#18

My second diabetic student in my career of teaching. He was fairly self-sufficient, knowing when he had to go down to the nurse. His numbers were never too out of control and the disease did not take over his life or his personality. 18 was different in how he interacted with people. I wondered toward the end of the year if he was on the autism spectrum but never brought that up with his mother, for whom diabetes did take over. Not being sure and not wanting to be overly diagnosing, I let it go and maybe that was a mistake. 18 would get in trouble sometimes for just staring. When you are talking to a kid about what he did wrong and he just stares blankly at you and doesn't answer any of your questions, it seems at first to be defiant behavior. Later in the year it seemed more like missing social cues. Not really understanding that I was mad or that he really had to answer my questions - weird rhetorical sounding questions that teachers use - "Didn't you realize you were taking the ball right from 11s hands?" Of course he realized it and to a kid that has trouble with social cues, he might not have known the best way to answer. Most kids would lower their head and agree until their forced apology was begrudgingly accepted by the victim of the situation. 18 would just sit and stare. Also strange was his interaction with close friends. He would almost zero in on the kids and try repeatedly to get a laugh or an acknowledgment from them. Walking around, he would completely invade that person's space so much that the kid would eventually try to back away. I am hoping that this was all a maturity issue, or even a blood sugar issue, and that I have not committed him to a life of being in trouble and misunderstood by not mentioning my thoughts to the parent.

#17

It is hard to remember so many details at this point, but I figure I'll remember more now than any day that follows, so...

17 was always smiling. He did not understand or retain many of the concepts and I wish I had had more help with him. He would have done so well in the class I have this year with aides and teachers in and out all day helping out. He was friends with the small group of boys that were all a little lower academically and all had an interest in games like World of Warcraft, Yugio, and Pokemon. He got along with everyone and was one who had little stories for me on an almost daily basis.

#16

16 always knew what I was talking about. At least that is what he always said. He was one of the lower kids in ELA but whenever I tried to explain something to him, he would interrupt me toward the end to say "Oh, ok. Ok." Most of the time I believed that he understood me. Another lesson learned. He remained a B/C student for most of the year, excelling more in math than the other areas. By the end of the year, he came out of his shell. He was sitting with a small group of girls and they got very silly and giggly. He had red hair and he would laugh so hard that his face would turn the color of his hair. It was so great to see him actually being a kid. He would make funny, sarcastic comments. I wonder if I had joked around with him more at the beginning if he would have been like that all year. The two lesson I learned with 16 were don't always believe a kid when they say they understand something - asking them to explain it to me would probably be a better route than talking and then moving on to the next student satisfied with the "oh ok." The second lesson is that maybe the kid who acts like they don't want your help is just not comfortable and needs a chance to let himself be known in class.

# 15

15 was across the hall from me the year before I had him. He was good friends with two boys from my class who always got very excited when they saw him or his older brother. I was excited to get him because he seemed like a nice kid. "Nice kid" is the understatement of the school year. He was like the dream child. He was the most polite child I have probably ever met. He would greet me and any other adults in the room by name each morning, and say goodbye every single day on his way out to be picked up by his mother. He always did his work and had the most beautiful handwriting you have ever seen. Sometimes I felt guilty correcting his work because it felt like I was scribbling all over a work of art. He was the first to become friends with #9, playing basketball with her on the hard top at recess. When rearranging seats, I knew I could put him next to anyone and he would be a good influence on them and set the tone of hard work and serenity. These qualities made it so easy and comforting to be around him and the other kids seemed to feel that way as well. I will miss having such a kind, reliable kid around every day.

#14

It has taken me a long time to get to this one. Partially because I have been busy with two weeks on the Cape and then catching up with friends in the area who are close enough to easily see but far enough away that I usually don't have the energy to get out to them. The other reason is that I do not know how to write about #14. He is incredible and one of the most rewarding and interesting students I have had in all my dealings with children throughout my life. Probably the most brilliant as well. I knew 14 when he was in 2nd grade because a teacher's aide, who is still a good friend, watched 14 and his brother in the mornings at our school. She put 14 on the bus to the lower school. Often, at the age of 7, 14 came to school in a suit. He would make witty comments and remark on whatever reading he was doing at the time or whatever new fact he had learned. At the time he would say that he wanted to be a politician. This past year he had added 'lawyer' to the possibilities.

The huge piece that is missing from this description is that every book or fact that he was into on any given day had to do with American history. From at least that age he was obsessed. He read every book and remembered every detail. He had his facts as straight as his tie.

Luckily in 5th grade we focus on American history in social studies. 14 was in his prime. He raised his hand and added extra information and fun facts during each and every lesson. He made my classroom into a place where webkinz and Hannah Montana were left at the door in favor of the history channel and biographies. Knowledge was in and that is every teacher's dream. It made me realize that just having a passion for knowledge and being willing to share that is contagious. By the middle of the year when 14 would offer up some inside gossip about John Adams, this would be followed by 3 or 4 hands being raised to try to add something just as juicy, or else to add the time and channel that a show on John Adams could be seen the following Sunday night.

14 joined the school newspaper and was assigned an article on the primary elections. 14 decided to describe the process and then chose 2 random candidates from each side to describe. He chose Hillary and McCain. I had always wondered which side he would fall on politically, but never wanted to ask him. So, I took the article as my opportunity and, after complementing him on it, asked him, if he could vote, who would he choose between the two. His answer solidified my decision to vote for him one day when he will be running for some important office - "Hillary, definitely."

