13 things i love about you...

i don't feel like writing about books tonight. i had dinner with a friend earlier and i just want to write about him. he will probably never read this, but i want everyone reading to know how much he means to me.

in no particular order, here are just a few of the reasons i love matthew hartley:

• his favorite song is "bulletproof" and he still loves it and is known to break into spontaneous dance even when i sing it to him (loudly and quite obnoxiously) almost every time i see him.
• he wears clogs.
• he has a pink sweater...enough said.
• he took a class full of first graders who really had no direction and he taught them how to make connections AND use evidence from the text to support their ideas AND write it down...i still can't get all of my babies to do that.
• he hugs me when i've had a rough day...today was one of those days.
• he loses his phone and/or his contacts about every three months.
• he is such a country boy...we're still working on his grammar.
• when he was my intern, we had phil collins singalong parties while we set up my classroom.
• he writes the most detailed and thoughtful lesson plans i have ever seen...i wish i could say the same for myself.
• he can't say 'thesaurus'...i've coached him for months and he still can't.
• he can't function without his morning coffee.
• he loves his students more than anything and works long hours so that he can meet every one of their needs.

and most importantly:

• he still loves me, after a year of me bossing him around, making him change bulletin boards, hang up student work, annunciate in read-alouds, and fix his grammar...he should hate me, but he doesn't...