Kids are Funny

A few of my favorite things kids have said recently...

1. Running club started this past week.  They're training the kids to run a 5K in February and partly because I need to get in shape and partly because I thought it would be a good way to spend time with my kiddos, I decided to join.  We practice for an hour after school twice a week.

While running with a delightful little third grader, we were talking about Halloween:

Kid- "Ya we went over to TCU to go trick-or-treating because that's where they have the better candy."

Me- "Really, why is that?"

Kid- "Well that's where the rich people live.  Ya, there were a lot of people your color there."

Hahahahaha


2. Also during running club:

Me- "Do you live in a house?"
3rd grade girl- "Ya, I don't live on the street!"
Me- "Well you know some people live in apartments.  I live in an apartment."
3rd grade girl- "Well, I guess that's better than nothing."


3. I finally pitched my big goal to my kids on Friday during lunch.  (80% mastery of all reading and math objectives as well as 1.6 years in reading growth).  During the presentation I did a side-by-side comparison of our elementary school and one in a better neighborhood that is much more high-achieving.  Then I followed that by saying that we have something they don't have though, and showed them the test results of bilingual vs. non-bilingual kids.  This was followed by:

"Hey, Ms. you know what else they don't have?"

Me- "What?"

Kid- "Ghetto spirit!!"

Me- "Ya, exactly, that's self-advocacy!"

Kid- "No, I said GHETTO SPIRIT!" (all the kids cheer)


4. It's very common at my school for students to bring their teachers food and little gifts.  I have gotten quite a few notes, a burrito, little toys, etc.  One day one boy told me that he had noticed that I wasn't getting very many presents lately, so he brought me manzapan which is a very traditional Mexican candy.

Kid- "Have you ever had this before?" (They really get a kick out of the fact that I haven't eaten many traditional Mexican things)

Me- "No, but I've heard about it.  I'm really excited to try it."

Other student- "What do you mean you haven't tried it?  It's Mexican!"

Me- "Well you know I'm not Mexican right?"

Same student- "What!?  I thought you were at least a little bit!"


5. At dismissal there was a cop car parked on the street.

"Ms., why is there a cop car?"

Me- "Oh, I guess they heard about you."

All my boys- "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh"

One boy- "Oh Ms., we're a bad influence on you.  You're becoming like us."

6. A couple weeks ago we had Red Ribbon Week.  While drawing a poster for the parade, I was asked:

Kid- Ms., I can't remember what crystal meth looks like.  Can you draw it?

Me- No.  We do not need crystal meth on our poster.  We have plenty of drugs already.

Kid- "Hey, that's not what weed looks like.  Here, let me fix it."

Other kid- "Hey, what is that?"
Student- "It's beer."
Other kid- "No, it's not, that looks like a milk carton!"
Student- "Ok fine, I'll write Corona extra on it."

3 Weeks Later

Last Tuesday I pictured myself walking down to the school office and telling them that I quit. Last Friday I couldn't be more sure that this is the only place to be. Here with my kiddos. They have officially captured my heart and are what bring me back every day even when every fiber of my being wants to stay in bed.

I was telling them that the reason I wanted them to justify their answers on their math worksheet was not because I was just a mean old lady but so that we could practice articulating our thoughts and know better our thought process. They all said, 'but Ms., you're not!" "Not what?" "Mean or old!" One kid raises his hand and then blurts out, "Ya I think you're the best teacher because you don't yell at us like some other teachers!" Too bad I couldn't keep them complimenting me and we had to get back to comparing decimals.

Saturday night I got the pleasure of having dinner at the Bush's. Like President and Laura Bush. They invited all of us TFA corps members in the area for a BBQ at their house. Unfortunately I have no pictures because secret service did not allow us to have any sort of phones or cameras since it was at their private home.  We all parked at a church just down the street because there was no way they would have been able to park 200 cars right outside their house.  We took buses over and I happened to be in the first bus.  When we pulled up, good old George himself was just chilling right there in his driveway.  I stepped off the bus, shook his hand, said a short hello and introduced myself, and then continued up the driveway to say hello to Laura.  It was the most beautiful night with perfect weather.  There were round tables set up on the front lawn with beautiful sunflowers as centerpieces.  The food was delicious, and both President and Mrs. Bush were sitting just one table away from me at dinner!

