Thursday, January 21, 2010

In School Suspension

I am the yearbook advisor. I haven't worked on a yearbook since the days of t-squares and orange grease pencil, but since we didn't have an advisor--or even a yearbook--I offered. It's pretty easy. Take some photos. Upload them to a site. A lot of clicking and dragging. Nothing noteworthy or award winning. Just 68 pages of random memories...and a lot of misspellings.
But today was different.
We started late--5 months late, and I lost my entire staff from last year.
Today the ISS squad showed up.
Seriously.
Even administration laughed when I named my roster.
I don't know why the worst kids in the school decided to come to yearbook after school for 2 hours, but they did.
I groaned.
I inwardly protested.
I think I even stomped a foot.
But only when no one was looking.
And then I introduced these kids to the wonders of yearbook.
Only, they were already prepared.
They don't take books to class or even go to class on a regular basis.
But they came with lists of pages they wanted to do.
They came with categories for superlatives.
They had ideas.
They had excitement.
They wrote stuff down, offered suggestions, made changes.
And they didn't want to leave.
Not even for pizza.
And the two who are by far the worst...not the worst of yearbook, the worst in the school...were my best.
I chose them as Editor in Chief and Assistant Editor.
My prinicpal laughed.
The assistant principal snorted.
And the lady who works in the office got misty-eyed.
She felt where I was coming from.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jenn, God always puts you in a place to touch the hearts of the most unwanted, unloved and neglected. You will work with these that were handpicked by God and show them the love of Christ, changing-editing- their lives forever. I love you..Mom

Brittany said...

How cool is this! :) You were MEANT to be that yearbook editior and change these kids lives! Wht an awesome woman you are!

Keep up the good work my sister!

Lauren said...

That is AWESOME! How cool! You know, sometimes the kids who cause the most trouble do so because they need an outlet, how great that you get to be the facilitator of their hard work and instead of turning them away and telling them they can't you took it in stride.

You must be a great teacher!