My Summertime Angels

Today was a wonderful, hot, humid, fabulous day. This morning during the first hour of class the principal came around to check on the air conditioning status of our rooms. Evidently there was a heat advisory in effect and those schools without functioning air condition would have to let all the children go home. Fortunately, that was not the case at my school. We began the day with fifteen minutes of their end of summer math assessment. I made sure that all the kids gave each person at their table a high five before we began. We then worked on review worksheets for reading and writing while two of the three teachers administered a one-on-one reading assessment. In my reading group, the middle-low group, one student gained a whole grade level this summer and another half a grade level -- amazing progress in four weeks!
Later in the day, I had them finish the math exam and they all did very well at concentrating and working hard. Christine, one of my math group students, did a fabulous job on the math test and I can't wait to see her tomorrow and tell her how much she has improved. Angel, the other student in my math group, actually wrote me a letter in response to the note I sent home with him yesterday. Angel's parents both died of cancer and he is being raised by his grandmother. He was one of our biggest behavior challenges in the first few weeks and has made a dramatic turn-around. He is the one that pouted all day when he had difficulty in division. Today he raised his hand when he was starting the math test to tell me, "Miss, it has division!" He is truly an amazing kid. Here is the letter he wrote me (in beautiful cursive, by the way):
by Angel july 25, 2005
Dear Miss peterson
I Read the letter that was in my homework folder I liked the letter and I am writing this letter to say I am happy Im in your class. Some people in class think that the class is boring but not for me I think this is really a privulage to walk into a nice classroom with verry nice teachers like you. in all the world I have never seen some verry nice teachers in my life. I hope you'll be my teacher next year.
Yours Sincerely,
Angel
Francisco, our student with the least knowledge of English, gave me a tiny little teddy bear today when I picked the students up in the cafeteria. I took the time to read him the questions to the math test in Spanish and he had the chance to change most of his answers to the right ones. With out the linguistic assistance, the math assessment would not be testing his abilities in math at all. Francisco arrived in the United States in January and he has done a wonderful job in our class. He even raises his hand and contributes to class discussions on occasion. He also loves hugs.
These twenty students are my summertime angels. No matter how hot it gets or how much work I may have in front of me, I know that they are all around me always reminding me how important it is to be a teacher - a teacher who gives her all to allow her angels to fly.