This morning I decided to have a talk with my kids about talking because they have been having trouble with that.  I asked them to first tell me reasons that they wanted to talk.  One student raised his hand and said, "Because we don't have anyone to talk to at home."

Oh. 

I also had a little girl come up to me during breakfast (we eat breakfast in the classroom because all of the kids are on free or reduced lunch as it is a Title 1 school) and handed me something wrapped up in a piece of paper towel.  She said, "Ms., this is for you."  Later I unwrapped it and it happened to be a half-eaten piece of toast.  I'm sure that she wanted to give me something but couldn't think of anything but her own breakfast.  This is the same girl that asked me in her letter to me if I would like to be her friend.  As she was walking out the door today she gave me a hug and said that she would miss me over the weekend.

One of my favorite things that I have been doing is having my kids write me a letter in their writing journals every week.  I read their entries and then write back to them, asking them to write about something new the following week.  They have very interesting questions and sometimes have very deep things to say as 10 year olds.

The first day of school one little boy asked me if I knew how to dougie.  I responded, "That's a secret."  These kids are so curious about my life and ask such funny questions.

Our theme is "Sailing to Success" and one day I randomly had everyone salute me when we were getting lined up to go somewhere.  It became a tradition and now everytime we are lining up to go somewhere, they all salute me and then we all say together, "We are sailing to success!"

I am officially obsessed with my kids.  It's all starting to come together slowly and I'm beginning to be able to make sense of the frameworks and start identifying ways in which I can actually teach these students.  I got really lucky with the group of kids that I got.  I honestly believe that they are the best class in the school and I tell them that all the time.  My roommate Cara has to tell me, "Kiki, we're not talking about school for the next 20 minutes," because if she didn't, I wouldn't ever stop talking about my kiddos.

On Fridays I get to wear casual dress so that means I also get to play soccer with my boys during recess.  That is, if we don't get all of our recess minutes taken away because of talking during transitions.  Recess and dismissal are my favorite times because I simply get to talk to my kids and hang out with them.

I'm sure that I have plenty more funny stories about what my kids have done and said, but they escape me at the moment.  Tomorrow is an inservice day so I actually have time to breathe tonight.

I can't say that I'm a great teacher yet, not even a good one.  But one thing I do know is that I love these kids and that I'm committed to doing whatever it takes to get them on the right path to a brighter future.  I want them to believe in themselves and the power of their potential.  Rule #6 in our class is to put in 100% effort 100% of the time.

So today was my first day.

This is my obligatory first day of school photo
except that I forgot in my rush this morning
and this is after.  (If you couldn't tell already from
the stains where I spilled on myself.

It went well.  Not off-the-charts awesome like the videos they like to show us at our TFA trainings, but it went well.  I think it was a good start to what I'm sure will be a great year. 

My morning started with very little sleep.  I finally got to bed around 1am and then I just couldn't sleep because I had millions of thoughts racing through my mind.  When my alarm went off at 5 I wouldn't exactly say that I was excited to jump out of bed.

When I got to school, I had to figure out how to make copies and finish up setting up my room and getting ready for my kiddos.  This morning I had 14 kids on my roster, which was more than the 6 I had at Meet the Teacher Night last Thursday.  I ended up having 18 kids by the end of the day and I have been told that this number will most likely change.

When the students showed up, I had little half sheets of paper directing them to put their backpacks in the lockers, find their seats, and begin their questionnaires.  About 15 minutes later while I was still getting kids at the door I realized that they were all sitting there doing nothing.  Hm, that's strange.  Except it wasn't because I forgot to print out the questionnaire and thus forgot to make copies, and they therefore had nothing to do.  So all my improv training kicked in, and I had one kid pass out binder paper and asked them to write about their summers.

For the next hour or so I bored them to death even though I was trying to be fun.  The fact is that kids don't like to just sit in their desks and listen to the teacher talk.  Go figure.  So then I decided on the spot to read "Where the Wild Things Are" in Spanish.  We talked about what our own personal monsters are, the things that hold us back from sailing to success.  Students mostly listed not being good at certain subjects to playing xbox to things being difficult.  Then they had to write down excuses that hold them back, and then come up with a solution.  Once they were done each student came to the front of the class and read their monster, excuse, and solution, and then recited the following: "My name is___________.  I am intelligent and I will overcome my monsters because I don't accept excuses and I have a community that will help me.  I am sailing to success."  Then they crumpled their papers and threw them into the trash.  I called this our "excuse funeral."

