Heartfelt Moments

Two of my first hour A Day students put together a video of their algebra class. They asked me weeks ago if they could make one and I said that would be fine, as long as they took the pictures and video during Connect Time (our school’s advisory time which happens at the end of first block each day).

They brought the video to school today and showed it to the class after they had worked on reviewing for their final for most of the hour. The video wasn’t very long, around five minutes or so. It was put together very well, though. The girls had made sure every student was in at least one of the pictures and made it into the “live action” video of their antics during Connect Time. They even had pictures of things they did during Connect Time the day I was gone last week!

After the video finished, one of the girls who made it told me that she didn’t have time to burn it onto a DVD (she had brought in her laptop to show the video, but she wanted me to have a copy of it if it was okay with me. If it was okay?! Of COURSE it was okay with me! I couldn’t believe that, on top of making this great video of this tight-knit class of 19 and dealing with algebra in the early hours of the morning, these girls wanted to spend their money and time to make a DVD out of it for me. (Yes, I know it really doesn’t take that much time and it is pretty cheap, but still…these kids are 8th graders.)

Fast forward to lunch....

One of our security personnel in the building had a heart attack at the beginning of the school year and then a second heart attack not long after that. The second one took him out of the building for months. The kids and staff all love him and have sent him countless cards and well wishes during his recovery time out of school.

He made a short appearance in the lunch room during 8th grade lunch today. When the students saw him, they jumped up and ran over to him, giving him big hugs and asking how he was and telling him that they missed him and were so happy to see him in the building again. I had started counting how many kids went up to him, but quickly lost track.

After lunch, as I followed all the kids out of the cafeteria into the hallway and towards class, I stopped to say welcome back and chat for a few moments. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and said that the support and love from the kids and the staff at our school were what pulled him through and helped him throughout his recovery. He smiles a lot on a normal basis, but I have never seen a smile bigger or more genuine than the one that he wore today. :)