Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A little victory...

In my Freshman Econ 10 class 0f 22, it is mostly boys, and they are mostly "genki" - enthusiastic. However, of the three girls, Misato is painfully shy, almost pathological. She rarely engages with me or any other students, and when she does, it is barely a whisper. She almost never looks up from her desk. I worry about her.

A few weeks ago, after the bell rang and all the students filed out, she came up to me at my table and silently gave me a hand-written note. Inside, in careful handwriting and a surprising accuracy, was a brief description of her and her life. She mentioned that she likes English. And her last sentence killed me, "My trouble spot is boys..."

So, since then, I have been trying to make sure she is paired either with Hana or Yuki, the other two girls. I have also been meaning to write back to her. I wanted to recognize her effort and thank her for it.

Well, after far too long, I finally remembered to write a quick note, thanking her for writing and asking her if she liked the class and if she was ok.

Yesterday, I slipped it on to to her desk as she sat down at the beginning of class. She quickly looked at the only other student in the class and then back at me, with a worried face. I raised my finger to my lips and made a "shhh" sound and gave her a little wink.

The smile that broke out across her face was a wonderful thing to see...