David

David has done a lot of growing up lately. Some of its been rough, some of it has been a lot of fun to watch. This last week we had a fun moment.

Two weeks ago David came home talking about the 5th grade jobs. There's always the Safety positions, helping the younger kids get to where they need to be. He helped cover one of those jobs while the 5th grade kids were at 5th Grade Camp. He enjoyed helping, and I was grateful his teacher recommended him for the job. But while David really liked that job he really wanted a different job: a news anchor position for the school. This job was a little more coveted and he wasn't sure he could get it, but he wanted to try. There was an application he needed to fill out and turn in to the Media tech. I didn't think the application was that big of a deal, but when I went to sign it the day before David needed to turn it in I realized it was a bit more involved than I'd thought.

There were two questions he had to answer following a list of qualifications he had to check yes/no to. He could answer yes to all of the qualifications, but those questions... Hahaha! "Why do you want this job?" David's answer? "Because I think it would be fun." Oh dear.... We talked for a while about how to better present himself, what he REALLY wanted to do with the job. He worked hard to rewrite his response. "I really enjoy school and learning, and I want to lead other kids to enjoy school and learning through my example and enthusiasm." "What talents or skills would contribute to this position?" "I am a good reader, I am a fast typer, and I am enthusiastic and friendly."

And then he needed to get three staff members to sign his application as references. I asked which teachers he would ask to be his references. "Uh..... I dunno. Mrs. S?" "And....." He had no idea. I told him to think about the different teachers that could vouch for his hard work and dedication to a project. His tech teacher taught him in an after-school class last year, his music teacher always has high praise for him and how hard he has worked in her class, the art teacher praised his artistic abilities... I told him to think of the people who could have the most influence in getting him the job. I jokingly said, "How would it look if you had the PRINCIPAL as one of your references?" We laughed a little at that, but he actually took that and thought about it.

The next day, after dropping him off early so he could get his reference signatures, I picked the kids up and asked which of the staff he'd gotten to sign his application. He'd asked his teacher, Andrea's teacher, and he'd gotten the principal to sign his application! Apparently Mr. C signed it in front of Mrs. M, the media tech, and said "David would be great for this job!" as he signed.

Well, yesterday David came home with a special letter addressed to him. He opened it up, and excitedly read to us that he'd gotten the position as a news anchor!

He is one of three kids that got the job for the first half of next school year. I'm pretty proud of him. He's pretty proud of himself. And I hope he learned some fun life lessons through this process. :)