#celebratelu2104 Moments

Ruth Ayers continues to challenges us to take a few minutes each Saturday and Celebrate the Week.  I have a "to-do" list a mile long and laundry a mile high, but I have a few things I want to celebrate, anyway.  

• There were nine (9) accidents on the way to work one day this week and I was late for school. While traffic was a nightmare as we all struggled to regain time, they were just fender benders and thousands of us made it to work a bit stressed, but unharmed. It could have been much worse on a dark, rainy, leaf-strewn highway.  I told myself I deserved one (1) pumpkin flavored D & D coffee one (1) day this fall as a reward for my careful driving!  
• As I finished a reading record on one of my struggling readers, I realized he had grown from a level D (92%) a month ago to a level E (94%) now.  As is often the case with kids who struggle with reading, he was reading a text he had seen before.  The best part was his comment at the end.  "This used to be hard for me. Now I can read it."  He was too happy to see the tears well in my eyes as he reached for a pencil he knew he had earned.
• As part of my Beginning Reading and Writing class, I always teach one class around phonics.  I try to do hands on projects and use real materials that allow my grad students to try experience the subject outside of a theoretical framework.  Yet, they always seem to glaze over one hour into the class. This week, I brought some "concrete reinforcements" (candy) that I passed out throughout the evening for "hard work, great answers, and good effort" to make it fun!  I was reminded that even grad students, hungry ones in particular, will wake up and work much harder for a tiny Tootsie Roll!  One of my students will forever more be knows to me as "candy girl."