#WhyITeach
A student of mine this year, I will call her Ashley, is a wonderful young lady, confident, and has lots of friends. She is a good student athlete and volunteers in our school's Autism room as part of a class. Ashley has never been a Student of the Week throughout her middle school years and I overheard her mention it to classmates a few weeks ago. (She wasn't complaining, just more a statement of fact.) I'd meant to make her a student of the week several times during the year for various reasons but hadn't remembered to. I needed to make this a priority during her last week of Middle School, submitted a certificate for her, and was looking forward to seeing her expression when her name was called. (She was in my class during announcements.) Ashley ended up surprising me first, though, and this is one of the reasons I teach. When the student of the week announcement began I looked over to Ashley's table and observed her. The first name announced was ...