Cartwheels for a Teacher

Blog #5

      The students were standing at the door of my classroom on the last day of school. The announcement I was to make was a total surprise to my students.  I related to my third grade students that I would be their teacher again for fourth grade. This is not at all what they had previously been told.  My gut level feeling was that they would be disappointed, because it might seem like retention to have the same teacher two years in a row.

     As soon as I made the announcement, a very quiet, hardworking boy, named Maleik, did a very uncharacteristic thing.  He turned around, threw his hands in the air and performed two consecutive cartwheels springing around the classroom sporting the biggest smile I had seen from him all year.  Over the years, as a teacher, I have received a lot of beautiful cards, gifts,pictures and some very kind words, but I never had such a sweet surprise as the two cartwheel display of joy and affection!