Cousins and Costumes

New blood brings new inspiration. It was so nice to have my cousin here a few weeks ago. When Kelly came to class with me- she had a small victory with one of my most reluctant students. Reading at barely a second-grade level, B hates school and everything that goes along with it. He is one of the ones who, even standing beside him, will refuse to get out his notebook. Often the only "work" I get from him is the question or prompt copied down exacty how it was written on the board.
During the writing time for our pen-pal project, he had retreated into his jacket, looking like a shiny-shelled turtle, folded over his desk. After a few minutes of encouraging words yielding no results- I abandoned him to go work with other students. There comes a certain point when I just don't have time for the intense attention some kids need. It's sad but true. In times like those it's easy to see how some kids slip through the cracks.
About fifteen minutes later, Kelly came over beaming. "Look!" she said. She pointed to a two paragraph letter scrawled in B's bubbly print. He had resumed his turtle-pose, but the letter was written. The assignment was done.
Last night we went to a benefit for......um....... I'll look into that and get back to you. Here are some snapshots.

3/4 of our house.