I’m going through the patron records for our 8th graders who are leaving for high school, and remembered…

The young man who came in every day for manga in 6th grade, until he lost a book and couldn’t check out any more until he paid for it, which he didn’t. This seemed to be part of the worsening of his attitude about school. This year I instituted a new policy: students still had to pay for lost or damaged books, but if they paid me at least $1.00 each time they wanted to check out, I’d let them check out one book each time. This young man started doing that, and after finally paying the book off, came in every day to get more manga. When he brought back his last books this year, he said that he wanted to make sure he returned them so other students could check them out. Eureka! He gets the whole idea of a lending library now! When I told our reading specialist this story, she said that was the first positive thing she’d ever heard about this student.

Almost every name brings a face to mind. I love being able to greet students by name when they come in, and some of them get a big kick out of it. Others are suspicious–“Why do you know my name?!?” I tell them it’s because I’m working on it.