Wednesday - Never ASSUME instead BUILD
Dear Diary,
You know what I enjoy about Wednesday is that Ms. Aguilar dedicates that day to announce the student of the week! She always congratulates that student who stands out in class in their academics, participation, and kindness. You may think it’s silly but it has given me the encouragement to do better in my work. You may think it causes jealousy or problems but it actually does not because Ms. Aguilar is fair when choosing the student of the week; she always makes sure it does not get repeated. Some students don’t aim for that but to motivate them Ms. Aguilar gives them a prize and it can be a pack of pencils, erasers or any school material that we may need. Diego was the first one who won that award and he asked for a red folder because his parents were not in the best financial conditions and what Ms. Aguilar brought him 2 notebooks, a pack of pencils and 3 folders. Ms. Aguilar lets everyone know that student of the week is to give appreciation to that student giving their best efforts and if they are very struggling she will always be there to hear and help out. I believe Diego started to tear up a bit and everyone stood up to hug him, even Ms. Aguilar. Honestly Ms. Aguilar has created such a welcoming and caring place that no one ever dares to laugh or even criticize when we have trouble or make mistakes. Isn’t that funny?
On that Wednesday you know who was called Student of the Week? Yes, it was me, thank you Ms. Aguilar. I wasn’t sure why I was student of the week but I do recall one day where I was really struggling when Ms. Aguilar was teaching decimals and how to convert them into fractions. Ms. Aguilar continued throughout the lesson but I did not want to pause her lesson so when we were doing our exit slips on converting decimal into fraction my page was blank. I wanted to cry in that moment when Ms. Aguilar stood next to me. I put the pencil down and told her the following:
“Ms. Aguilar I am sorry, I assumed you would rather I stay quiet. I felt everyone understood the lesson except me so I did not want to look like a fool.”
Ms. Aguilar crouched down and smiled at me and told me it was okay because I wasn’t the only one who did not understand the lesson. She told me it was her mistake to assume that everyone was following her lead. She asked again if everyone understood the lesson and if not to give a thumbs down and to my surprise I saw about half of the class was confused. 
Ms. Aguilar motto is always never assume that you can learn on your own, never assume that the teacher doesn’t want questions, never assume that you can’t learn it instead build, question and always participate. She says that is the reason why flowers, plants, and animals are able to grow and reproduce because every part of nature helps it to grow. When Ms. Aguilar retaught the lesson again and she made sure that everyone was understanding the lesson. She also taught us a way to use color and shapes to remember where the number belongs when we divide and how it connects to the fraction. Ms. Aguilar is not very keen on the word “give up” or “terrible” and she never marks a paper with X instead she circles our mistakes and when we are not sure of our mistakes she explains why it's marked. In exams or tests she gives us, she always goes through each question with us and advises us of the mistakes we may encounter. When we get our exams she always gives us feedback in the back of the page or in our scrap paper. Ms. Aguilar also looks at efforts so she always emphasizes ALWAYS SHOW WORK because we get points for effort.
Now thinking back through that week another reason Ms. Aguilar gave me the reward could be the math project I aced compared to everyone who scored average because they did not follow directions. The project dealt with creating a digital notebook where we input examples and definitions of the topics we went over which were integers, additive inverse, opposite pairs, absolute value but I went a bit beyond that I used number lines and small activities that we did in class like playing the integer games. Ms. Aguilar was really impressed that she gave me the chance to present my work to my classmates. Another motto Ms. Aguilar has in her class is always built upon beyond your knowledge which means think outside your box. Ms. Aguilar mentions “your box” because she says we are all individuals with our own voice so after my presentation she asked the students what other ideas could have been added to their notebook. She never told my peers their project was below mine but they could have thought outside their box. She always discusses with the class about what more they could have done or what can be implemented in future works. I think that students love about Ms. A because she’s never disappointed but excited to see where or what our minds will discover next.
BUT, Back to my award, I was super excited to ask for these fruit smell markers so I can use in our whiteboard session that Ms. Aguilar lets us do this when we study for an exam or when we play a game with the topic. Before I utter a word about my prize Ms. Aguilar said a few words,
“This student of the week is a bit special for the reason that Jimmy was nominated by his peers and asked that I should reward Jimmy student of the week. To those who nominated Jimmy please state why you have nominated Jimmy”
Jiaro: “Ms. Aguilar please award Jimmy student of the week because he really helped me a lot with my English and Math homework when he visit me”
Sol “Ms. Aguilar I think Jimmy deserves the award because he is always cheering me up when practice doesn't go as planned. He knows how much I love soccer.”
Diego: “Ms. Aguilar, Jimmy is brave more than me he admits defeat and I think people should admire and congratulate him for that”
Ms. Aguilar said she was blessed receiving those letters and felt happy to see how my peers nominated me and how I really grew out of my shell compared to the first week of class. She said that I fully represented what it meant to be out of my box. My week was full of new friends, new markers, and the fulfillment I had improving as a person and in math.
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