40% and I Love my Job

One of my students cracks me up every day. Okay, almost all of them do. But this one (we'll call him Bob) is one I never ceased to be entertained by. Today we began writing Thank You/Valentine letters for the upcoming holiday. I wrote "Valentine's Day" on the board since it kept coming up. Bob raised his hand, didn't wait for me to acknowledge his need to comment, and blurted out the fact of the matter, when it comes to the name Valentine.

"40% of people in the world have the name Valentine."

Blah haha. I'm still laughing now. I don't know what I'd do without him in class. I skeptically asked him, "Really?". He insisted, "No! I'm serious! I even know like four people!" So I made him tell me how he knew them. "Okay, I only know three" was the admittance. Then he ended with the "Well I heard that somewhere". I love my job for so many reasons, and instances like this is one of them.

Here's another instance for ya:

As a class, in reading, we've been memorizing the preamble from the Declaration of Independence. It's taking awhile, but they're doing it and they are able to explain what it means, mostly. Today when Bob came into class, he had to tell me about the Superbowl. He was so excited. "Did you see the Super Bowl!?" he asked. "Nope," was my reply. He was shocked. Then he let me know that the Declaration was recited at some point during the game. He was so excited and then he proudly announced that he said part of it along with them. If my heart could ever glow like E.T.'s then it would have been at that moment. I wasn't excited that he could say it. I mean, that's great and all that he can memorize it but my heart glowed because he was so pleased. He felt so confident and pleased. It was just one big pleasing moment.

I love my job.