Ten instructional days down, 179 to go. Here are some images so far:

The child who came into our Reading class after doing a phonics screen, put their head down and cried. They can “read” but only words they already know. When I went to comfort them, saying, “This is not your fault; this is the fault of the school system,” they whispered back, “Please don’t kick me out. This is the only class where I can breathe.”

A grade 12 class with 32 students, so full that I don’t have actual desk space for everyone. They just pile in and draw chairs up to the edges of tables. So far, it’s mostly working, though the room gets hot (and a little stinky).

The astonished look on a student’s face when I insisted, “really, you can read whatever you want for the first 15 minutes of class. The goal is to enjoy reading.” He chose a Russian novel!

When I told the Reading Class yesterday that I thought maybe they weren’t interested in watching the news (CNN10) at the beginning of class each day. (Our goal is to provide them with background information and a place to talk about big ideas.) Several of them looked up, shocked. “But we LIKE the news.” I said that I was worried they were a little bored by it this year. “No, Miss, that’s just how we look regularly. We still want to watch.” So we are.

The first student who finished a book – last week!! She handed back A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder and showed me that she had already checked out the second one from the library since she didn’t think I had it. Later, when her friend teased that she read all the time because she “doesn’t have a life,” she just smiled and said, “Miss, do you know where that book is? X needs to read it.” And… we already have a book making the rounds based on recommendations.

A student from my first year at this school – now in his final year of university – who has come back to volunteer in the classroom one day a week because he thinks he might want to be a teacher. On his first day in the classroom, he sat down next to a student and listened to them read aloud – just like I did with him five years ago. He even found a book he read that semester, still on my shelf.

When I looked up today and realized that 22 grade 9 students were paired up and having a focused conversation as they prepared to conduct interviews later this week. The class was abuzz with the sound of their voices talking about books they like and objects that hold meaning for them.

The three students who have been coming in almost every day during my prep period to tidy up my room. It is, in fact, a mess. They bubble with energy as they put up the bulletin boards I can only dream of and organize books so that the shelving system makes sense. They chat and straighten and tell me that I need to get rid of books no one is reading. “So many books, Miss!” and they shake their heads at me.

The student from last year who came in today at lunch and asked to borrow a book so that she could read it in her class this year. She had some general ideas about books she might like, but she wondered if maybe I could recommend something. No surprise to anyone, I could.

The repeated refrain, “You had my sister… do you remember my brother… you taught my cousin” followed by “she says hello”. The images of former students swim into my head – where they sat, what they read – and I smile when I say, “Tell her I say hello, too.”