Ding - dong, the witch is dead!

All I can say this morning is that at least I didn't start off my day like Kristofer did yesterday. He woke up, took a shower, got dressed, took the dog out, attempted to wake up Konner to get him going to get ready to school, when he finally stopped and looked at his watch. It was 3:00 am. Yep. So he decided that he'd go back to bed!

The high schoolers are in the midst of End of Course tests. All this week, students take tests in their core classes. The ECTs count as 15% of their grade in that class, and if they don't pass they don't pass the class. No pressure! So in the midst of long senior play hours, Keri Lynn is taking her ECTs. Kristofer, too, but at least he's getting enough sleep each night.

I took Kathleen, Kylie, Kade and Konner to the play last night. It was the final performance. Yippee! Everyone did such a great job, but I'm SO GLAD IT'S OVER! REALLY GLAD!

I'm not working today so that I can take Konner to a dental appointment so that he doesn't end up being kicked out of school. I'm pretty sure most of my kids' teeth are ready to fall out of their mouths. It's time to get them back into some good dental care. I really miss our California dentist/orthodontist. That group was the best. We paid practically nothing for the work that they did. Even Keri Lynn's braces were really reasonable. We continued going to them even after we moved to Georgia while we were visiting friends and family! But now I need to get a little piece of paper signed saying that Konner has been to see a dentist here in Georgia in order for him to continue his education. Pesky school system. I need to get a dentist's okay for the rest of the kids, too, but the system hasn't caught up with them yet! It took two years for the system to figure out that Keva was going to a school out of her school district, so I'm not in a big rush other than wanting to make sure the kids don't lose all of their teeth.

Yesterday, I subbed at Kathleen's middle school. Language Arts. Gifted.

One class tried to snow me. The assignment was to read 10 pages out of the literature book and answer eight questions on page 223. They said, "Mrs. Johnson, there are no questions on page 223 or anywhere near page 223. Look! We can't do it. The teacher must have made a mistake!"

"Okay," I replied, "Go ahead and just read the pages. There's nothing that can be done about it, but at least you can read the information."

Finally, one of the boys got up and went over to the bookcase where there were a whole different series of literature books, "This is what we're supposed to be doing. Look, here's the story we've been reading, and here are the questions on page 223. I don't want to have to read all of those other pages. Besides, Someone's watching me. I can't say who in public school, but He's still watching me."

The other kids were so mad at him. One girl said, "Let's not talk to him today or tomorrow. No one say anything to him. Now we have to do all this work."

I spoke directly to him, "I am so impressed with your character. Even with the tide going against you, you still decided to do the right thing. It may be hard now. They may make fun of you and give you a hard time, but in the long run you're going to come out ahead because you've got integrity."

Then, I turned to the rest of the class, about 10 other kids, "Maybe you think that lying to a substitute is no big thing, but it is." I spoke a little bit more on standing up for what is right and then let them get back to the work at hand.

They spent the next 20 minutes in utter silence while they worked on their assignment.

I thought a lot about the incident Keri Lynn had experienced last semester when the whole class tried to cheat on an algebra quiz and how she refused to be a part of that. It's those who stand for what is right in the midst of what is wrong that can make serious change in this dark world.

When I got home, I told Kathleen about the incident. I asked her, "Would you be able to stand up for what is right in that situation."

She thought carefully and answered truthfully, "I don't know!"

This gave me an opportunity to prepare her a little bit more for the eventual opportunity to "walk the narrow road."