March is the new February

What I mean is, usually February is the month filled with love and encouragement and people lavishing those they care about with gifts and flowers and such. Not so for me in the year Two Thousand and Eleven.

Here's some pics of art and gifts that have been left behind for me in the last few weeks (btw, I removed or changed names just to protect the kids and their privacy) :

  All of the board art was left by girls, not surprising.

These two cute little "fuzzies" were given to me by two freshmen boys. They are in a program called AVID which is an awesome program that takes kids that teeter on the line of failing school but who want to try and it pairs them with mentors and teaches them study skills and habits and how to take good notes, etc. It really has been transforming some of my kids right in front of my eyes - I'm a huge fan of AVID. The kids were encouraged to make a "fuzzy" for their favorite teacher - I was so flattered to receive TWO! :)

But this probably meant the absolute most. There's one kid that I really like and have been investing a lot of love, time and patience in. I've assigned him detention on many occasions, but instead of sending him to the main school D-Hall, I have him stay in my room and help me with tasks and we talk about how he's doing and what he could do better. I feel like this is more effective than just sending the kids away. Once, I asked about his family: he said he lived with his guardian, that his dad was in jail, and he didn't want to talk about where his mom was. My heart broke. I've written about him before here and here and here and here. He's such a funny kid (he keeps me laughing through the craziness of my 5th period), so easy going, he takes teasing so well, and he dishes it out back. This past six weeks I've seen a transformation in him. He went from making Cs to making an A! He tries hard, he answers my questions, he's engaged in learning, and he doesn't cut up and distract others near as much. And the other day, I noticed he left me a message. A girl had written "Lauren loves Mrs. Miller" and he took a marker and added "But 'Dalls' loves her more." My heart sings.

I think I'm just blown away that they sense how much I really love each of them and how well they respond to it. I hope and pray God is using me to help shape their futures and hopefully encourage them to bigger and greater things.