Oh, Larson! Some things never change...

So I have this one student, Larson, whom I adore. He's cute, he's funny, he's smart...there's only one problem--HE DRIVES ME ABSOLUTELY INSANE! Little Larson has so much energy that he just cannot seem to contain it. Granted he is seven years old, but after 2 1/2 hours of telling him to sit in his seat, to stop hitting/kicking/punching/tackling the other students, and to put away his drawing utensils I'm a bit worn out. I've had to send him to the secretaries (a fate far worse than going to the principal's office) numerous times. You would think that Larson would hate me, or at least resent me, after constantly getting in trouble. Nope--he's still my little bud.

So I think I've finally figured out why it's so hard to get him and my other beginning writing students to behave/calm down in my class--they have an hour nap right before my class. So their exhausted little bodies have enough time to recharge and have even more uncontrollable energy.

There is a large room on the third floor at Berhan where all the little kids lay down on cots and take their nap. Larson, for some reason or another, has been banned from the large room and takes his "nap" out in the hall. Yes, I use the term nap very loosely. At most he lies down and is somewhat quiet. He easily gets distracted from his "nap" and talks to anyone and everyone who happens to pass by. I've experienced this several times as I have gone down stairs to make copies, or to even leave the building. He asks me where I'm going. If I buy anything he wants to know what I bought. If I happened to buy food he wants to know if I'm bringing it to class and if he can eat it at that moment. Often as I'm walking up the stairs to the 4th floor (the teachers lair) I hear him "whispering", "Teacher come here! Miss Shanna! Come back!"

Yesterday, I decided that this little event that happens daily needed to be documented. So while he was distracted talking to some other students that he wasn't supposed to talk to, I took the liberty of photographing him. And here's the result:

Yeah, he's not sleeping.

The picture quality isn't that great--I do apologize. But, in my defense, I was trying to be stealth-like and not have him notice. And just after the last picture he did notice and came over to me running.

A side note: I think one of the main reasons I have such a soft spot for Larson is because he reminds me so much of my own brother when we were young.

That's about all for now. Who knows? I'm on a blog writing roll, and I may actually write another this afternoon. We'll see. Tak jo, ahoj!