JUST A GIRL WHO LOVES BOOKS CANVAS

I loved my grandma but now that they’re both gone I think of what she did for my brother and love her more than words can say. It was my first year teaching at a new school. Cristina was only an eighth grader, but she was in my enhanced math class. JUST A GIRL WHO LOVES BOOKS CANVAS. We didn’t bond much that year. Partly because she didn’t need my help. But mainly because I was so frazzled. Being a new teacher is rough. You’re dealing with students from all different backgrounds. You’re trying to teach them the quadratic formula. But also to be a good person, and navigate life. On top of it all you’re having to navigate school politics. So it always seems like there’s a fire to be put out. Sometimes I’d stay late trying to finish extra work, and that’s when Cristina came wandering in.

JUST A GIRL WHO LOVES BOOKS CANVAS

By that time she was a freshman. And she was heartbroken, because she’d just gotten a ‘D’ on a math test. She’d hit a wall. So I gave her practice problems to do on the whiteboard. I enjoyed having her around. It was nice to have someone else in the classroom. JUST A GIRL WHO LOVES BOOKS CANVAS. And even when she didn’t need my help anymore, she kept coming anyway. We kept up the tradition for four years. We’d put on country music. Then we’d sit on opposite sides of the room and do our work. She went from thirteen to eighteen in my classroom. I watched her grow up. Our conversations matured. We started talking about college.