We were writing about writing — an odd thing to my class of 25 eighth-graders, but they complied. Heads down, they scribbled for half an hour, turning out some of the best writing they’d done all year.

One young lady, Tina, after fifteen or twenty minutes of writing, declared, “I’m done!” I told her she should continue writing and that she could write about anything she chose.

“Even you?” she asked.

“Sure,” I replied, wondering what I might get. After all, Tina had a reputation, and I could tell from the first few moments of the first class that it might be a challenge to keep her quiet and focused.

In short, Tina said whatever came into her thoughts. If a comment was “stupid,” she let the poor bloke know it. If she realized she was hungry, sleepy, bored, thirsty, excited, amused, or anything else, she shared it with the whole class the instant she realized she was hungry, sleepy, bored, etc.

I’d spoken to her about it a few times. It was easy to lose my cool and simply react to her provocations, but I knew such reactions would serve little purpose. I also knew that, were I to leave her alone, she would quickly burn through all the steps in the school discipline policy; it would be easy then to get her out of class on a regular basis simply by writing administrative referral after referral.

By the end of the first quarter, she’d calmed down significantly. Her outbursts were increasingly rare, and she responded to my mild reminders to stay on task with a smile rather than an argument.

All of that went through my thoughts as I walked away from her desk. Immediately after all students were on their way to the final period of the day, I went through the papers and dug hers out.

She wrote,

Now I’m going to speak upon the Great Gary Scott. Mr. Scott, the best, is my favorite teacher. He may be boring, but he believes everybody can do it if they try. He has helped me so much and I thank him greatly and I have to say he is a great father figure. His daughter has a good daddy at home.

“She probably has no idea how great this makes me feel,” I muttered to myself, so I thanked her as she walked to the bus. “Those were very kind words, and I appreciate you sharing with me.”

She smiled and said “You’re welcome” quickly, bolting away from me as she suddenly saw a friend.