JCNT - May 2025 Release - Full Release - Flipbook - Page 55
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the work they did was meaningful, which was a sentiment I certainly shared.
His teacher spoke of how their relationship had grown over the school year and
how he had started making meaningful connections with his peers. I even got to
hear her glowing review of their field trip day firsthand. I couldn9t help but notice
her bringing up the same green, blue, and yellow lizard Shadow had been so
excited about.
I took these amazing stories and created a special therapeutic document, a
newspaper article11 compiling eyewitness accounts of Shadow9s changes over the
last nine months of his life into one clear and coherent story.
The reading
The reading of this article just happened to fall on Shadow9s last day of 4th grade,
meaning we had been working together for about 8 months. When I saw him and
his mom in the lobby, I couldn9t wait to share the story with them.
Always wanting to keep the element of surprise, I told Shadow I had an article to
read to him and quickly flashed him the document so he could see that it looked
exactly like a newspaper. After Shadow joked about how we were
