I feel like the “can you believe they threw a binder out the window?!?!”" stories are getting a little old, so unless someone sets something on fire I thought it would be fun to profile some of my more interesting students for a few days. I’m starting with Edward, because if he is within a hundred foot radius of you he’s pretty much impossible to ignore. He’s one of the boys who has yet to hit puberty, so he is still small and has a baby face, which coupled with his ENORMOUS ears makes him pretty much the cutest kid I teach. However, he is also one of the loudest. Like Shadasia, who I talked about a few weeks ago, he is charismatic enough to star in his own Disney channel show, but not really capable of “turning it off” during times when silence is important – like, say, during my lesson, or even during tests.

Unlike students who disrupt class by idiotic antics like burping and farting on purpose, however, Edward is actually smart enough to be really funny. He’s the one who said that happiness is matter “because it takes up volume in your heart,” and he has a way of imitating me and my teaching hand gestures that is spot-on and hilarious…I just wish he wouldn’t do it while I’m teaching. He makes the most exaggerated facial expressions, and often dramatically “faints” or dances in reaction to getting a graded paper back (depending on how he did).
Edward is on something called a “section sheet,” which is a piece of paper divided into 8 sections for the 8 periods of the day. At the end of each period he gives it to the teacher, who writes comments and gives his behavior a grade from 1 to 4. If his average for the week is over a 3 he gets a reward, if it’s below a 2 he gets a negative consequence. Lots of trouble students are on the same program, but Edward is the only one who consistently slips a five dollar bill into it before he hands it to me. When I hand the money back to him, he often tries to slip it to me in a handshake, or even to put it directly into my pocket.

So, in conclusion, Edward is a huge pain whenever I’m trying to actually get anything done with his class, but he is also quite awesome. I really want to tape his antics and send it to Nickelodeon, so the world can see how funny he is (and I can stop having to try and shut him up during class).