Apple Dumplings

Last Christmas when one of my instantly favorited students brought me a shoofly pie she had made just for me, I was, quite needless to say, tickled.

When a student this year showed me the rough draft of his essay about an important person (he chose as his subject his mom–an eighth grade teacher in my school–who makes him apple dumplings), I moaned in mock agony that I wasn’t eating one of the treats right then.

When he showed me the final copy of his essay, I again put on a show of excessive craving. What could he do but begin to taunt me by saying “apple dumplings” in response to my “good afternoon” or just whenever?

And then today, before school, he brought me this note attached to a covered aluminum pie plate (click on each picture to enlarge):

If you didn’t catch it, the last line of the letter reads, “Have a good day and many torturous plans for our our and other classes.”