why is there poop on your hands?

this story is not even a joke.

I kept thinking that one of my students (male, for the record) smelled like sewage. I wasn't sure if it was him or just the area, but something smelled straight up bad. I thought about it right after lunch, but I brushed it off as probably just... ya know, a smell that happens in our room sometimes. Little kids smell, and even though I don't really appreciate poopy pants, I've always been happy that it is less common in second grade than in kindergarten.

During centers, one of the students came up to me and said, "Mr. Ward, while we were reading our book, something smelled. Really bad." I figured it was probably this boy, so I decided to investigate. People were crowded around his desk (I feel sorry for them in retrospect). I smelled the air above him and decided he was the culprit indeed. I sent him to the hall to have a chat with him.

Mr. Ward: Did something happen when you went to the bathroom? Anything out of the ordinary?
Boy: No, nothing.
Mr. Ward: Okay, because the thing is... I mean, I just think something different must have happened.
Boy: No, Mr. Ward, I don't know what you're talking about.
Mr. Ward: Um, the thing is, you smell really, really bad, and I was just wondering if maybe you'd had some problem. Can you not smell yourself?
Boy: No.
Mr. Ward: Okay, I guess you can go back inside then. (Mr. Ward is doubting himself)

[Boy passes by Mr. Ward, and Mr. Ward catches the scent again.]

Mr. Ward: Woah, woah. There's a smell here!

[Mr. Ward sniffs it out]

Mr. Ward: It's your hands! Smell your hands!

[Boy spouts off some weird excuse about drying off his hands]

Mr. Ward: Is that poop on your hands?


Yeah, I actually saw poop smeared on his hands. Fecal matter. Right there. I don't know all the details. I didn't ask. It was disgusting. I sent him off to triple wash his hands with a soap assistant. I don't even know what to do now, except for go and get some clorox wipes and try to decrease the amount of feces in my room. It shouldn't be too hard since I know the area of concentration.

i prayed it wouldn't end

No matter how I look at it, Thanksgiving break has come and gone. Today I am heading back to Houston, and tomorrow morning I will be back in the classroom. It almost seems like this week didn't happen. I'm sure that's how most of us feel.

Seeing BYU beat Utah yesterday was a real dream come true. I was pretty positive we were going to lose. At first it looked like we might stomp them (as we should have), but it turned into more of a game than that. I'm glad we beat them in the end, because there was a lot of pride on the line as always, and we were a better team.


Recently, I went to Steven Irek's wedding. Steven and I have been friends since about first grade. Our friendship was especially strong back during middle school and high school, then he went off to Texas A&M and I wandered off to BYU and Uruguay. It was a nice experience to see him get married, to be a groomsman, and to see him take a big step in his life. Amazing how quickly almost everyone I used to know got married. When I was 21 (which was only 3 years ago, need I remind you) almost everyone I knew was still single. Things change quickly.


In honor of Steven's wedding, we went to see the NASCAR truck races in Dallas the weekend before. I never knew why people like NASCAR so much, but now I do. It is pretty much like watching track and field, with speed and sound increased like 100 times over.

Most of all it was nice to see some old friends at Steven's wedding like:

sam chan

kristen lark

zack pasi

and here i am with the man of the hour, Steven Irek.

Congratulations, Steven. May your marriage be strong and may you bear many kin.

BYU on the rise

BYU, we will all be happy to know, had a very large number of applicants accepted last year to Teach for America. We were right on par with Columbia and USC. Way to go, guys!

grades are due

Am I the only teacher who procrastinates grading all throughout the six weeks until that fateful day when you get the email that says "Grades are due this Friday"? Well I certainly do. This is the second time my grades are due, and unfortunately it is also the second time that I have procrastinated in doing my grades.

Last night I enlisted my buddy Jason in the effort to help me get my grades done. We were up until about 11:20 grading and then I laid down for a solid 6 hour night. I've been feeling pretty good today, and actually a little less tired than most days, but I know this high can only last so long.

Before we went to the apartment to start grading, I bought a 10 key (a keyboard with just the numbers), since Jason was doing the data entry and I feel bad for anyone who has to do data entry without one.

And even though I don't have any more purpose for my 10-key now that my grades are done, until next 6 weeks, I just feel like I need to use it right now in order to make it worth the money. So here's my dedication song to my newest purchase, the 10 key.



