“All of my students' grades went up. They even did the homework! My students actually looked forward to class each day.”

— April Holland, Teacher, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School

STUDENT ANTHOLOGIES EXCERPTS

Assorted excerpts

from Birth of a Sidewalk Butterfly

When I think of Ukraine, I think of our culture. The costumes for girls are dresses with flowers. They also wear something that looks like a crown, but it is a big circle that fits on a headdress made out of flowers. The costumes for boys are pants and a shirt with long sleeves. All pants and shirts have a pattern on them. I like to think of the Ukrainian songs, and the smell of delicious Ukrainian soups and cookies. I can even taste them.

(Moving to America, Diana Tesarzh)

While on the plane, I tried to gather my thoughts. This was my first time on an airplane. I had mixed feelings. This was the beginning of an awfully big adventure. I couldn't imagine the changes that I was going to be going through -- new home, new school, new town, new places to go to, new friends, new people and another language!

There were a lot of things that would change in my life. I always thought that going around the world and visiting other countries would be fun, but this was something different. I was starting a new life, in a different place except I would be with the people closest to me -- my mom, my dad and my sister.

(From Varna to San Francisco, Teodora Caneva)

Freddy's house has three bedrooms, one bathroom, a big kitchen, a big living room and a really humongous backyard. You could hear my mom and Freddy talking. You could smell Flory's chicken soup. Flory was Freddy's sister. You could almost taste the caramel coffee. They were sad yet happy that he was still alive. It was two in the afternoon, sunny yet cold.

(A lost Friendship... Selena Contreras)

To be separated from my mom for this long was devastating. I felt scared for a long time about not being around my mom every day. Not hearing her voice, not waking up to her "Wake up, Val," not seeing her for a long while? While visiting my mom, I felt like it was all my fault. If I had been there with her I could have helped my mom out, but I was at a sleepover. My mom went through serious hard times being in the hospital for one to three months??

(Struggling to Survive, Val'Dionna Picket)

A time when my life changed was when I learned about global warming in May 2007. I told my friends. They said, "So what? My grandkids will never see a polar bear." I asked them what their favorite animal was. Amilia and I said dolphin. Destiny said beaver. Jermain said sharks. To my surprise, they were all sea creatures. I told them that they would be gone if we don?t help global warming. They said they were going to help by recycling and picking up trash.

(Global Warming, Shantoria Murphy)

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