More students on the brain

Today I had a student who comes to my class quite irregularly come in to make up a quiz. I don't know why he doesn't come. He is a sweet kid, tall for his age, wears braces and smells like urine. He didn't actually pass my class last quarter, but he is in  trying as hard as he can when he comes. He has a short attention span, but never causes problems. Why does he smell like urine? Why doesn't he come to school every day?

I have a darling, fun, short boy in my 4th period class who doesn't care so much about passing my class, but is super fun to have in class. I'm always a little bit sorry when he doesn't come. Yesterday he went to the bathroom and when he came back I couldn't get his attention. He sits on the front row and was talking to the girl behind him. When I went over to his desk to wait for his attention, the girl told him I was waiting for him. He turned and looked at me with the whole class watching and told me with the worst expletive that he didn't care to give me his attention. I asked him to step outside with me where I asked him what was going on. This behavior is totally out of the normal for him. He wouldn't talk to me and was visibly upset. I sent him to the dean's office to cool down and wrote a behavior referral. Then I took the class outside to do a speaking activity. On the way out I talked to the girl he had  been talking to and asked her what the deal was. She said that while he was in the bathroom a kid accused him of taking a pencil and harassed him. He made my student empty his pockets. No wonder he was upset! I saw him after school and was able to see that he was doing better and told him that his friend had told me what happened. I don't think anything could be done about it, but I told him that what happened to him was wrong and should never have happened. I hope he is in class tomorrow and feeling better.

I have second lunch, which is always a bit hard for the class right before lunch. Everyone struggles a little bit. I have a student in my 5th period (right before lunch) who comes in late every day. He just goes to first lunch, gets his tardy pass from the Dean and then comes in and either talks to all the students around him and throws papers on the ground or goes to sleep. Today he mercifully went to sleep in the back. I admire his independent spirit to just do what he wants because he obviously doesn't care if he passes Spanish or gets suspended or what any of the consequences might be. The other interesting thing about him is that he has a glass eye. Maybe other consequences pale when you have lost an eye.

Some of my hardest students are suspended right now and my classes have been so manageable! Today I had only 33 students in each of my classes and it was definitely do-able.