I am so glad my flight is later in the day. The ceremony was done very well.
It was a combinaton middle school awards program, and 8th grade graduation. Beorn blew us away.
He was not valedictorian, as he had gotten a 'B' in 7th grade one nine week term. Both valedictorians had 4.0 averages, although the girl valedictorian only attended the school one year. Beorn's had a 4.0 this entire year. Oh well...
However, the school awards top male student, top female student, and most improved in each class. Beorn was the top 8th grade male student in the following classes:
Algebra I (their highest math class)
Language Arts (I was shocked. This is the kid who strugges to write)
Science (This we expected)
Reading (Again, expected. With his AR points, no one was close. The speech about him being the first inductee into the "Beorn Wagner ALC Reading Hall of Fame" made by his Science/Social Studies/Reading teacher to introduce him again gave me tears. I so wish I had a video camera)
He was recognized for excelling in P.E. This is not based on athletic ability, but on wilingness to dress out (he ever missed a day), cooperaton, enthusiasm, and behavior.
His school's entire student body each had to compose a short book that is printed. He was required to illustrate it as well. His was recognized as 'best science fiction story.'
He was recognized for the excellence on his term project and display on Leonardo daVinci.
He received a certificate for distinguished honor roll, meaning he maintained a 4.0 average for the entire year.
He received the State of Florida Governor's Award for achieving top scores on all subjects of the FCATs (our standardized tests), except Reading. I truly believe he did not get top scores in Reading because I had forgotten to request he be allowed to use a word processor for any hand written answers for that part of the tests. That has since been rectified for next year. We'll see if it improves his score.
He received the President of the United States Gold Seal Award (George Bush's signature is on the certificate :shudder:, but it is still an honor).
That's all I know of. I think additional fun awards were handed out in class after the ceremony, but since we headed right here to TPA as soon as he got out of school, and they dropped me off for the two hour trip back to Gator Town, I didn't get to look through all the various certificates.
They then showed a PowerPoint slide show highlighting the 8th grade students. Like me, Beorn avoids the camera, so Paul and I were surprised by how many slides actually featured Beorn. It definitely moved me to tears, especially the photos from when he first started attending the school in 6th grade. Man, has he grown and matured in these three years...
The two valedictorians had spoken previous to this; at this point it was Beorn's turn. He had practiced once a day over the course of the weekend with me, and I quailed in my heart because he just could not overcome the aspie monotone.
Well, let me tell you, when he stepped up to the podium, my aspie kid disappeared. He made eye contact with each person he talked about. He used inflection in the appropriate places. He paused after each punch line, and the audience roared each time. It was not my kid!! I'm tearing up again just thinking about it.
Then the certificates of graduation were handed out, and again a little personal story was said about each student.
All in all, something I am so glad not to have missed.