We also played Ms. Arrasmith jeopardy today.  My 5th grade teacher did this and I remember loving it, so I decided to do it too.  I grabbed a bunch of random items from my room like my soccer ball, ice skates, a  picture of my family, picture of my roommates, mask from Venice, Spanish flag, etc.  I told the kids they had to pay close attention and took one item out of the bag at a time.  I explained a little about what it represented in my life and allowed the kids to ask some questions.  Then I split the class into two groups, and they had to answer questions about what I had said.  One of my kids said this was his favorite part of the day.  It felt weird to be talking so much about myself, but they loved it so whatever.

At this point they started getting pretty ready, so we went out for a recess snack break.  I had a different activity planned for when we came in, but I knew that they would get too noisy.  So instead we read a book that I grabbed randomly from the library.  Hadn't even read it before but the librarian had recommended it.  So I internally panicked when it ended up being partly about racism trying to figure out what to do about that.  Luckily there was another theme in the book about a boy being inspired by birds and taking care of an atrium.  I turned it into a writing activity where they had to write about who or what inspires or motivates them.  They actually sat in silence writing for about 15 minutes which felt like quite a success.  I read through the pieces quickly after school and there was some really good stuff.  One girl wrote about me and said, "Ms. Arrasmith makes me work hard and motivates me.  Ms. Arrasmith is nice, fun and works hard to make to us understand all of our work done."  Another student said nature inspired him.  But then there was one student whose writing I could not decipher not because of the hand-writing but because it's inventive writing like that of a preschooler with very basic letters for each of the words.  I will have my plate full for sure.

I'm exhausted now that I'm actually getting to sit down after being on my feet for literally 12 hours.  I would be stoked except for that I know that I have hours of planning to do to prepare for tomorrow.  All in all, it wasn't an awesome day, it wasn't a bad day, but it was a good day.  At some points I looked around and couldn't believe that I was the one in charge.  Who put me in charge of these 18 students?  This morning seems like so long ago.  I was so excited that when my principal happened to pop in that my students were actually doing something and very involved.  She liked my activity so that was definitely a plus.

Also I found it funny when I asked my students how to get to the basketball courts and how they're supposed to get their lunches.  Luckily they didn't seem to mind that I have no clue what I'm doing.

Random funny things that my students said today:

"Hey Ms. Arrasmith, do you know how to dougie?"

(While standing outside practicing the dismissal procedure) "Ms. Arrasmith, did you know that kangaroos lick themselves when they're hot?  That's what I have to do sometimes.  But wait, no,  don't call me a kangaroo!"

"He won't let me fight my monster.  I want to work on my writing so I can battle my monster but he won't let me!"

Ok, well that's about it.  I have a feeling tomorrow will be a little bit more difficult since the adrenaline won't be pumping as much tomorrow.

Highlights

 So it's definitely been a while since I last posted.  Let me hit you with the highlights from the past few weeks:

My grown-up room courtesy of Ikea and my dad and sisters

1. I moved into my new apartment!  It was crazy moving in on a Thursday when I had training in Dallas the next morning, but so worth it to finally get all of my belongings out of my car!  Cara and I threw our stuff into our rooms and then slept on air mattresses in the living room.  It was like camping inside :)

2. My family came to visit me!  They were awesome.  For most of you that know me and how I hate making decisions, deciding on bedroom furniture was way more difficult than it should ever be for a human.  But, thanks to their patience and a 6 hour trip to Ikea, my room now looks lovely.  My dad and sisters were gracious enough to spend their time building the furniture for me while my mom and I unpacked and organized the kitchen and ran errands.  I think I might still be sleeping on the air mattress if they hadn't come.

3. While my family was here we went to visit my aunt and uncle's ranch.  So great to see them and so fun to explore the ranch.  Annika even got to ride a horse and Kaisa took a spin on the golf cart.

Cousin Allia and the girls at the ranch

4. There was a crazy storm today that caused a blackout today.  Luckily it only lasted for about an hour.  Also, like a good Arrasmith, I was prepared with flashlights.

Living room!

