A perfect day.

Days like today make me remember why I love teaching so much.


Today was such a good day. One of my good friends from BYU, Sarah (Killingsworth) Miller, volunteered from 8 - 12 today. She just might be one of the best volunteers I've had! She caught on to what the students were doing and came up with some great ideas when helping them with their assignments. I was so glad to have her because several of my 7th grade students needed serious helping working on their research essays from their English classes. The essay topic was on bullying and of course these students have had several weeks to work on their outline and type it out. One of the teachers had several research days in the computer lab, and yet they still didn't have a single thing written down on their outline packet!

Anyway, you get the idea. So as soon as Sarah came in this morning, I assigned her to help a girl on the essay. They worked really well together and got most of the outline packet filled out. I had Sarah work with a 7th grade boy in my 2nd period and that went well too. **Just so you get a picture of what we're dealing with here, the 7th grade boy, we'll call him Bobby, has THE HARDEST time accomplishing work on his own. According to his mom, he moves like molasses. He is just slow at everything. He doesn't even show a lot of emotion! If he's happy/sad/grumpy/whatever I couldn't tell the difference. So, this essay has been stressing me out because unless he has one-on-one help, he doesn't do anything. Now, before you get the wrong idea, it is not because he is defiant or non-compliant, he just zones out and has a hard time processing things and then getting his ideas out of his head.

Well, Sarah helped him as much as she could. We even pulled him out of his 4th period so that Sarah could help him. Still, we didn't quite finish the essay before Sarah had to leave.
Once students filled out their outline, they had to type their essay into a program called Utah Write. (It actually scores the essay, which is really cool.) The highest score you can get is a 30. Bobby's teacher wouldn't accept anything less than a 22, so it was important to make sure all the right components were included.

I was really impressed with Bobby because, as I've mentioned, he doesn't usually show a lot of motivation to get things done. Well, I had mentioned that I might pull him out of his 5th period (which was dance) so that he could finish the essay. Before 4th period ended, he asked me if I was going to pull him out because he is going to be gone tomorrow and he wanted to get the essay done. Wow! Talk about being proactive.

Well, Sarah ended up staying for lunch and when her husband, Marty, came to pick her up, we all ended up talking. So, it wasn't until about half way through the period that I remembered that I had promised to pick up Bobby and the girl Sarah worked with in 1st period! EEEK! I called the Special Ed team room and had one of the paras go pick up these two diligent student. We had about 20 minutes left in the period and guess what...BOBBY FINISHED HIS ESSAY! Lisa, one of the paras, helped him finish it. She had been typing while he dictated the essay to her. When it was finished, she said, Alright Bobby, let's have you click the submit button.

When he clicked submit and saw his score, his face lit up. Bobby received a 24 all on his own! I have never seen a smile full of so much joy! My heart was singing! And every time we praised him and told him how great he did, that same huge smile popped up on his face. It was the most inspiring moment.

I want to make a shout out to parents, teachers, anyone who works with children and youth. Be positive! Help them and let them see what they can accomplish! I promise the feeling you will get when you see their joy is like nothing else you will experience.

-Ms. Damron-