was my sister. I giggled and, lest, he think I was crazy, explained that in Baltimore all of my students were black and they assumed that all of the white people in the building were either related, dating, or best friends. He told me that the same thing happens here - except with his sister, because she has light skin, so no one will believe they are related.

Juan - this is a kiddo in my honors class who talks nonstop. He's the one who likes to try and get off topic by asking millions of loosely related questions. He came in from lunch on Friday telling me he was going to join the wrestling team because he'd just thrown down some hard-core wrestling move. I told him "that's nice" and he asked if I thought he could be on the team. I told him I wasn't sure he had the discipline, and he got very offended. "I can keep from talking if I want to!" I told him it was funny that he started right away with talking as his main problem, but I made a bet with him. Since he's taking a test the next time he comes in, I told him that I bet he couldn't go the whole period without saying a word. I agreed that he could ask 3 questions, and if he had anything else to say he'd have to write it down. His class is even split by lunch, so he's got time to have a break. I suspect he'll be cleaning my room for 5 days straight when I win.

Cesar and Saul - these two are in my first period on "blue" days. They are both kind of preppy, smart kids. On Thursday they asked if "the guy in that picture back there" was my husband. They asked if he still had his goatee, and I told them he has a beard now. They told me he looked like the guy from The 300 - "got a little Girard Butler action going on!" Then, I came back by their table a few minutes later to find that they had both drawn beards like Matt's on their pictures on their IDs. But, they did it with magic marker so they could shave.

Ryan - another kid in my honors class. On Wednesday, he asked me to call him Black Mamba for the rest of the year. I told him "no" and he asked if I even knew where that was from. I told him "Kill Bill," of course, and he got really upset, correcting me that it was from "that commercial with Kobe." I told him I didn't care because Kobe looks like Voldemort. He acted hurt. When he came back from lunch, he asked me his name, and I said "Ryan." He said, "no, what's my REAL name?" and I said "David" (because that's his first name). Then he said, "no, what's my NICKNAME??" and I said "Ryan." He was very frustrated. He tried again later and I said, "wasn't it like purple viper or something?" The kids all started calling him White Mamba. On Friday, he came up to the door while I was talking with Juan and asked "Mrs. Lebsack, what's my name?" and I said, "isn't it green python or something?" Juan interjected "Yellow Anaconda!" He went in feeling dejected. This same kid told me one day, "You know, I play for the Broncos." I asked him if his other nickname was Tim Tebow. He's a pretty funny kid.

Ok, so I realize that all the kids I talked about so far were boys, but that's just a coincidence. It takes girls longer to show their silly sides, so I'm sure I'll have stories about them soon.

In other news, our regular chemistry classes were starting to get a little full. In one of my classes, the chairs were 100% taken (including my desk chair), so that meant that 36 were showing up. I think there were 37 on roster. I mentioned this to my department chair after school one day, and she freaked out that it was so unsafe to have that many in a Chemistry lab and she told me she'd talk to the AP (assistant principal) who does the scheduling. The next day by 10 am we had opened a new section of Chemistry and leveled all my classes - so now I only have 32 in each. I was utterly amazed!!!

We also had 2 fire drills, but they were so uneventful that I don't even have any comment about them. I've had to take away 1 ipod and yell at 3 kids for food. That's pretty much it in terms of discipline. So now I guess I have to actually be a good teacher....

Now, off to relax....