So, I had one of those awesome-I-feel-like-a-making-a-small-difference teacher moments today.
To practice accurate dialogue punctuation, I had my students write a fictional conversation that they had with me in their Writer's Notebooks.
One of my students, Cameron, was having a particularly bad day. He had just broken down in tears moments before because he didn't earn his day. He is on RISE, our in-school disciplinary system, where students must earn their days by getting high scores from their teachers in all of their classes for their participation, staying on task, remaining focused, and coming to class prepared.
He has ADD, and so it's very easy for Cameron to get off-task, or start humming/drumming his fingers too loudly, get a little too distracted maybe, but he's ultimately a really great kid.
He wrote in his notebook:
"You're going to be ok," said Ms. Haseltine.
"But it's so hard when something completely destroys your self-esteem like this does," Cameron said.
...He then sat there for a while, not knowing what to write next. I was standing next to him, reading his paper over his shoulder. So, I grabbed my pen and wrote in his book:
"Cameron, you're awesome. And I know you can overcome anything!" exclaimed Ms. Haseltine.
...He wrote back in his book:
"Okay."
...Then I heard a sigh, and he gave me the tiniest smile.
World changing? No. Life changing? No. Day changing? Probably not.
Nonetheless, it was a small victory. Because for that 2 or 3 minutes, (I can hope a lot more) he knew someone believed in him. His Writing teacher knew he could overcome anything, and by his sigh and smile, I know we both believe it.
If I were to create a fictional dialogue from this, it'd go something like this:
Cameron's pencil stopped. He looked up, not knowing what to say next.
As I read the words over his shoulder, I frowned to see such sadness from a usually chipper author.
"But it's so hard when something completely destroys your self-esteem like this does," Cameron said. His words loomed on the page. Completely destroys.
I hesitated. How do I let him know that it really will be ok? He's just having a bad day. It'll get better, I promise.
I grabbed my pen from the stand, swiveled his notebook and furiously began to write my response.
"Cameron, you're awesome. And I know you can overcome anything!" exclaimed Ms. Haseltine.
Cameron re-read the new words placed before him.
"Okay," Cameron sighed. And a smile. The tiniest, little smile creeped up from the corners of his mouth. He did not look up, but only picked up his pencil and kept writing his new story.
The feeling may not have stuck, but for a short moment, Cameron could sigh with relief that his teacher believed in him. Really, truly did. And that made his day just a teeny bit more livable.
