Cool Shoes

My favorite quote today:

"Cool shoes, Miss Hortin. The only thing that would make them cooler is some flames on the side."

A Classic

This story comes from last year, but a good friend reminded me of it, and I just had to share. My sisters laugh every time I tell this story.

Last year, I had a student who had Asperger's Syndrome. At first, teaching him was a challenge that stretched me close to the breaking point. By the end of the year, though, I held this special student close to my heart. I watched him make so much progress, and he even kind of liked me by the last day of school. :)

Around Mother's Day, my class made paper flowers as gifts for their mothers. This boy didn't want to make a flower, so he put his head down on his desk while the students around him worked busily and carefully on their gifts.

One of the sweet girls in my class finished her flower early. She came up to me and said, "Could I make an extra one for him?" I told her that would be very nice. She made an extra flower and carefully set it on the corner of the desk of my special student. He lifted his head for just a minute, saw his flower, and a little smile spread across his face. He held his flower close for the rest of the day.

My heart was touched by this precious moment.



Two minutes later, this boy was standing behind the sweet girl who had made the flower for him, hands with fingers pressed together to look like duck bills, pecking at the back of her head. "Pow, pow! Pow, pow, pow, pow!" he said. She just looked forward with a tolerant smile on her face, unphased by the pelting she was receiving in the back of her head.

Talk about a way to show gratitude. :D