Demetrius was short as fourth graders go. Just shy of four feet. But he stood ten-feet tall in personality, wit and intelligence. His cocoa-brown hair skirted his neck and long wispy bangs often draped his Eeyore-shaped eyes. When he smiled the brown eyes were more like Christopher Robin’s, sparkling with unpredictability. His words were soft, his vocabulary jarringly erudite, as if a seasoned professor was trapped in his 9-year-old body.
He offered the adjective, "ungrateful" (the one I was looking for) to describe Magpie in the book FOX. Magpie had a burnt wing and Dog was carrying him through the forest. Magpie complained a lot. "Ungrateful" was the perfect description for Magpie's character.
Demetrius was very good at parts of speech. During reading rotation groups, I had the class make a chart listing as many nouns, verbs, and adjectives they could think of or see around the room. If they needed a challenge, I said they could add a column of adverbs. “What are verbs, they asked? One bright student chirped ‘action words.' "Yes," I said, and adverbs describe the action word and often end with ly.
My little Steinbeck brought me his parts of speech chart and proudly displayed his word, 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,' with a mischievous glimmer. I laughed. He was quite amused with himself. I complimented that he had indeed spelled it right and was surprised that this boy--a grand-child of 1960s Mary Poppins movie--was familiar with the word.
 |
| Photo Credit - Education4equity.com |
My class had swollen from 19 – 22 students. I was happy I had more girls than boys and all were bright and gifted. When another class of 29 walked by ours in the hall, the envious teacher asked my class size. Little did I know that was a mistake. She marched in to the principle’s office and decried her large class. The law states that 22 is the max for upper elementary grades. I was shocked yesterday that the principle moved 4 of her students plus another new one. My perfect-sized class became a whopping 27. I did not have enough chairs and small group reading rotations became an impossibility. I felt mistreated. Was it my age? Even after two emails and a comment to the principle, all I got was a surprise visit and, with the flair of a decorator, she showed me where I could squeeze in five more desks and chairs. "I haven’t had a moment," I said and mentioned that I had 27 students. “We will hire another teacher, “ she replied. I didn’t believe her, but commented on what a nice set of students I had anyway. I remembered a parent said their child was leaving at the end of the month, so I’d have 26 then.
But Demetrius’s Mary Poppins word made me forget the challenge of a large class and beamed a bright sunny spot on the whole situation.
“Number 1 – 25 on your paper,” I said after lunch. “We are going to take a flash spelling inventory.” I confided that the inventory was really a spelling test, but spelling tests have long since gone out of teaching fashion. The words were pretty simple at first. This was a diagnostic test to see what the kids already knew, this being the first week of school and all. After about 15 words, I looked up to see little Demetrius standing in front of me. He whispered, “Give them 'supercalifragilistic…..'” I half nodded and continued with the "inventory." At number 25, he raised his hand and said, “Don't forget the bonus word." So I gave them the word. As I spoke, little Demetrius chuckled, shoulders bouncing, eyes squinting, with the cutest giggle and half-snicker on his face. He was truly amused with himself.
And so was I.
Oh yes. Did I tell you the sad news? Did I mention that it's Demetrius who will be leaving at the end of August...?
