heart pen at work

It was an exciting morning! Our school revealed its’ One Book, Two School title, The Year of the Dog at two, smaller, assemblies. Following each assembly, classes read the first three chapters out loud. All these important, school community events, took precedence over my normal schedule! By 10:00ish, we were back on track and I began to prioritize the kids I missed. I made a plan for who I’d see when.

At 11:00, I made my way to a kindergarten classroom to pick up Jeff. Typically, I find Jeff sitting in his blue cube chair or having earned a break, sitting on a carpet with his break box. I walked in and I stopped in my tracks. He was sitting at his table, leaning over, focused working. The teacher had heard my foot steps and turned to look at me. She found me frozen, leaning just my head in to watch this beautiful sight. I just wanted to watch him work. It lasted almost a minute, it felt longer, but in reality, it was probably only a minute. When he looked up, I went right over so he could share his work. He had made a picture of him opening a door. His teacher piped up from the floor, “Jeff, that’s the first step in your How To, so put a 1 in the box.” I pointed the box in the upper left hand corner and watched him make a 1. “Can you come back in four minutes so I can work on this?” He asked, eyes down, adding more to his picture. “You can bring this with you and we can work on it in my room.” I suggested, feeling his motivation to work. He was quite agreeable to the idea and I watched him head out the door with his black heart pen and booklet in hand.

We worked in my room on his How To for longer than I had really wanted, but it was such good conversation and focused work – not typical. I had to run with his demeanor, his understanding of the work and help him write. There were moments the ideas his pictures held moved away from How To Get Into Bed. There were random, unfocused comments about Pokemon, and hitting his head on the door and other tricky comments. But, with time, he re-engaged in his work and almost completed his How To.

I’m not sure if he knew exactly what he had accomplished, but I did. I was proud of him.

Open the door. Close the shade. Get into bed.