Student Viewpoint

This reflection was handed to me at the end of the 2012-2013 year: It was written at home without a prompt by one of my eighth graders:

Dear Monty

I would like to thank you for all that you have done. It blows my mind that I only have one day left of middle school. It is truly amazing to look back and see how much I have grown in your class. I remember walking into your class on the first day of seventh grade. It smelled like no other classroom I had ever been in. When I first walked in I was stunned by the art in your room and even more stunned that you let kids paint your walls. Then as I sat down next to a few people you did your introducing speech and at that moment I realized this was going to be interesting. Not in a bad way. In the sense of interesting like you got a new type of ice cream.

When I walked into your class, I was one of the most quiet people in there. I know its hard to believe that this stud muffin was once the pipsqueak quiet kid. I barely had 20 friends and it was my second year at Kelly. Through your class I learned about making new friends very quickly. I remember playing Zap! on the first day. It weirded me out that a teacher would encourage yelling in her classroom. It just foreshadowed how amazing of a teacher you were. By the third week of school, thanks to one of your projects I had developed three new friends, Jacob, Hank, and Aidan. It was a delight to have new friends. It was interesting getting to know them because they were all so loud and I wasn’t. However thanks to your class and how free it was I was able to socialize with them more.

Speaking about freedom, your class always had a freedom feeling to it. Like I could do whatever I wanted, as long as I would end up at the end with a product you wanted. However, that taught me something more valuable then knowing anything about history would, responsibility. I can’t tell you how many times I have put something off for just the “next day” and gotten hammered by you for not doing it. It showed me that slacking off won’t get you anywhere in life. It makes me wonder if I would be even going to Marist if I wasn’t in your class.

Even though you have threatened me with a referral a good seven times, you always seemed to trust me. Whether it was the film project, or just something as simple as grabbing something from someone else’s room. I think you saw the potential in me and saw that I just needed to be sent out into the hallway a few thousand times to make me see that potential. Also, I am sorry for disrupting your class a few billion times and doing stuff you caught me doing (and some that you didn’t). However I needed that, to show me how to live. To show me that maybe sitting home reading isn’t all that’s to life. While also showing me that I can’t just Yolo it all the time.

I think that’s part of why I loved your class so much, you taught me so much more than just history and how to write. You taught me things that I probably wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. Thank you Monty, for all that you have taught me, and everyone in your classes thanks you.

Sincerely, Soren

PS Next year, I will be visiting pretty regularly whether you like it or not.