Occasionally, one of my students writes a sentence that is so clever, witty, or just darn ingenious that I am jealous that I didn't think of it first. The reader and teacher in me is thrilled and beaming; meanwhile, my inner-writer (who happens to be a self-centered, cotton-headed ninnymuggins) throws a mini pity party because a 12 year old beat me to the punch! Look, I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is.
My wise mother once advised me, "The greatest compliment to a teacher is when the student surpasses her." Or maybe I read that on a bathroom stall in the teachers' lounge. Either way, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that mommas and bathroom stalls don't lie.
Which brings me to my point. Today is the first installment of what I hope to be a regular feature here at Best in Class - "Get This Kid a Book Deal!" - where I'll share some student writing that slapped my adult self around and put her in her place.
A couple months ago, I had my kids write about a goat, sheep, or a chicken for a journal entry in class. One student wrote about a fictitious trip to a butcher's shop. This is the concluding sentence of his rough draft:
“I had been planning on being a vegetarian, but when I went to pick up sausage from the butcher shop, my vegetarian dream was chopped up and packaged into a Styrofoam tray.”
This is the stuff New York Times' bestsellers are made of, people.
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