As if senioritis wasn't enough...

Even though the weather has been more spring-like and less summery, everyone knows the end is in sight. With 4 weeks of "learning" left and 1 week of finals (seniors are excused, can you believe it?), it's been difficult to reign in the little monsters. I say "learning" because, well, that's what's supposed to happen. At least I'm still teaching and assigning homework. Unfortunately, that homework gets lost on the common lawn where students play frisbee, sun tan, talk about prom and sleep. Oh, and launch water balloons from a makeshift catapult. Oh you guys...

Senioritis has bit the upperclassmen, but the lowerclassmen got the ripple effect of it all. Where was all of that energy in the fall and winter terms?? Sigh.

Lately, there are so many school absences with end-of-year trips (arts department, althletics, clubs) and college visits. My seniors, who have already been accepted to college, are still taking time off to visit, again. What??

Let's not forget Dorm Softball, where the whole school teams up and plays softball for 1-2 hours every night. Fun, I know, but all of these things add up.

And if all that wasn't enough, the whole school is playing Assassins!! Everyone is walking around with toy water guns, or plastic water bottles with a tiny hole in the cap. Classrooms are "safe zones" so in a typical day, I hear this sequence of noises: running, screaming-water splashing-laughter, more running, and sometimes the slam of a classroom door. I hear desperate pleas for help from kids who think they are going to die any minute because they may suspect they are being followed. They plead: "Keep watching me, okay? Don't take your eyes off of me, pleeaase!" If someone sees the water shooting, it doesn't count. No one wants to go to the bathroom alone, not even boys.

I try to stay out of it, but today I got the following email: "Madame, alright so... since there's no better way to put this, I need to kill Natalia, because I already killed the person who was going to kill her, and that was Timi. So instead of stalking her 24/7 after French class tomorrow to find a time she's alone, can you call her out afterclass to stay for a minute and then run out of the room seeming like you're going to your office for a handout or something, and then I run back in to snipe!
That would be pretty funny, haha." 

I love his haha at the end. I told him I believed in him and his killer instincts; that he'd find a way to get her by his own means. You may think I'm mean, but a kid's gotta get out from mommy's skirts and be a man, right? We'll see if Natalia is alive tomorrow....