I experienced the first environmental breakdown in my Portable Fiefdom yesterday, to whit: it got really hot. My kids made it worse, as they insisted upon closing the curtains and thus shutting out the helpful breezes from the open windows.

It's funny. One of my favourite features of my Fiefdom is my ability to dial the thermostat up or down, changing my room from brittle cold to stuporous warmth and back again. In my old room (windowless & cinderblock chic), we had the options of warm to extremely warm by the end of the day. My students refuse to dress sensibly; puffy jackets and fashionable touques abound despite the warm weather and my old room got Hades-hot by the end of each day. (Not to mention smelly. That CK cologne isn't as comprehensive as they really believe.)

I really felt betrayed by my little thermostat. I've only had her power for a short time, but I still felt the sting of failure when we all boiled over.

Some of my kids seem to float in from Mars every once in awhile to check up on the rest of us. At the beginning of my fourth period class, a kid asked me what I was doing. Now, I take attendance at the beginning of every class. EVERY CLASS. This kid musta been orbiting all this time, because he's as shocked as hell that I'm taking attendance.

As I answer the first kid, another kid starts craning his neck, trying to see the record. I figure he's interested in his absences & lates (this is another thing they seem utterly surprised by when I tell them later. "I was absent? 14 days? Late? Every day?" It's like they've been possessed.)

"It says 'rugby'," the second kid mutters, slightly relieved. (He was away for a few days playing rugby, and this was my note to that effect.)

"It says jerk," I deadpanned. "[Second kid]: jerk." He smiled.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 3/22/2005 08:36:00 p.m.