Gifted Fountain Pens Being Re-Gifted!

[Papamud]

Hello all!

After the admins closed the thread last year about awarding fountain pens to my students, (which I totally understand, by the way. I didn't mean that thread to be an endless "ask..." I wanted an endless "thanks," actually.) I wanted to check in and let all those who donated such lovely pens and ink and paper that your donations are making their way into the hands of our students!

I've decided this year to try something new.

 

I've narrowed it down to awards for Best Grade and Most Improved Grade for the End of Quarter awards. Why?

 

Because I have such a group of kids who can't seem to break that last mark, but who work so hard to do the best they can, often under really trying circumstances, that I wanted to be ale to recognize them.

 

I always talk about my two boys with my students, and one young lady recently told me, in confidence, that she has a one year old daughter. This young lady is an immigrant, she's worked so hard to learn English and to get good grades and try try try to be better, and it hit me that this student just plain doesn't have time to excel!

She has a full time job at night, and comes to school every day so that her baby daughter will not have to live in poverty. I have so much respect for that, and wanted to support her in some way. The other day, I saw she had a journal on her desk and I asked her what she did with that. She looked at me with a smile and said, "I write stuff." I asked her, "What stuff?"

When she said, "Important stuff," I knew what I had to do.

I pulled her at the end of class and presented her with a Black 'n' Red notebook (Thanks, Mary!) a gorgeous TWSBI, and a full, brand new bottle of Quink! She was so happy, it made all the hassle from admin worth it.

 

Other moments of recognition this year have been with my four student aids who all, ALL come from really challenging home lives.

 

Monique got a beautiful, red Watermans with gold nib, and vial of Sailor's Purple ink, Rachel got the Pilot Metro that I got for $2.00 in the Sale bin at Office Despot (I ruined the nib, but a thoughtful FPN-er had sent some replacement nibs that fit the thing beautifully, and James and Bridget (Who missed last year entirely because someone had to take care of her dying grandmother, and has returned to school kicking ass and taking names this year.

Lyle D. got a Jin Hao with some Noodler's black. Actually, everyone got Noodlers except Bridget got pens and vials of Noodlers... I admit to trying the Waterman's for the morning before awarding it to Monique. Lovely pen.

 

Anyway, on behalf of my awesome students, THANK YOU!!!

Mr. Morreale

 

[JWil]

There should be more dedicated teachers such as yourself!

[Barkingpig]

Thank you, Mr. Morreale for sharing your student's progress with us.

[hh1990]

Wow, this is so touching. Thank you so much for doing this for your students.

[Papamud]

I apologise for my awful grammar! It's been a loooong week of grading and paperwork and I so wanted to get that post up before leaving for the day...

[Wolverine1]

Thanks for the update, Papamud. Well, could you send me a Personal Message? I want to put you in touch with a friend whois at Johns Hopkins, and is a FPN member.

[Bo Bo Olson]

For your students. to you for doing it right.

[Carrau]

Kudos to you for showing such genuine interest in your students-I'm sure they'll never forget your efforts, and it will likely inspire more than a few to show interest in others throughout their lives.

[MercianScribe]

Nice!

 

(Sometimes I wish online forums had 'like' buttons...)

[Papamud]

My thanks go out to each of you who have supported this effort by donating pens, and to the students themselves for being so awesome. They're really great kids, and most of them may never understand how great the are, so this is a way of showing them, even if only for a day.

 

My hope is that they'll use these pens for a long time, and that they will inspire them to lead gorgeous lives, and when they eventually get around to getting their own FP, they may look at it one day when they're writing a check and say, "Hey, I wonder what happened to Mr. Morreale. I'm going to email that guy and tell him I made something of myself."

[Papamud]

So, Jazzmyn got a Pilot with an EF nib. She's been an enormous help to this school. She takes other, more troubled, students under her wing and helps them out, in some cases turning them around entirely with her calm demeanor. She deserves the pen, even though she's not my student.

She loves the pen and comes to me for ink constantly!

Victor got a bottle of Diamine Blue ink to go with the pen he bought himself after the Hero he won last year went belly up. He was coming to me for refills every morning and I finally just gave him the bottle. It felt so great.

This morning, we had a "Restorative Circle" and I asked the question, "Aside from your parents, what do you love most in the world?" Victor's response? "Knowledge."

 

Two young ladies that saw me using my TWSBI when I was subbing in their class, asked if they could have a pen each. So I gave them each a JinHao Lamy-style... they promised to bring back the first essays they wrote with them!

Thank you for all your lovely donations, everyone. Your generosity is changing lives!