The Missing Piece

Much like last week, my office hours today were attended by lonely sixth graders looking for a little conversation. That's fine by me, though; it's hard to replace the social piece of school, and if being present for an hour is helpful, then I'm in.

This time I split my required hour into two half hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. One of the students who stayed on for the whole hour last week, attended both of the conferences today. He didn't have any questions about the material, and once my 2 minute presentation was over, neither did his classmates, so we just chatted about what their days are like. They gave each other video game, TV, and movie recommendations; a few mentioned books and new hobbies; everyone said they missed school.

At the end of the last session, it was just me and a couple of boys, one of them the frequent flyer. The three of us had just wrapped up a conversation about whether or not we like scary movies in a scary time (nope!) and who's allowed to watch R-rated movies (just me!), and I was getting ready to end the conference. "Ms. S?" my regular attendee interrupted. "Do you have an x-box?"

I had to confess I didn't. "Maybe that should be my pandemic purchase," I laughed.