They done me proud.

Today my students gave "any old bag speeches" for their midterms. For those of you that didn't attend UNCG and have to take a communications course an "any old bag speech" is where you take a bag and three items that symbolize your past, present and future.

I was a little nervous about how this would go because my students had never given speeches before, but I wanted to begin giving them experience because they have the Senior project coming up and that's pretty important.

My students did such a great job. They shared such personal events from their lives, and I was really happy that they felt like my classroom was a safe environment. I had students bring in the first photo that they had with their mom after they got out of foster care, I had students bring in the last photo their parents were in together before they got a divorce, I had students share about leaving their home country and how they would be the first to go to college, I had a student share about how she got shot at as a child in a neighborhood gang fight, I had a student share about how his role as a father was the most important one to him. Over and over, these precious children got up and shared really beautiful parts of their stories.

I was really very proud and honored to listen.