James Brent
First-grade Teacher Tuckahoe Elementary School, Arlington | Years teaching: 8
❝ I went to Tuckahoe. I’ve been in their shoes and walked the same hallways. They say they know the bathrooms are haunted. They’re not haunted. Trust me, they’re not.
❝ I have kids who are stressed because they are behind in, say, reading, and they try to mask that with humor or misbehavior. It’s really about seeking approval: “Is this good? Am I done?” Well, do YOU think you are done? Did you do your best? Because if you did, then that’s all you can do.
❝ I tell stories of my own failures so they see it’s okay to talk about that stuff. It happens to everyone. I have stories of when I fell off a bunk bed and got stitches. They know all of my major injuries.
❝ First-graders enter the year essentially as kindergartners. By the end of the year a majority of them can read. They really become little people. They develop personalities, they gain friends. Some of my friends now are friends I had in first grade.
❝ One of my favorite lessons is about the sense of taste—salty, sweet, sour, bitter. I give them a bag that has marshmallows, a lemon, a pretzel and chocolate. They don’t realize that bitter is going to be unsweetened chocolate. I save that one until the end—I take a big bite and enjoy it. They’re drooling and they take their bite and it’s horrible. You get a lot of kids running, spitting in the trash can or the sink. It’s great. Fifth-graders ask me, “Have you given them the chocolate?” They remember that one.
❝ I can tell some students are 100 percent smarter than me. I know more than they do because I’ve been around longer, but you can just tell the way they articulate themselves, the way they can explain their math reasoning or the stories they write. They’re going to have a really bright future.