full-out schoohaus warrior mode

this is my 3rd year running a little after-school program that turns kids into geeks.

some might not garner such a sense of pride from this transition as i do.

this program is what i live for. (in addition to worms, my bike, and canolis from fiorentinos)

this program accepts kids who have no computer at home, offers them the opportunity to take one apart, learn all the pieces, put it all back together, power it up, install an operating system, install some software, take it home, and have a year of internet free. these are kids who come to school at 720 for the breakfast. these are kids who won't get breakfast this summer because they won't be in summer school. these are kids who deserve a break. these are the few intrinsically self motivated little warriors that make what i do worth every second of every bad day. these are the kids i live for.

so today, i was humbled and surprised, but not really by a 'missing' computer.

an amazing student of mine, 'h', also an intern for this after-school program shows up to tell me that his computer is not where it should be, and that he can't find it.
h and i go to the room where the program is held, scour it for the machine and turn up empty-handed. stomping into sara's office i go. core cabinet meeting. forgot. door closed. no way in. secretary senses my rage and inquires. tells me she will interrupt most important meeting of the month for this crisis. sara sways unsteadily at door in disbelief. as if i had not looked hard enough. as if i could have done better. as if the 12 pages of literacy reports correlated by grade and reading proficiency level were not good enough reason to help me, asks, well have you made posters? like a milk bottle - we are to track down the missing computer ourselves.

the class, which was scheduled to be an operating system demo with assessment questions and a journal was postponed. we spent 2 hours designing posters, fliers, and taping them in the hallway. yes - we made posters. they actually turned out decent. we put everyone who stopped by to work fliering. braswell the security officer stops in holding three fliers taped to her hands asking, what the hell is this? has this been reported? does sara know?

she told me to make posters. that's what i'm doing.

it'll be reported first thing tomorrow morning.