Those Students That Make It All Worth It

Kama and her oldest - Eme

Brittney Kaye at My Crazy Beautiful Life wrote a post today entitled "Goodbye." Every teacher who has what it takes to love their students and do everything in their power to make their lives, their hearts, their education, and their world better knows what it is like to worry about having to say goodbye.

Those days are heartbreaking, but once in a great while, one of our students makes it - really makes it. Kama Cutler is just that girl to me.

I remember specifically hoping the best for Kama. She was sweet and so intelligent, especially in English. I loved to read what she wrote, and it was easy to read too. None of those crazed blood stained papers for Kama!

When Kama was a junior in high school, I took her class to Winnipeg to see a theatre production. Kama loved it. On the way home we talked about our upcoming birthdays that were less than a week apart (sadly, I was much, much older!). I am a birthday freak as anyone who has read this blog can attest to.Kama was not looking forward to hers, even though it was her 17th.

As it turned out, she had once loved her birthday, but the year prior, when she turned 16, she was waiting for a party and presents equal to those that her older sister had received.

She was not waiting in greed. She was waiting in anticipation of the attention, the love, the recognition, the significance of reaching 16. The morning of her birthday, no one mentioned the occasion. She assumed it was that they were all waiting to surprise her. Anticipation built. But, when the end of the evening came, no one had remembered.

I'm not sure that any story has bothered me as much as that one. I know there are many kids who do not have lavish birthdays. I know that not everyone goes berserk over every year older. But I will say this. It bothered me that this wonderful, perfect, talented, honest, sweet, and selfless girl was so hurt.

So, on her 17th birthday, her classmates and I gave her a surprise party. We had cake, German Chocolate (her favorite), and presents and candles and decorations. Kama cried so hard that she ended up covered in hives!

Did I use those fifty minutes to teach English. No. I used those minutes to show love. I used those minutes to create for Kama something that I hope she will remember for the rest of her life (in addition to 'dangling participles' hehe).

I love her. I love her like she belongs to me. I am proud of the beautiful articulate woman that she has become. I guess, in a way, she always was. There were about four years where we lost track of each other. I do not even think I can count the number of times I thought of her and wondered how she was. Now I know. She is just as perfect as I remember. She was my student first, but sometimes student is not enough. Sometimes students become family.

Kama, you are my family. I will be here for you always. Never forget that.

Kindle Update! She Needs a Name and More . . .

1. My Kindle needs a name so I can refer to her properly. If she is going to be a constant companion, she needs to have a name. My son named his laptop Helen. That's a good solid name. Any suggestions would be welcome.
2. Love it.
3. None of that 'hard to hold open the new hard cover book' difficulty. I do not have to feel guilty that I am breaking the books binding for the convenience of holding it open easily.
4. The digitized man voice will not be reading to me unless I feel the need to be entertained by a computer's pronunciation. Not good. On a bright side, I do not want anyone reading to me anyway.
5. Love that it always knows where I am in the book.
6. Love that I can have many books with me all the time and can switch from one to another. I have ADD and cannot stay on one book for long. I can jump from one to the other super easily.
7. I am going to download the Bible. I cannot ever find mine. Maybe this will get me reading it more often.
8. Love the dictionary feature. Just navigate to any word and the definition shows up at the bottom. Genius. I wonder how many words I have missed learning because I was reading and did not have a dictionary or thesaurus handy?
9. Have not used the 'notes' feature yet. I hope it works well as I am counting on that for the works of literature I teach.
10. Love it. I already said that.

More later.

Tech Freak Finds a New Love!

As my new pride and joy sits on the counter waiting for me to come 'give it a little love' after it finishes its first battery charge, I feel like I have to make a few comments about my feelings as I opened the Amazon box that arrived about an hour ago.


I was honestly thrilled to death to hear the dogs bark at the Fed Ex truck as it made its way up my long driveway. I never say that about the dogs! I could not wait to get into the box and see my new friend. I was especially excited because I had ordered about six books last night (way too easy to do, by the way) after I found out that Amazon would 'send' my books to my Kindle en route to my home.



What do I think, now that it is out of its box? I love how it feels. It is light, but very sturdy feeling, just like Amazon promised. It is super, super easy to use. I did not look once at the 'get started' instructions that came with it. The books they promised were all there, just waiting for me. I am now dying to pick it up and get reading.


The only drawback so far - I miss the 'flipping through' of the new books. I kind of guessed I would have that feeling. I like to sit and look at my new purchases all stacked up on my counter. I like how books feel and smell. I just like books. I am probably just feeling a little out of joint because my new prize has to sit and charge before I can carry it all over the house while I go about my day.


We will see. It is definitely just what I expected. I just have to get over what it felt like to order paper books! Stay tuned for what I think of using it.