Spelling bee

Just thought I would share my tear-jerker moment of the day. Every once in a while you have one of those moments that just makes you feel good about what you do, and this was one of those instances. Thursday we had our class spelling bee. The first and second place winners qualify for the fifth grade spelling bee in January. The third place winner is the runner-up. So we started our spelling bee and the first couple of rounds go well. I would also like to mention that I have an autistic child in my class this year. He gives me some extra challenges and makes me smile quite a bit. He is very high-funtioning but the other kids help him with things like staying on the correct page, understanding directions to our class work, knowing where I asked him to stand in line, etc. Well, this child survives the first few rounds of the spelling bee, which shocked me a little, and every time he got a word right the rest of the class cheered loudly for him and some even walked across the room to give him a high-five. About the fourth round I realized that he was close to being a finalist. He ended up one of the last three kids "alive" and I wasn't really sure what to think. Long story short: my autistic student placed second, qualifying for the fifth grade bee in January. My class went wild. They were cheering and high-fiving all over the place. They told him that he got to go to the fifth grade bee so he got up and started walking towards the door. They quickly explained that the spelling bee wasn't until January. I discovered later that the boy sitting next to him even wrote a note in his agenda for him telling his parents what had happened so they would understand. I almost cried. Maybe teaching is really worth the effort.