New Student

Since the evening I first browsed my school's website (in preparation for my interview, actually), I have been well-aware of the high-rate of mobility in the boundaries.  Because we serve mostly apartment buildings, it's natural that students will be moving in and out more frequently than single-family homes.  However, unlike the revolving door that seems to be installed in my friend Miss R's classroom downstairs, I have only had 1 student move in and 1 move out.  Fairly normal, I'd say. 

Well, yesterday I received an email that I'd be starting a new student Wednesday.  No big deal, although I can't help but worry that any student joining my class in late April is most likely VERY low--anyone who is bounced around from school to school can't help but fall behind, unfortunately.  But I was confident we would be just fine.

This afternoon I received a second email from the school secretary informing me that she and her siblings haven't been in school since February.  FEBRUARY.  As in 2+ months ago.  Good lord.  Considering how much knowledge seems to leak out of my kiddos' brains between Friday and Monday, I can't imagine where she will be when she starts school again tomorrow. 

I also can't imagine the kind of home life she must have that means she's moving so close to the end of the year after being out of school for such a long period of time mid-year...

On the other hand, as I hurried to get a name tag and desk ready for her after school today, I made an awesome discovery: I was assigning her #10 in our numbering system, planning that she would take the number of the student who had moved away in December.  Easy enough!  Well, as I was writing her name on her name tag, I realized that her last name starts with the same 2 letters as the previous #10--SO SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN #10 ANYWAYS!!  (is it sad that I got so excited about that?  probably.  oooh well...)

We'll see how tomorrow goes!  In any case, I did manage to be super productive after school today and got all my reading packets and handouts made, printed, and copied for next week.  It's always a relief to have SOMETHING ready in advance when so often I am scrambling just to barely get by!!!