5. My roommate Rachael finally officially moved in after spending some time home in New Mexico.   Rachael had found a groupon for movers, so we were able to get away with carrying in only the small stuff.  The movers were CRAZY.  "Boss man" was the guy in charge and he was a very outspoken Jamaican man.  Then there was "rude boy," the second in command.  He didn't talk much, but he had worked with "bossman" before.  Then there was "cowboy," who was a native Texan, war vet, kilt-wearing man who was working his first day on the job.  Yes, he was wearing a cowboy hat and a kilt.  They were possibly the least professional individuals I have encountered in quite some time.  It was around dinner time when they started, and after we had helped unload the smaller stuff, Cara and I started making ourselves dinner in the kitchen.  That's right about when "bossman" started demanding that we give him dinner.  This was of course after he unplugged Cara's phone and started using her charger to charge his own phone.  We told them that we didn't get dinner as part of our job, but he kept making comments.  "Bossman" was also very rude to rudeboy, cowboy, and to us.  It would be an understatement to say that we were all relieved when they left.  It does make for a good story though.

Aunt and uncle's ranch

6. I went to some training sessions for TFA where we worked on our stuff for the first eight weeks.  It was really great to be back with everyone from our corps again.  We also got to get into our content areas and were able to learn what exactly would be helpful to us in our own areas.  During institute we learned a lot of general things that we would have to apply to our own situation, but this training was much more directed at specifically what we would be doing.  I was with all the other bilingual elementary teachers.

7. All this unstructured time off is driving me a little bit crazy.  I have way too much time on my hands and therefore have done some productive things like organize my room and cook.  I also started a free trial for Netflix and have gotten through a couple seasons of White Collar.  It's a great show that you should check out if you've never seen it.  We have district training this week and I'm hoping to gain some clarity about things like what language I'm supposed to use to plan my lessons, what reading MINDS on my schedule means, and why during a 9 hour school day my students don't have recess?

Another before shot of the living room/kitchen/dining area

8. I got Texas plates on my car.  I also will be receiving a Texas driver's license in the mail sometime soon.  I was forced to surrender my California one though which made me quite upset.  I almost couldn't believe it when the lady at the counter told me that I couldn't have it back.  I almost just told her "Never mind" about the whole Texas thing, but it was already too late.  Strike 1 for Texas.



I have a mailing address now!  Getting good old-fashioned snail mail and the occasional package are mighty fine surprises.  Message me for my Texas address.  I'm sure that I have forgotten something significant, but then again, I have been mostly boppin' around my apartment and making multiple trips to Target every day.  Well, that's all for now.  Enjoy this pic of Cara at our dining room table.

Cara being uber productive

Post-Institute

So I finished institute last Friday. 

It was rather bittersweet.  Saying goodbye to my kids was tough, but it was also a huge relief to be done with the crazy schedule that they had us on.  What was a little strange about the whole experience was that there wasn't much build-up to the end.  Most times in my life when I have transitioned from one thing to another, there has been a good amount of anticipation of the end.  When I was a senior graduating high school and college, I had a lot of time to think about my time ending there.  Institute was such an intense and short experience that now it seems rather surreal that it even happened.  It felt a little bit like we were all just doing our best to push through the next couple lesson plans and figure out housing back in our regions that it was all of a sudden, over.

Going from an extremely structured schedule to having no schedule has been an adjustment.  Especially when currently I am technically homeless.  I am really excited about where I will be living, but unfortunately we can't move in until a week from today.  So, what this means is that all of my belongings are packed tight in my car, and that I am shamelessly crashing at friends' places.  Me, my air mattress, and my study materials are finding homes all around the Dallas-Fort Worth region.  It's an interesting experience when I would like something of mine, but I have no idea in which bag it might be.  I know that all I have is in my car somewhere, but for the meantime I'm using whatever is on top.  My new office is Starbucks because they won't kick me out and they have Internet.  Lucky for me, I know lots of amazing people who are more than happy to house me.

So what am I doing with all this free time?

Well, first...sleep.  Taking advantage of that time while I can.

First step into my school

 I got to meet with my principal and offically tour my school and my classroom!  I am officially teaching 5th grade bilingual in the fall and should expect somewhere around 24 students.  There will be five 5th grade teachers including me, 3 of which will be bilingual.  I got a really great feeling stepping into the hallway and seeing these banners up.  My classroom is basically a blank canvas which means that I have a lot of opportunity to create whatever I want.  For those of you that know me well, this also means lots of decisions which is not exactly good news for me.

