A Little Unbalanced, I'd Say.

In the past week, eight new 7th graders have enrolled in The School.  I got five of them.  Mrs. Eagle got one and Mrs. Angora got two.  This is not to be unexpected, because we usually get a lot of kids moving in and out over the holidays.  The Guidance Diva also noticed that many of these kids had the address belonging to the cheap but gang-infested brick apartment buildings down the road, so apparently some units have opened up.  Two of my kids are sort of homeless - Mom has an RV and parks it wherever someone will let her.  Another one is living in a church with his family.

Sad.

In any case, our numbers are going up because, for what seems like the first time in forever, we didn't have any kids move off the team.  No one left.  So now I have 28 in my homeroom and most of my classes are in the high twenties.  Mrs. Eagle and all the other seventh grade teachers are in the same boat.

So on Tuesday of last week, Mrs. Eagle and I are walking down to the science lab to grab some graduated cylinders, droppers, and beakers to use in a lab on Wednesday.  The science lab is at the very end of the eighth grade hallway so we had a chance to walk by the eighth grade classrooms who were in session.

As we're walking along, Mrs. Eagle says, "Hey, take a moment to check out those class sizes as we walk by."

We walk, and glance in through the doors and glass frames (which give you a pretty good view of the rooms) and realize that these rooms are practically empty!  They have class sizes in their teens!  One of the last rooms we go by belongs to Mrs. Hummingbird's science class.  (Mrs. Hummingbird taught with us a few years ago and we miss her and love her).  She sees us, comes to the door to wave and say hi and we realize that she has 16 kids in her room!  SIXTEEN KIDS!

OH. MY. GOSH.

My first thought was, man, are they going to be in for a surprise next year when we dump the huge group of seventh graders we have on them.  My second thought was that they better find a way to get another seventh grade team next year because the sixth grade currently has about 50 more kids than we do!

Wow.  I wouldn't even know how to deal with a class of 16....