Every Once In Awhile

Every once in awhile you get a really great group of students.  Not to say I haven't had some favorites over the years; Yes teachers have favorites. However it has been a long time since I have had a class/multiple classes that gets me truly excited to get to school in the morning.

There have been many moments already this year; This was yesterdays moment:

In four short weeks my students raised $117.15 for a dog that they have never met. I adopted Bishop, my English Mastiff, from the Salem Animal Rescue League three years ago. My students recently asked me if I ever thought about getting another dog. I said if I did I would adopt one from SARL again. During advisory we opened the site and who would have believed there was another Mastiff needing some love. I learned a little more about him, Nemo, and found out that he needs ACL surgery making him very difficult to adopt. My students, thinking that I am made of money, insisted that I adopt him and literally come to his rescue. I told them that I regrettably just couldn't take on such a huge financial responsibility at this time.  They did not heckle me and quickly shifted gears. "Let's raise money to help decrease the cost of the surgery." I told them that it was sweet but I still could not take on this responsibility. "Oh Ms. Elkins we didn't mean that. Anyone looking to adopt him is going to struggle with his medical bills. If we can help raise some money it might make him more adoptable." Who can argue with that? So in that moment we started the Nemo fund.  To sweeten the pot I went into my closet of treasures and dug out my large stash of  reward pencils and set up a container on my desk; Pencils for a quarter.

During the weeks that followed some students bought more pencils then they needed and others simply made large donations and took nothing. Watching Matthew, a normal 13 year old boy, put $20 in the container and just smile made me shutter. Amazing. My students are amazing. I am so proud and excited to spend the year with them.