When Past Students Come Back

Friday was Job Shadow day for our local 7th graders. On Thursday I was surprised when Dakota, one of those 7th graders from my first year teaching, came to me and asked if he could job shadow me. Dakota had moved during 4th grade and then surprised us all by coming back around the middle of 6th grade. He was one of those students all teachers want in their classes - helpful, a good listener, and just all around fun. Having him as a "teacher helper" was no different. He kept the peace during projects, used initiative to sit next to disruptive students during our PLC rotations, chose to eat with the kids and play at recess instead of eating with the teachers, and taught great strategies to the kids when they were practicing flashcards. It was fun to see all those cute students from my first year, all almost as tall as me, wandering around the school with the thoughts of finding out if teaching was the career they wanted. Makes me a little nostalgic. Oh, but not for the haircut I had at that time. Dakota brought his class picture with him, and I don't want to go back there again!

The kids loved having him there, so we had to commemorate the occasion with pictures. See how tall they get? I don't think they really believe that they were once so little.