I was able to grab some of the teacher manuals for some of the 5th grade curriculum.  I haven't quite had a chance to look at it yet because I'm supposed to be studying for the Bilingual Supplement test that I have to take on Tuesday.  This test deals with the history and theories surrounding bilingual education in the US and Texas.  I also have to take another language proficiency test next Saturday.  Right now of course I'm updating my blog instead of studying.  Luckily the test is only about 70 multiple choice questions so it shouldn't be too bad.  That's of course assuming that I actually crack open my book and get some studying done.

View from the door to the classroom

Other than that, I have been down to the district office a couple of times to fill our paperwork.  Today I got to sit through a thrilling four-hour orientation explaining some district policies and insurance benefits.  This is all the stuff that makes me think that being a grown up is just really bad luck.  Luckily I still have my parents who will help me become a grown up by helping me navigate banking, insurance, and everything else that comes along with the territory.

View from the front of my classroom

In addition to all that, I have been working on getting stuff set up for our apartment.  It's complicated by the fact that we won't actually be able to get our keys on our move-in day because we have training all day in Dallas.  This is where all the problem-solving and critical thinking skills that I kept talking about with all of my students come in. 

And yes, I have been having some fun.  One of the girls I'm staying with has family in the area and last night I was able to go with her to her home.  All I can say is that authentic Mexican food and family is the best.  Such a treat after 6 weeks living in the dorms.

Well I suppose I should get back to that studying now.

"Ms. Arrasmith, have you ever been happy in your life?"

So since today the kids took FOREVER taking their reading test, I didn't end up teaching.  I did, however, have an interesting conversation with one of the students.

F. had come back from taking his math test since he hadn't been here yesterday.  (When we asked him where he was the previous day he said that his dad had thought last week was the last week of summer school.)  I was walking around checking on other students when I saw him looking off into space.  As I walked towards him, he turned to me and said, "Ms. Arrasmith...have you ever been happy in your life?"

Quite surprised, I said, "Yes, yes I have."  F. just kept looking at me, so I thought to myself, "Well I guess I'm going to have to give examples."  So I continued, "I've been happy when I'm with my family, with my friends, or when I do really well on a test."  His response was, "Have you ever been scared?"  I said, "Yes I have," and simultaneously wondered what in the world might come out of his mouth next and racked my brain to come up with a student-friendly and relevant example of being scared.

Instead, I turned it around and asked him, "Have you ever been scared?"  He replied casually, "Yes, I watched a scary show once."

Then I said, "Tell me what you're thinking about right now."  He went on to describe the scary television show he had seen.  So then I asked him if he had ever been happy before.  He said, "Ya, at my birthday party."  I asked him more about his birthday party and he told me all about it.  Then he started telling me all about how his older brother who is only a year older tells him that reading is important because he needs to get smarter.  (Yes!)  He also said that this brother "pranks" him at night so that he doesn't get to sleep very much.  He explained that pranking meant pouring water on his face.  Then F. went on to tell me about a show he had seen where a girl had a problem, that comes naturally, where she confused letters in words when she's reading.  I asked, "You mean dyslexia?"  "Ya, ya that was it."

I have spent a little bit of time wondering whether he was unsure if I have ever been happy or if he was trying to decide if he had ever been happy.  Now although I might be strict about students sitting in STAR (sitting up, tracking the speaker, asking questions, and raising hands), I'm pretty sure that I come off as a happy person, so I don't think that that was it.  F. seems like a perfectly happy person, so I don't know if this was the surface of something deeper or if it was simply a question from a ten-year-old boy.  Looking back I wish I had said something about the meaning of happiness and that being truly happy is not a fleeting emotion, but rather an attitude.  Next time.

Perhaps the best part of this conversation was the end where F. asked if he could bring family to the celebration time on Thursday (our last day of summer school).  He said that his brother really wants to come so that he can meet all of us teachers.  This pretty much melted my heart because it means that F. has talked about us to his brother, and that he has said good things about us!  Sometimes it gets hard to remember what this is all about amidst the lesson planning and making hundreds of copies late into the night, but moments like these always bring me back.  We haven't gotten the results of their post-assessments back yet, but this exchange today convinces me that we have been able to make a difference in the lives of these students, even if we were only with them for 4 weeks.

