Beanie Babies, Graphic Novels, First Graders and a Spectacular Teacher at Multicultural Magnet

Yesterday, I had the privilege of working in a bilingual first grade classroom in Bridgeport where a fabulous group of students shared their writing journals, ongoing graphic novels, new textbook, and digital story they made in honor of Thanksgiving. For the last month, I've had bags of Beanie babies in my house and I donated them to the classroom as additional pets to bring these stellar young writers inspiration and comfort. Each kid was given an animal and asked to draw it in their notebook and to write descriptive sentences about what their creature might be thinking.

The crew have been practicing their writing and when I entered they were armed with questions: Bryan, how tall are you? Bryan, how do you teach Ms. Johnson writing? Bryan, how old are you? Bryan, what do you think the major difference is between a typical book and a graphic novel? Bryan, do you write? Bryan, how often do you write? Bryan, why do you like to write?

Several of the kids used words like BAM! SHAZAM! POP! and KAPOW! and together we learned to spell onomatopoeia (no, it doesn't mean I have to go to the bathroom).

What stood out to me today, however, was the ease and comfort these geniuses had with their teacher. The room was loaded with texts, student-created productions, books, and knowledge. What I loved more was that everything was written in Spanish and English, with an emphasis on Brazil and their fascination with their teacher's home country.

I've forgotten how much youngsters love to share their craft. Several wanted me to sit by them as they wrote every letter of each word wondering, "Am I doing a good job?"

I couldn't help but be proud of these incredible kids and their teachers. They made me feel like a king and I hope they invite me back again and again (Yes, they rejuvenated Mr. Moonbeam and the magic he learned with All Stars in Kentucky). It was remarkable to see scholarship from my graduate course on teaching writing put in action: theory blends nicely with the work in the field: I am inspired to keep up the good work and am DEFINITELY revived because of the love, joy, and intelligence of these young minds. Bravo.