Teaching – That… Which Matters Most

Jorge

The second of five students of mine who graduated this year is Jorge. Tonsie, Jorge and Tra’Paul all have been with me for three years. Three posts are forthcoming: Tra’Paul’s, Isaiah’s, and Austin’s. Yes, that is a lot of students for one class.

But this post is for Jorge. He is one of my favorite students and had the ability to use sarcasm from time-to-time without my ability to pick up on it. That may be his super power. He would say something to me that seemed off sorts. I would get on to him. And then he would say, “I was being sarcastic.” In that light, what he said made perfect sense and I would realize I’d been schooled by one of my students. I was left with my typical reply: “Jolly good!”

Jorge loves dinosaurs, Skittles, and Red Velvet cupcakes. We both shared a love for Red Velvet cupcakes from HEB, the specialty ones, not the 14 for a dollar ones. From time to time, I would pick some up just for him. I also kept a supply of Skittles… just for him. Yes, the other students like the Skittles, but I knew he loved them. I made sure to buy the different kinds of Skittles, just for him.

What he didn’t like was cheeseburgers. I found this out the hard way. We made a quick field trip to HEB, for a cooking project, and missed the city bus back to school. We were going to miss lunch. I walked over to McDonald’s while my aids watched the student and bought them all cheeseburgers.

He took one look at it, saw that it was cheeseburger, and crumpled it up, and put in the trash can. He doesn’t like cheeseburgers. He doesn’t like pickles on his hamburgers, or onions. In the three years we spent together, this was the important thing for me to know. No cheeseburger. No pickles. No onions.

I feel like I owe him a proper burger!

Perhaps after I finish the diet my wife has me on from eating all the Red Velvet cupcakes from HEB, I can take him and get a proper hamburger.

We were on our Train Ride field trip, waiting for the train when I took this picture. There was a playground under a bridge next to the train station. We took the Amtrak train from Killeen to McGreggor. A short ride, but worth the effort since most of my class had never been on a train.

At Cameron Park, with Fidencio and Miranda.

Every year, we would walk over to the Yes! Expo and this was one of the exhibits. We got to see how television newscasters use the green screen. Jorge is in front of the green screen.

A garden project… in which… nothing grew. We had no access to a hose to water what we planted and were dependent upon the rains for our crops. It was a sad, bitter crop and answers that lifelong question: should I have been a farmer?

A cooking project.

At Bitty ‘n Beau’s.

Cameron Park Zoo.

Getting ready for his senior picture.

He looks mighty dapper! (Which is a good thing!)

An experiment using acrylic paint to show us how hard it is to wash every crevice of our hands. Jorge liked the bronze colored pain.

A fascinating field trip to the Waco Police Headquarters involved the ride on the elevator. It was the best part!

A trip to the mall!

Drinks and snacks at Bitty ‘n Beau’s.

Tonsie, Tonsie, Tonsie!

One of the things about my job as a teacher at Waco High School that I really love, is that I get to keep the same students for their entire time they are in high school. This means I really get to know them, watch them grow and learn. And I also share in the struggles they deal with.

This is one of the reason’s Tonsie became so special as a student. I had the opportunity of walking with her through some of the hardest days of her life, after she lost her Granny in the summer of 2023. Her Granny was actually raising her when she suddenly died. It was a shock to the entire family, and really hit Tonsie hard. The Bible says, weep with those who weep, and we wept a lot during that time.

But we also laughed a lot as well. When she would come through the door every morning, I would say, “Tonsie, Tonsie, Tonsie!” She knew it was my special name for her. There were even times I would tell her, “Tonsie, you are my favorite student.”

She would say, “Mr. Hammons, be quiet. You’re not supposed to have favorites.”

“Well, I guess I’m breaking the rules.”

Whenever another student heard me say that, they would say: “I thought I was your favorite.” To which I was read: “No, you’re the one I like the most!”

One of the other areas that she showed maturity was the fact that she learned not to get caught up in all the high-school drama that goes on between students. She would remember that she didn’t have to be a part of it, and wouldn’t get involved. In a class like mine, this was huge. Drama is always waiting around the corner to disrupt things, and the more students I could teach to avoid it, the better.

Needless to say, I’m proud of Tonsie for her accomplishments. She is growing into a fine young woman.

The following is my gift to her. This will probably be my longest post ever, for below, I have pictures going all the way back to her sophomore year, when she first came to my class.

Here she is with her Auntie Shawtay.

Tra’Paul and Tonsie went to the senior prom together.

