Mind Games, Monday Cactus Update!

So today, I began a new journey in my (hopefully not very long)career as an educational assistant.
I traded off two of my periods, one of which was working one on one, the other was ninth grade English, for two periods working with high risk students.
These students, mostly ninth and tenth graders, have been isolated from the regular classroom for, well, let's just say social problems.
It's not that they don't get along with other students, it's just that they sort of get along too well. The other side is that they don't get along well with school.
I mean school in general.
Actually, it's not that bad.
Sort of.
If you really think about it.
I think.
I mean it's only my first day and all.
Everything sort of centers around mind games and power plays.
If you know what I mean.
I'm not going to get into why these kids are the way they are, I suppose there are a myriad of reasons for that, instead I try to focus on how to turn things around.
I mean I have to think about the reasons why, it's just that for the most part, I'm not able to do much about the why part, so I figure focusing on solutions is better.
I think.
I believe I sort of have an insight to all this, being a high school drop out myself, but let's face it, the troubles of kids today is not quite like what I faced many years ago in another life.
Hopefully, things go all right.
I mean if I can grow cactus from scratch, I can do anything, right?
Speaking of cactus, the progress remains slow and I think in the right direction.
That would be upwards.
I hope.
The neobuxbaumia polylopha is going good, getting all fuzzy and all:



I need to find me a Ripley action figure so I can make an Aliens diorama.
The carnegiea gigantea is not really worth reporting on since they pretty much look like they did two weeks ago. They'll probably look like this for the next few years:



I finally figured out how to say 'saguaro' and it's not like how it looks.
Okay, all you cowboys out there can laugh at me now, just don't come here and try to pronounce Hawaiian street names.
The other cacti are still sort of hiding under the rocks:



I thought the Saguaro was slow to grow!
The disappointment was in the opuntia, the flat looking fuzzy cactus that's supposed to grow like the dickens:



Maybe I just got some bad seeds. I ordered another opuntia variety last week and I'm excited get them planted.
Er, sowed.
Started, germinated.
Whatever.
Come to think about it, growing cactus is sort of like what I do in the classroom.
All I can do is plant some seeds and hope things work out.