Proud of this girl

shan

Teaching casts long shadows. I taught this girl six years ago now. She sat at the end of a table, sneaking in reading time, fat books unrelated to the science fiction elective that I taught at the end of the school day. I watched her read and began to buy her books. She came in and cleaned my room every so often, probably to pay me back for the books. She began coming to my afterschool groups and my class parties, that year and the following year. Mostly, I taught bilingual classes but we included this girl in our groups. I could not be happier for my new soldier, who sent me a handwritten letter, obviously written in bits at different times. Some of the handwriting looks exhausted. “The food here is tolerable,” she says, a bit after letting me know she had qualified with grenades. Your soldier, she signed the letter.

Eduhonesty: The eduhonesty blog feels too negative sometimes because I am critiquing my life in education, tracking problems such as excessive testing and meeting times. This post helps put the life of a teacher in perspective. I love this picture and the letter that came with it. I am so proud of this girl.