When I was teaching in my last post, literally and actually, we always celebrated birthdays – students and teachers. One year, and only once a student and I shared the same birthday although many years apart!
He was Matt, a handsome and very likable young man, intelligent, witty, a bit wacky… and surprisingly cheerful despite difficulties in his life. He was a lovely boy and I am sure is a lovely young man now. I always enjoyed teaching him – he was in a year of other real characters who stood out for other positive reasons, but I always remember him as my birthday buddy.
It was in the days of Myspace, and I came across an artist called Michael Cano who was extraordinary and very talented. I got into a correspondence with him and he generously allowed me to use some of his work with my students. I was teaching them art but as an English teacher I had to bring literacy into the classroom and the students wrote to Michael, asking questions about art and telling him things about their efforts to emulate him. Michael was kind enough to correspond with them and it was a very fruitful relationship.
I still have one of Matt’s pictures, inspired by Michael:
http://www.facebook.com/michael.cano.925
Lois Elsden 