Fortunately, this is how I spend every working day of my life.
Now, KoKo has found not only her element but also her tribe. And we have a different kid in the house because of it.
This has not always been the case for KoKo, but now that she has more success than she ever had previously, she is absolutely flourishing.
This is evident in so many ways.
Last semester she honestly looked forward to going to school almost as much as I did. That was because Expressive Connections - a Magnet Arts class with Mrs. Stock - started off her day. It tapped in to her creativity and she flourished.
For a good chunk of second quarter, KoKo and I were able to discuss the novel she was reading in her Lit & Lang 11 class, To Kill a Mockingbird. And I didn't even have to bring the topic up. This was topped off by an essay that Mrs. Groven assigned. KoKo actually came down from her loft and talked to me about how she planned it out and went about analyzing her subject in her essay. All I had to do was listen.
That eagerness continued into her Visual Art class where she poured a ton of effort into designing a sculpture for a contest to design a Prowler statue. Despite some trial and error, she finally submitted her design . . . and it won. Then came the hard part . . . building it. Her teacher, Mrs. Adams, really went out on a limb with this project and she put the kids through the ringer, this included teaching them how to weld with Mr. McGlyn. KoKo loved it all. And after a lot of hard work, with every student chipping in their unique talents to bring the sculpture to life, they unveiled at the most recent recognition assembly, and it blew us away. I couldn't have been prouder of KoKo.
Here is a link to the story the local paper did on it.
KoKo's next assignment was creating and painting a window pane sized painting. She labored long and hard on it. To show how much she cared about KoKo getting it done, Mrs. Adams went out of her way to allow KoKo to come in and work on it on a Saturday! Talk about feeling like teachers care about you.
This care and kindness was matched by Mr. Rogalla late in the semester. KoKo was working on her final assignment for his Web Design class when tragedy struck: her computer froze. She lost 45 minutes of work and had a mini-meltdown. When I saw him at lunch, Mr. Rogalla explained to me what happened and that she was close to tears so he told her to take it easy and learn from this. As he said, "Here's a life lesson. Always save and learn to deal with things that come up like this." He calmed her down, comforted her, and told her if she needed some extra time to work on it, she could.
Yesterday at lunch Mrs. Adams said, "I looked out the back of my classroom and I saw KoKo with her boyfriend and some of their friends standing there looking at her painting. She had a smile that stretched from year to year. I was so happy for her."
Even when KoKo doesn't have a teacher for a class, she feels welcomed and respected. This happened on the inservice day prior to the start of third quarter. We saw Mr. Froiland when we came in and he said to KoKo, "I was in the building this weekend and saw you working on your painting. You must have been in heaven to have the art room and all those supplies and the afternoon to yourself to just work."
Again, KoKo smiled ear to ear.
As nice all those comments and actions were, Coach Mumm pulled off the ultimate praise for KoKo. She was quite ecstatic that she earned a 4.0 this semester. But that accomplishment pales in comparison (for KoKo anyway) to these fifteen words Coach Mumm offered up for his teacher comments on KoKo's report card: "You are truly the best of the best. We are lucky to have you here!"
Imagine being in a school where you are so loved and cared for and inspired.
Yes, KoKo is totally in her element. I am so proud to work with this people. I am so inspired by them. Coach Mumm has a mantra about LHS: "We do it better."
There is no question about that. At all.
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