I Have One Student (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798899905346)

I Have One Student celebrates the classroom as a community of characters, each of them distinct, unique, many of them unforgettable. As a teacher, Mary Ellen Redmond never stops thinking about those students when she leaves work. They ride with her on her way home, sometimes appear in her dreams, are almost always waiting in the morning when she wakes up. As a poet, she notices the things-big and small-that reveal the troubles and traumas of their lives. And she captures their stories in ways that will resonate not just with other educators but with anyone paying attention to the young lives unfolding around them. In her poems, you will meet Claudio from Haiti; Natalie, a sixth grader who reads Homer; David, who desperately needs a heart transplant; Sacul Rellek, who writes his name backwards; Deja, who silences the class by sharing something very personal; and many other ordinary, extraordinary students. And you won't forget them, either. Nor will you want to.