1 . There are days when I find it necessary to step outside my classroom and check to be sure that my name is still in the TEACHER space over my door. Sometimes I feel that I am a _______ in my classroom rather than the teacher.

Seated in the classroom, my sixth grade students each held a different tool in the hand. The students discussed how _______ are like tools—they have the ability to build or to destroy, and they discovered how the right tool used at the right time for the right job can produce _______ results. I watched and listened with a sense of _______. They got it!

A few days later, one of my students, Laura, had an unexpected outburst in class. She _______ to work with her group. I asked her to excuse herself and to go to our next door team center. She _______ from the back of the room to our classroom door—_______ me an angry look, and then slammed the door as she left for the team meeting room.

Minutes later, I stood over her. Being extremely angry about her _______ behavior, I was sharp in my tone and harsh with my words. When I _______ for her response, she stated, “You’re using your tool against me.” I was speechless.

There are times when you are at a critical ________ with a student and the direction that you choose will make all the ________. I knew at that moment the right thing to do was to kneel down next to her chair, and I ________ said, “You’re right, Laura. I have used my words unwisely and unkindly. Will you ________ me?” She looked me in the eye and simply said, “Yes, I forgive you, Mrs. Ekre. I’m sorry, too.”

At the end of the year, she wrote me a beautiful letter, ________ to which was a small key—a tool, she said, for a language arts teacher who taught her how important words can be. I have kept the key since then. It serves as a ________ of a lesson I taught as a teacher but one I really learned from my student.