The good and the bad

The bad first, I always like to get bad news out of the way. I have lost a student for the second time this year. He was not a current student, having switched schools a year and a half ago, but still a student nonetheless. He stopped by our school Tuesday, but I was out of the building at an English meeting. He went home and was shot to death after getting off the bus. It is especially hard on my students because it was reminded them so much of Mel's death. We spent time talking about both of them yesterday. Even in their sadness the students' biggest worry was for the his family and how they are handling the loss.
The good--a huge thank you to the people who saw my note on Myspace or Facebook and donated to my proposal for my students. If you know any teachers, let them know about donorschoose.org. It is an amazing idea to help public school teachers get materials. If it only covered things like extermination instead of just materials--I am currently watching a mouse run around my room and jump the 7 mousetraps I have laid out. I keep telling the mice we are not friends. They seem to think that when the students leave we should hang out. I do not enjoy looking down from my computer screen to see a mouse staring at me. I repeat, "We are not friends. We don't hang out. Go away!" He isn't listening. It isn't that I'm scared, but I don't like all the darting around, it startles me and is distracting.