As I went into student teaching in the 7th grade language arts position, I had a goal: learn all 103 student names. I familiarized myself the seating charts, but when Mrs. Bultena switched the seating arrangement their names were all jumbled up again. Two weeks ago I began a poetry unit and in this unit I required students to write some more personal poetry. When they finished each polished poem, they had to check them off with me. It was a lot of work on my part, but each time I saw Emma, I thought of how she lost her sister to a gun shot wound and how she aspires to be a forensic scientist, or when I saw Bailey, I thought of her I Am poem, explaining she's lived in a "posh" lifestyle for most of her life, or I thought of Andrew who memorized his poem (and also had a birthday today).
I suppose it was when I personally decided to look at the face of each student who came to check in these poems that it all connected. I think about a list of names, and they are just names on paper. But now I see that behind the list is a whole group of interesting, fascinating individual seventh grade students. They are each unique. Furthermore, I praise God for knowing them before they were born and for counting the hairs on their heads. How great is He for loving our students long before we learn their names!
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