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Aransas Pass teacher brings students’ work to life through inspiring lesson about perseverance

Each student was tasked to create a monster that conquered its fears and write a story about it.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — One Aransas Pass teacher is taking her lesson plans out of the box in hopes of helping her students conquer their fears.

There is nothing too big or small that H.T. Faulk Elementary School first grade teacher Amanda Hawes' class can’t overcome, and that’s why she decided to challenger her students to write their very own book.

"We have been working really hard on writing all year. Writing is a really hard skill for first grade. It’s just challenging to take what they learned from kinder, to put their words and sounds together to make words," she said.

Each student was tasked to create a monster that conquered its fears and write a story about it.

"We’ve talked a lot about preserving and how persevering means never giving up, and how you have to persevere when things are hard and not easy for you. When you persevere that’s how you learn," she said.

Using their imagination, each student illustrated a story of their monster persevering. Whether it was riding a bike or tackling math -- each one was special to their own experience. 

"I learned how to ride a bike without training wheels," said one Faulkner Elementary first grader.

Hawes said that she hopes her project will help bring joy back into her classroom.

"You know we are trying to fill gaps created by covid, all while keeping them safe with all these horrible things you see one the news," she said. "Just making sure there is joy in the learning and joy in the first grade classroom where it should be."

Hawes will be sending her student's stories off to be made into a classroom book -- that they'll be able to keep forever. She’s also working to surprise her classroom by turning their monsters into a reality with a company named Budsies. They will turn their creations into stuffed animals, but she will need help with her fundraising efforts.

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