One week down.

I've successfully survived the first week back to school and fortunately my students have too (this was not a given, considering how irritated I was with the behavior of one 4th-grade class before break!).

And with the return to the classroom, I have yet another boy added into my already-testosterone-laden 27-person 5th-grade classroom. But no, this is not just any new boy, new to town. No, in fact he comes from another elementary school, just around the corner. Doesn't compute? That's what I thought too. Why am I so fortunate to have another student in my class?

This is where it gets interesting. He was viré - expelled - from his last school (and possibly the one before that?) "Why?" I dared to ask the 5th-grade teacher. "He got up in the middle of class and punched another kid in the face," he explained. Apparently this was not unusual behavior for the boy.

So, expelled from one school before break, his parents had to choose where he would go after. They chose my school. Swell.

"Don't expect much from him in English," I was warned by the classroom teacher. "Just... don't expect much." Regardless of linguistic or cultural differences, there was a crystal-clear sous-entendu - literally, "under-heard" - with that statement and the look he gave me. "Don't push too hard," the look said, "and tread lightly."

Thanks for the warning.

That was Monday. On Thursday:

"That's not how my old English teacher did it!" the boy called out from the back of the classroom. I was having the students themselves write our ritual class-starting sentences on the board ("Today is..." "Yesterday was..." "Tomorrow will be..." "The weather today is..."). This is new for all of my students, not just for this one boy, since I only started having them do the writing this week, but everyone else was taking it in stride - not to mention clammoring to be allowed to write on the board.

"Well, I'm not your old English teacher. I do things differently," I gave the standard adult/teacher/parent answer. He looked confused, but fortunately didn't respond. Crisis averted.

Like I've always said, there's never a dull day in the classroom!