Thankful

Every year my school puts on a special Veterans Day assembly, and I spend the whole time holding back tears. The fifth graders, all decked out in red, white, and blue, sing a multitude of patriotic songs to an audience that includes family members who have served in the armed forces. Kelsey's uncle, who served in the Navy, was there in his "outfit" as Kelsey put it. As I was walking my students out of the gym at the end of the assembly, I could hear them saying to Kelsey's uncle as they passed, "Thank you for serving!" It was enough to make one weep.

An actual miracle happened during writing time today. For over thirty minutes my whole class was sitting working silently on their writing. I played an "ambient" station on Pandora while they wrote, which I think helped. (Jake asked if I had any Taylor Swift.) They were all putting so much effort into writing what they were thankful for, using everything I spent the last two weeks teaching them, and I was beaming with pride and joy. Many of them were thankful for their families, a couple for our country and army, quite a few were thankful for me (too cute!), and Nathan was thankful for tornadoes.