On one of our many field trips. We were intending to go to the zoo that day, but it rained, so we went to Bitty & Beau’s for drinks and pastries.

When we finally did make it to the zoo.

Getting ready for her senior picture.

Tra’Paul made a big poster inviting her to the senior prom.

This was at Magnolia. Many drive many miles to visit Magnolia. We took the city bus and had a blast.

Three of my five graduates this year: Jorge, Isaiah, and Tonsie.

Our first field trip back in January 2023. We went to Kristi’s Burgers on the east side of town, and then to a museum.

Ms. Griffin and Tonsie.

We were on a long walk through downtown, headed to our first trip to Bitty N’ Beaus. This is Tonsie with classmate and friend Antianna.

Same trip.

One of the few pictures I have of Anthony (Class of 2024) and Tonsie together. He was one of the original students when I took over the class in in the fall of 2022, with Tonsie, and others.

Pig-Out Day! We took a trip to Golden Corral. No one came away hungry!!!

This is the first of two pictures that hit me emotionally. These five, without Antianna, were all in my original class. They’ve all graduated. Yes, I miss them all. From left to right: Anthony (’24), Fidencio (’23), Jorge (’25), Miranda (’24), and Tonsie below.

This is the second group picture that reminded me of all who have graduated. Tra’Paul (’25) is added, Antianna and Anthony are missing.

Another one…

At the Mayborn Museum.

We decided to walk over to Dairy Queen for some ice cream.

Taken from our wall project, which was to paint as much of the walls as we could, since they were all white, cinder block walls. We did what we could to brighten up the room since it had no windows.

Dear Elon Musk and DOGE

Dear Elon Musk,

I know I’m not a federal worker, so your mandate that federal workers provide five accomplishments from the previous week, doesn’t apply. But I wanted to write you and give you five accomplishments I had for the previous week for two reasons. First, for the joy of looking back at what I accomplish every week, and more importantly, to show how easy it is for anyone to do if they simply do their jobs throughout the week. It’s really quite simple.

Background

I am a teacher in Texas, and I live very close to your rocket testing facility. I teach high school Special Education students, so I won’t be giving names or too many details since they have privacy rights. With that, and with the joy and ease of doing so, here are my five bullet points of things I accomplished in the last week:

First, I completed accumulating and assessing all the data for one of my student’s Annual Review and Dismissal meetings that are required by law. In that meeting, I was able to show how much the student had accomplished and learned over the four years he has been with us. He is about the graduate, and the data showed that as a SPED student, he has met all the requirements necessary for graduation.
Second, in accumulating the data for another student’s ARD, I’ve come to realize that even though he has Autism, he has an analytical mind. The student can solve a Rubric’s cube in under 2 minutes. What makes this important is that we have another full year to see how we can develop that mind of his. This is truly exciting.
Third, with another senior, I was able to help him begin to see the need for personal responsibility. He hasn’t learned this lesson yet, but over the coming three months, hopefully it will sink in and he will begin to work harder in class. I have this lesson with all my students, but have only had this particular student in my class for a month.
Fourth, through another ARD meeting, I worked with a team to convince a student who had quit school all together to return. He has 18 credit hours and only needs 22 to graduate. We managed to convince him to return to school and persevere. This is a major accomplishment.
Fifth, I continued teaching all my student ELAR, Math, Social Studies, and Science throughout the week. For instance, this week’s math focus was addition and subtraction numbers up to 1,000. For ELAR and Social Studies, we continue reading and learning about Black History, focusing on MLK Jr., Daisy Bates, Sojourner Truth, etc., along with the implications of the Civil Rights Movement. We didn’t do much for science this week, other that watching a video about a man in Central Texas who took a large portion of land, and restored it simply by removing cedar trees, and replacing it with natural grass, which helps replenish the aquifers.

OK, that took about 10 minutes to write. Hopefully our Federal Workers can do so as enthusiastically as I was able to do, since their jobs are far more important than mine.

Latest Selfie

Sometimes, I get lucky.

This latest selfie was taken in the process of making a video for my special education students on folding clothes. I took the picture so I could adjust the focus, and lighting, etc., for the video. I didn’t realize how good it would be.

The video, which is on folding clothes, will be published on Youtube at a later date. While viewing it, my lovely bride Heidi, informed me that the way I fold sweatshirts is all wrong. So I need to correct the video so that my students see the correct way to fold sweat shirts. I will make a post about it once I upload it to Youtube. You can see the video about washing clothes here.