4543513187897894568451321548979/***/654513245878945321

34541351

541515--++--+/*/*/**/5464631312134345463152135415464575767879789876543210000000000000000000000000

2320231315151310000000000215156156132131

Time to put it away for a while, it appears.

quiero una sorpresa

I have a little girl in my class and today was her birthday. I forgot, but we still made it a special day in a lot of ways. This girl is really, really shy. I don't think she opened her mouth for the first month, but she's warming up. In the morning I slipped her an extra dollar to use in the class store on Friday and then we sang to her and I kept reminding her that it was her special day. The science teacher gave her a book, and I thought the day was going well for her.

Then, in the middle of a transition in the afternoon, she walks up to me and out of the blue says, "Quiero una sorpresa" (I want a surprise). I was like, is this girl really asking me for a... a surprise? I mean, that's kind of against the rules of surprise. Plus, considering I had forgotten it was her birthday in the first place, I had no idea what to give the girl.

Next time it's your birthday, remember to ask the people most important for a surprise. It'll really catch them off guard.

She got a chocolate. I try to keep some in the room because you never know. I tried to make it feel like a surprise by slipping it into her pocket. She was grinning for an hour afterward.

why is this job so exhausting?

Yes, I do work with little kids all day. But still, should I be this exhausted?

Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed at about 9:30. I was feeling good, just sitting on my balcony, watching the rain fall and humming a little song to myself. It was actually a song that I was thinking about writing down.

THEN

EXPLOSION. The transformer across the parking lot BLEW UP IN FRONT OF MY EYES. I thought I was going to die. It was so loud and caused by just a little drizzle. Seriously.

I went to bed and opened the windows but it was hot as all get up in my bedroom, so I couldn't fall asleep. I stayed awake until about 11, woke up at 6 am, and even though it was a pretty good day in the classroom, I am really feeling the exhaustion setting in right now at about 6 pm. And it's Monday, oh yes, it's Monday.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this job is that I am putting in everything I have, all of my heart, time, and energy, but I am yet to see any results. Of the 11 kids who started out on the lowest reading level (aa), NONE moved up the last time I tested them. Their goal is to move like 6 or 7 levels by the end of the year, and none moved. Is this a fruitless effort? Will it one day just click and I will see some amazing significant gains out of the blue? Or will I just drive my body and my mind into the dirt, hoping for that day?

I'm going to go get a haircut, exercise, and clear my mind of such difficult questions until tomorrow at 6 am.

Bling Blang

One day one of my girls (who is adorable) came to school sporting the "bling on the teeth" look. Apparently it's the next big thing.

Do they do this in normal places too or is this just a ghetto-thing?

Cut me Mick!

The last few months have been really hard. You can probably tell that just from looking at my blog and realizing that August, September, and October only have one blog post each. I am pretty sure I fell into a deep pit somewhere along the way and am just now emerging out of it - finally being able to see things clearly and put first things first.

Teaching school has been a great experience for me so far. I really enjoy teaching these kids and we have some good times. In English, 11 of my 19 kids are reading at Pre-K levels. I once thought it was a little better than that, but after some further diagnostics, I see that none of them are any level higher than that. That is rough stuff, but I know that they are smart kids (at least in Spanish) and that if we really push it hard, they'll be able to pull ahead in English.

In Math we have our issues. The boys are really good at math, but the girls really struggle. I hate to break it up on gender lines like that, but so it goes.

I do enjoy actual teaching, but I also really enjoy the experiences we have day to day. Like yesterday for example, I was told that this one kid wouldn't be able to come in because his eye was shut closed and they would have to cut it. Some fight with his brother involving the bathtub apparently. So I was like "Oh, cool, just like Rocky." (Cut me Mick. Cut me!) When he showed up today, sure enough, he definitely looked like Rocky. I took a picture of him so that he can always remember the day that he looked like the greatest fighter there ever was.

Tonight we're going to the Houston Children's Museum and all of the kids are majorly pumped about that. I've never been so hopefully I'll snap some good photos. I'm also working on some media consent forms for the parents so I can post pictures on my blog. They're just too darn adorable to not let you guys see them now and again. At the same time, I don't want to get sued.