Student of the Month: December 2011

There is something to be said for consistency. Katie Frazier is nothing if not consistent. It begins, of course, with academic excellence, which begins of course with attendance. Katie doesn’t miss school for frivolous reasons; in fact, she has only missed my class one time all year, and she is one of the faces I look forward to seeing every day. Also, Katie is one of the few who ALWAYS has above 95% in my class. Even the finest students occasionally turn in something late or miss an assignment due to absence, and this often makes a grade drop until the missing work is completed. Not Katie. Somehow she never has anything but a high A. Then comes the work itself: Katie’s writing notebook is what I wish all writing notebooks could be: Neat, legible, every assignment titled and dated, and, most importantly, full of CONTENT worth reading! I don’t have a lot of time to spend with each notebook when I score them, but Katie’s is one I always pause over, hold lovingly to my old, black heart, and weep a silent tear of joy that such students still exist in this crazy world. In fact, when students or parents question why a writing score is low, I show them Katie’s work as an example of what writing should be. For one thing, it meets all the requirements; for another, she has the most consistently optimistic temperament I’ve ever encountered. I don’t have to worry that I will open her notebook to find angry margin notes or a death list. Whereas many students write tirades about the classes they struggle with, minimalist responses to discussion questions about literature, and sarcastic teenage angst, Katie is unfailingly positive. She finds opportunity where others see overwhelming obstacles. She is grateful for what she has rather than upset about what she doesn’t. Her work reminds me that I ought to be a little more optimistic. (Okay, a LOT more optimistic.) Her attitude is apparent in a line from her recent letter to Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Discussing what the book meant to her, Katie said, “People need to live better. Life gets a lot better when you actually care about someone else.”


And that’s why she is my student of the month!