Hey floor, may I have my jaw back?

It's still out there at school on the floor; figuratively of course. :)

Yea this is prolly not gonna be a very long post, but I just HAD to share something with y'all that happened today.

In a previous post, I mentioned how I was making my students do a lot of memorization. Well, I have been, with mixed results.

Eduardo, one of my students, has recently (the last few years) been one of those students that do the bare minimum in order to get by without teacher getting mad. When asked if he liked school, he would almost invariably reply "nah, it's better to relax". The word "relax" is pretty much his favorite word. He almost never volunteers for anything. He hardly ever does extra work unless asked to explicitly. But it's not like he can't. The maddening thing about him is that he is so incredibly intelligent!

Anyway, so two weeks ago, I gave my students the first three verses of Matthew 5 to study. We went over it maybe once or twice during the week. They were supposed to study mostly on their own. Last week I gave him a test. He had zero correct. I gave him a big "0" on his test. No reaction. Stuffed the paper in his test and didn't even flinch. Aaaargh!

I talked to Eduardo then sometime last week about his lack of effort. I said I'll be watching him for more effort. And I emphasized over and over to my students, that it's much better to choose work that's difficult and make mistakes, than to stay in your comfort zone and get it perfect every time. And of course, when Eduardo did try, I praised him like crazy! But it didn't really seem to make a huge difference in his overall demeanor. He was just content with accepting whatever came and riding with it.

This week we reviewed the verses again like once or twice a day. Just the signs. I didn't help them practice writing the words at all. Today we had Bible class. So for review, I had three of my students each write one of the verses. Eduardo's verse was the first and the longest. I wasn't expecting much.

Eduardo gets up and starts with the first word from Matthew 5:1   V-i-e-n-d-o. "Wow, the first word at least. This might take a while", I thought. He continues writing: l-a   m-u-l-t-i-t-u-d   s-u-b-i-ó   a-l   ...

As each passing word appeared perfectly written on my whiteboard, my jaw went lower, and lower, and lower, and lower still. My hand went to my mouth...

I couldn't believe it!

When he finished, this was the result:

Viendo la multitud subió al monte y esntándose vinieron a él sus discípulos

The first verse on the board is the one that Eduardo wrote without any help.

He only made one error and he learned the spelling all by himself. I was literally in tears by the time he was done, and if you know me, you know that I never cry!

I was just so overcome with joy and surprise that I hardly knew what to do. When he turned around everyone cheered and clapped. I think Eduardo's classmates were as surprised as I was! :) His reaction? A smile and a nod. But I like to think that Eduardo was very pleased even though he would never admit it!

So join me in praising God for allowing me to to see something like this in one of my students. I don't think I will ever forget this experience. Seriously, it was exactly what I needed for today! And pray that Eduardo would continue to learn all he can and not give up. Pray that I would able to build him up and encourage him when times are tough. Pray that this would be a stepping stone to a life wrung out for Christ!