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Volume 10, Number 1 Fall, 1999 Editor's note: The following letter is part of a MAMLE Educator of the Year nomination. It was written by Jillian Lacroix, who is currently an eighth grade student at Lawrence Junior High School in Farifield, and was part of an extensive packet of materials documenting the appropriateness of this award. This is the first time MAMLE has had an Educator of the Year nominated by a student. As we continue to search for ways to engage students at a higher level, Jillian reminds us that the little things count... and that ultimately it is the teacher that make the difference. MAMLE Editor Wally Alexander

The Kids Know Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Jillian Lacroix, I am a seventh grader at Lawrence Junior High School, and I have Mr. Jonassen (Mr. J) for a teacher this year. Mr. J is somewhat of a unconventional teacher, but that's what makes him who he is. I guess I should first tell you about his personality, but what I think is most amazing about him is that he always has kids staying before and after school. Even though this may seem funny he invites us to come up before school, he says he enjoys talking to us and that he thinks the gym is a bad place to be in the morning. The gym is where the teachers herd us (the kids). We are also welcome to stay after class if we have a practice or project. Mr. J also cares about our feelings, sometimes when we have a fight he will sit down, and help us solve our differences. I think he does this because he wants the classroom to have a good atmosphere, and because he wants us to enjoy our time in class. He tries to keep a good atmosphere in the school to, one way he did this was to be The Rainbow Man (TRM). TRM was a person who put rainbows all over the school, and he also wrote notes to people complimenting them. About a week later we figured out it was him. Mr. J's classroom is so amazing, it is like one big photo album! He has kept all the pictures and gifts anyone has ever given him, or at least that is what it looks like. You walk into the classroom, and the first thing you see is a bulletin board full of pictures. And when I say full I mean full, it goes from the ceiling to the floor. Next you will see the strange way our desks are arranged, he let us design it ourselves. The last thing you will see is a bulletin board filled with pictures of Cindy Blodget. When he talks about her it is about how good of a student she was. Mr. J does many other things such as he takes us to Camp Caribou, and Mt. Blue. We went to Camp Caribou for two days and one night. While we were there we did many leadership training activates, such as trolleys. The trolleys are two wooden planks with ropes tied to them we all stand on the planks and try to walk, it takes a lot of team work. We stay four days and three nights at Mt. Blue, there we hike Tumble Down Mountain, and do many other fun activates. We also go to Mt. Blue on one other occasion; we go there to do a service project. When we do the service project we sweep the camp road, rake the beaches, and clean the camp sites. Mr. J does many neat things with us, but I think that the most interesting things he does are the little things. One of these little things is swamp water, in case you do not know what swamp water is a kind of mixed soda. Another thing he will do just to be funny is he will attach a tissue to a test if it is hard, he says the tissue is to cry on. But what is really cool about him is that he talks to us like we are equals, and he understands us. Mr. J can also be very serious, especially when it comes to things like math, and school work. We have what is called the placement test, the test decides where you place in math next year so he prepares us for this test. This gives us a great advantage, and it also gives us a head start. Because of this and many other reasons I believe he should be Educator of the Year. Sincerely, Jillian C. Lacroix