Gifts for My Lighthouse Student Tierra

Each teacher at my school gets to choose one student to recognize as their Lighthouse each year - a student who is a beacon of light whenever you see them.  There were no parameters - it was totally up to the teacher as to whom and why they made the decision they did.  I picked Tierra!

Her favorite color is purple.

Tierra is my Lighthouse because: She's in this class whose general attitude is usually "Meh", but she's always interested, always has her ears perked up for what I have to say, and laughs at the stuff that is supposed to be funny.  She works hard, never writing off work in my class as unimportant (as they all do from time to time, because it's an elective).  She always seems to be in a cheerful mood.  AND she's the author of this gem:

At the beginning of the year, Tierra and 2 other girls and I got into a shouting match -
back before I was as wonderful a teacher as I am now - and I had to send them to the
office.  Our relationship has recovered nicely though!

We got to give them a little silver lighthouse pin, a certificate, and a photo of us together.  I put ours in a frame and slapped this lighthouse scrapbook sticker on there, and voila!

But since I'm always looking for someone to make stuff for, I had to do a little bit more.  I used one of my garage sale frames (RRR!) and a wooden letter T from Michael's to make this little diddy.  I hope I accurately judged the tastes of a 16-yr-old.  Your dorky teacher thinks it's cool Tierra!

She liked it. 

This was one of my favorite things all year!