At the end of the year, I had my class working on biography posters. I wanted them to choose someone who was fairly modern and could be considered a hero in some way. I posted a list of possible people, including Howard Zinn in hopes that he would capture 14's interest. In fact, I added 'historian' parenthetically after his name. I knew that 14 had read some liberal books on history that tried to incorporate a more equitable story, but I also knew that he would find Howard Zinn fascinating and that he could learn even more about the struggles of minorities in this country and the background stories to the major eras that he knew so much about already.

My manipulation worked perfectly. 14 chose Zinn. I gave him the kids' version of A People's History and he read it cover to cover. Each day he would comment to me about how much he loved it and then let me know some new information that he had discovered that would usually end with "can you believe it?" And me: "I can't." I wish that I had kept his paragraph about Zinn. It was incredibly written and insightful. He used many words that would sail right over the heads of many adults, let alone fifth graders. The last amazing quality that I am going to leave you with is that, in this report and throughout the year, each time he used an advanced word like "oppressed" or "conspiracy" he would stop and explain it humbly in perfect 5th grade lingo. As I wrote to him in a card near the end of the year, "I look forward to seeing all the great things you will do."

#13

13 is the third of 4 blond, bright girls. One day she will be lobbying congress for some environmental cause. That is if she can ever not be incessantly reading. It sounds completely backwards, but she got in trouble a couple of times for reading! She always had her nose in a book. She had some good friends in class but many times during snack or indoor recess she was trying to get through one series or another. At the end of the year, I was tallying up pages from our "read-a-thon" to see who got a prize or a medal at Prize Day and 13 was not even up to the first prize level. So a few girls sat with her during any free time for at least a day and tried to tally up all the pages from the piles and piles of books that 13 pulled out of the book shelf that she had read during the entire school year. Usually, I won't let kids enter them much later than when they finished a book, but it was crazy that 13 wouldn't be recognized for reading on Prize Day, and the rest of the kids knew it too. It turned out that out of all the books from my shelves that she had read the total was over 7,000 pages. Which did not include books she had read at home.

13 brought such a calm, patient, and logical presence into room 22. She had amazing abilities in all subjects and made A's look effortless. I will miss her sweet ways and surprisingly dry, witty humor at unexpected times.

Far Away

Someone shouts in Annie's ear,
But what they're saying she can't hear.
Buzzers buzz and school bells ring,
Annie doesn't hear a thing.
Friends can jostle, tug, and pinch,
Annie doesn't move an inch.
"Oooo, here comes a big black bug!"
Annie does not even shrug.
"Fire!" "Earthquake!" "Runaway bus!"
She remains oblivious
Until, at last, with a faraway look,
Annie smiles and shuts her book.

-Carol Diggory Shields

#12

In the fifth grade, each month a different student is selected in each class to be the "Student of the Month." There is a big ceremony and the chosen ones get to stand up in front of everyone, shake the principal's hand and get a bunch of prizes. They also get their picture and certificate up on the main bulletin board across from the gym on the first floor and their name mentioned in the monthly newsletter. This is obviously a big deal and, even if you might not think so, most 10 year olds that I have come across covet this honor and get their hopes up each month. Also hopefully obvious in this blog is that I think that ten year olds have a lot to offer. Every kid I have ever had in my classroom wants to do well. Even if what they want more than that is to have someone is to have someone who wants them to do well. Even elusive #5 (who is missing from the list but will be filled in at some point later when I have more energy to remember the time when I thought I was going to quit). Even he had a desire to do well even if all the other forces in his life were telling him that he should just give up.

So Student of the Month is bittersweet for me and I tell my kids this at the beginning of each year. Something like, "I hate having to choose someone for Student of the Month because I know that all of you have positive qualities that I want to recognize, but only half of you will get that honor." Then I go on to tell them that I try to make up for this by doing a Student of the Week each week. It is much less official. Usually done halfway down the hallway on the way to bus dismissal on Friday afternoon:

Some helpful student: Miss Corday you forgot to do Student of the Week!
Me: Oh yeah! Go grab the pencil off the windowsill behind my desk.

Then I make a quick announcement at the bottom of the stairs, usually based on events from the previous 3 hours since that's all I can remember at the time. Students clap. That's the whole "ceremony." I need to be better about that.

#12 was my first Student of the Week this year for "being herself". It was hard to decide if receiving this gift would spawn a "class clown" of infinite proportions or would allow the other students to come out of their own shells and be themselves more. 12 was always outgoing and silly from day one. She walked into class every day with a smile on her face and seemed determine to spread that to anyone who was nearby. And being the first Student of the Week did not go to her head. I would find out that this was probably because she spent the year before with a teacher who did not tolerate any speaking out and any excessive or funny comments. Or just that, like most other kids, she just wanted to do the right thing and be good. 12 was very bright and did not apply herself at first. Most of my comments on her report card were along the lines of "not working to potential." I saw her really come into her own this past year. I love the 10-11 year old. I feel like most of them are just starting to really see what they are all about and they adjust themselves so simply and importantly throughout the school year.

By the end of the year, 12 was participating at an acceptable level and contributing all those great comments and questions that I knew she had inside her. Many of her comments were made in a silly way, but were always relevant and appropriate and or/easily changed into something serious. Yes, she still named everything Fred or Larry. In the yearbook she filled in the sentence "One thing I will never forget..." with "that piece of grass out in the field that I named Henry." Yes, she still scribbled over the "teacher comments" section of her assignment book each day so that when I stamped (my way of checking that they had everything written down while providing a certain color based on their behavior for the day) I had to stamp in the "parent comment" section, which to her meant that each day I had "adopted" her. But she managed to keep that in check and grow academically as well as socially. I will miss all the silliness and I hope I always have someone in my class who can be fun without crossing the line and who provides a great example of just being yourself. Hopefully she can carry this with her next year and avoid the drama that she was beginning to slip into toward the end of the year.