One student, J., the one who has improved the most this summer has his last day tomorrow.  He told us at the end of today, "I am going to Mexico at 5pm on Thursday."  Another student asked him, "Forever?"

It was funny, but also disheartening because it reminded me that this is the reality that my students face.  I'm sure that almost all of my students could tell stories of family members and friends being deported.  In fact, earlier this summer, one of our other students wrote in a writing assignment that he was going to Mexico and there was quite a confusion and some distress about whether he meant on vacation or forever.  In another classroom at our school, one student started crying when he heard that one of his peers was going to Mexico because he thought that he was leaving forever.  Many of our students have siblings that live in Central America.

I am glad to say that I can without a doubt tell F. that I have indeed been happy in my life.  Thanks to God for the abundant blessings in my life, and for all of the truly amazing people he has placed in my life to bring me such great joy.

4th of July, College Day, and a weekend in Houston

So right now I'm sitting in the copy center waiting for my documents to upload to the server so that I can print them.  Luckily this will be the end of my work tonight and I can get to bed early.  I've woken up with a sore throat for the past few days, and today the true "ickiness" hit.  I spent most of the afternoon in bed and even slept through both church and breakfast this morning.  Thanks to some DayQuil, I'm feeling much better now.

Teachers ready for the students to arrive

 College Day was so much fun!  We got to give the kids a tour of some cool spots on campus including a part of the Berlin Wall, this million dollar building that reflects light in such a way that when sunset happens it turns all different colors, a college lecture hall, and the basketball stadium.  Our three boys were very well-behaved, and one of them even brought a notebook and was taking notes at different points throughout the day.  That pretty much made my day.  Probably because I was that kid in elementary school.

The million dollar building

My favorite part of the day though was probably when we were walking past the swimming pool.  There was an older gentlemen in a speedo, and one of my boys said, "He's wearing mini boxers!" and all three of them could NOT stop giggling.  It was nice to see some of their personalities come out, even if it was over mini boxers.

We worked Wednesday the 4th, and then got Friday off instead.  I got to go out to dinner with some of the other teachers on Wednesday.  Getting off of Rice was a great change of pace.  We watched the fireworks from the top of the dorms with lots of other people.  Unfortunately we couldn't celebrate too much since we had to be up early to meet our kiddos for the college day.

Dinner

Thursday evening I got to go out for drinks at a Mexican restaurant which was a blast.  Friday since I had the day off I got to have a nice relaxed morning.  During the afternoon I went to downtown Houston with some girls.  We realized afterward that we had probably gone to the wrong part of downtown because there wasn't much to see there and we even had to cross the street at one point to avoid some sketchy looking people.  We did, however, manage to find Forever 21 and some froyo so we all counted it as a success.  Friday was when I started thinking that I might be coming down with something because I was rather sleepy.  So I had a relaxed evening and went to bed early.

The lecture hall where college students learn and teachers
go to class when they aren't teaching.

Yesterday I attempted to get some work done during the day.  I succeeded in some parts while failing miserably at getting ahead like I had planned.  Since I had rested most of the day, I felt just fine and I went to Chinatown for dinner with some teacher friends, and then went out in Rice Village to a few bars with some other friends.  First we went to a Spanish tapas bar where I was delighted to have some tasty sangria, but disappointed that the tapas weren't free.

This morning was when I woke up not feeling the best.  And now here we are.  Luckily I got all my copies made, and they're all paper-clipped and in folders to take to school in the morning.  I'm so glad that this is the last week of institute.  I will certainly miss the friends that I have made here and will definitely miss my students, but I am very ready to shower without having to wear shoes and be able to make some of my own food.  After 4 weeks of dorm-living during the most stressful and exhausting experience I have gone through yet, I'm ready to be settled in.  Just 4 more teaching days!

The poster our students made while at college

What I don't look forward to is trying re-pack the mess that I have made my room.  There are hundreds of papers that need to be organized not to mention the various items I have collected over the past few weeks that most likely won't fit nicely into two suitcases.

Well that's it from this end.  Oh, except Houston's hot.  And humid.  I don't know why people choose to voluntarily live here when there are so many other places that are so much better.  Yay hooray for being able to go back to DFW!

Also- you probably figured it out, but unfortunately I can't post pictures of my students online.

Ciao <3