8

Third grade. Travis Terelli. He had a nice face, a rat tail and a broken leg. What was there not to love? Every girl in class felt the same way. Trying out the crutches was a great ice breaker. I remember having a fun little group in this grade, perhaps Margot Gregory, Chelsea McCoy, and Travis Dreamboat. We had a really awesome teacher (Mrs. Sheehan). She put our spelling words on the blinds so when we were staring out the window, at least we might learn something. She had a reward system for the class where you earned tickets for various things (getting a good grade, cleaning up, doing something nice for someone) and once a week you could cash in your tickets for items of various cost. I saved up for sooooo long to get a giant stuffed teddy bear that was part of a matched pair. I really wanted the girl bear, but I was neck in neck in tickets with another girl (Megan Gilbo). She got there before me. She chose the boy bear. I still have the girl bear and some serious psychic powers of persuasion. We also got different colored stars when we got to different reading levels. Gold was highest and I might actually still have mine. It was on my bedroom ceiling for way too long. Reading was a joy of mine, but I also had some mad math skills. I remember my friend Michelle Carr trying to beat me in a timed multiplication test and being an eensy bit upset when she did not succeed. Thank you, Mr. McFerran for teaching me the trick for multiplying by 9s on your fingers. I use that to this day. Thank you, too, for being funny. Funny and awesome teachers have no idea the impact they have on their students.