November 16, 2010
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belated birthday.
Today I got some interesting birthday presents. I got a vibra-slap. (Hey, it’s a musical instrument, shame on you.) I got an adorable Hello necklace. And I got a book of Langston Hughes poetry illustrated for children. Also, my students gave me “appreciations” today, where they were invited to say what they appreciated about me. This is our birthday ritual. It was pretty funny that most of them started trying to say something nice and wound up saying some version of Wow, I had you in kindergarten and now I get to have you again, I didn’t expect it!
One student spoke in a truly articulate way, describing the type of books he chose to read at the beginning of the year that didn’t stretch him, and pointing out how I’d I pushed him to make different choices and we’d found a book he really liked to read. “So, thank you,” he said. It was actually rather challenging to get him to make that leap, and his self-awareness was pretty impressive. A few said they thought i made learning fun. Another started out kind of confusing and went on and on in what seemed an illogical manner and we all waited patiently for him to get to his point. He wound up getting across that he really has become someone who loves reading since he has been in my class, even though he has struggled with reading for a long while. Some gifts are worth waiting for.
