They just keep popping up...

...Like daisies!

Let's see...three new kids in my last class on the first day of school. Ok. No biggie. I found out at the end of that day that three students had been dropped from that class without my knowledge (thank you, Mr. 8th grade counselor), so I just had to adjust my seating charts a tiny bit.

Yesterday was smooth sailing - only one girl added to my second class. And she just switched hours, not an entirely new kid.

Today Mr. 8th Grade Counselor came walking into my first class with a new student for that hour. At least she's a sweetie and I won't have to keep an eye on her every second like I'm used to doing with the kids he throws my way. Later that same class he comes in again with another new student. At least this time he decided to give me a bit of a warning...this new girl would be in my last class of the day. Yet again, another sweetie. Thank goodness.

This last class on A days I have a set of twins...it's funny having the set in a class together. I'm not complaining, they're quiet and good and stinkin' cuties (as most of them are). Now I just have to remember to put the right name with the right facial features. It'll help now that they aren't sitting right next to eachother.

I introduced this game called "24" to my kids today. My second class was absolutely hilarious with it. The jist of the game is this: you have four numbers and must use all four once and only once by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing to get the number 24. The process is what we're looking for, as we know the answer is always 24. My second class just ate it up. They even applauded their classmates who solved the more challenging problems! It just made me so proud to see that comraderie evolving already.

I hope my last class will have some fun with the game, too. They're taking a pre-test right now. So quiet! I cherish these moments as much as I do the ones when everyone is involved in the lesson and having fun!

ADDENDUM
And now that the day is done (some hour and a half or so later)...One of my new additions to my last class has now been switched out. Mr. 8th Grade Counselor came in towards the end of the hour and said that her schedule had been screwed up (she had been put on two different teams) and it was now fixed. The poor girl. She looked so sad when she handed me her math book as she left at the end of the day! She even said that my class was fun. THAT'S something you don't hear every day when teaching math.

Oh, right. I took a couple pictures of my kids last hour before transitioning into the game 24. One table was working on a couple puzzles that I always have lying on my desk. Darn kid decided to stick his tongue out at me as I snapped that photo. Typical 7th grader.

The other photo was absolutely classic, though. One of my kids finished his stuff early and asked me what he should do. He didn't want to read and didn't have any homework to get a head start on, so I told him he could sleep if he wanted to. Hey, at least he'd stay quiet that way! He took me up on that one and he could be found lying underneath the back table where the classroom computers are lined up. The picture turned out beautifully. Like I said - Classic.