"A" Student

This week has been hectic at both jobs. That doesn't mean, though, that my time at work has been all bad.

On Tuesday I was walking down the hall after school when one of my kids saw me and walked towards me. I was surprised because he's full of street-smart swagger, and even though he likes me very much he doesn't acknowledge me in the halls because he doesn't want everyone to know he still gets Speech.

As we neared each other he pulled a paper out of his pocket. "You wanna see my grade?" he asked me. This is a common request among my students. It's almost touching - many of their parents don't care or aren't available to ooh and ahh over good grades, so they'll often show other people who will care. And since I always care about my students' grades, I get a lot of wrinkled papers bearing A's and B's handed my way.

"Sure," I said, taking the sheet from him. I gasped. "Oh my gosh! What's this grade for? A project, or..."

"The quarter," he said, turning slightly pink.

"This is for the whole quarter so far? An A? A 99%? Isai, that's amazing!" I said. He wouldn't meet my eye but couldn't suppress his grin.

"You'll have to show it to your girlfriend," I teased him. "Tell her you're the smart one in the relationship now."

"No, she'd get mad," he said, still grinning. "She wouldn't let me get away with that."

"Well, nice to see she's keeping you in line," I said, turning to walk off. "And hey," I shouted as he began walking down the hall, "congratulations again! That's awesome!" He shot me another grin and left. I smiled to myself - it was nice to see him feeling smart and successful.