Tiger the Leopard Gecko

Our little leopard gecko hatchling is doing very well. His name is Tiger as right now he's tiger-striped, but leopard geckos' stripes turn to spots as they get older. He (or she - you can't "sex" leopard geckos until they're older) is the highlight of the classroom. It helps that he's the cutest little thing ever - just look at his cute little face!! I've seen some "teenagers" though, and they definitely go through an awkward phase later. He eats about 5-6 small crickets a day and the kids love to sprinkle the vitamin powder in the bag with the crickets, then shake it up so the crickets are coated with vitamins (the crickets don't seem to like this part much) before we put them in the cage. He hasn't eaten in front of us yet, but he HAS pooped in front of the kids, which was really exciting! (and very very small).

The poor thing's lifespan is probably shortened by all the noise in the classroom, although I only rarely let the kids touch him. It might be my imagination, but every time I reach in his cage to pick up his coconut shell house so the kids can see him, he sort of gives me this look like, "Here comes that crazy woman again, waking me up, picking up my house... can't she just leave me alone?!" I'm pretty sure he likes weekends best.

But he is definitely serving a greater purpose. I overheard one girl talking to another - she said, "I just love him [Tiger] SO MUCH. I really think he loves me too."

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A Loss

(I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why) Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me. He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me. We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.

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A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea

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