Children's personalities emerged during year

The names of the students and their teacher and substitute teachers in this series have been changed to protect the identities of the children. The names of other teachers at the school are real.

Teacher John Pendry has watched his students mature during nine months of fourth grade. Some thrived, some struggled and others moved away. Inside the classroom, their story is still unfolding:

* Amal: Pendry's replacement, Jane Patterson, says that she and the boy are getting along fine, although one student wrote in a letter to Pendry that Amal is "being even louder than when you were here." Pendry says the boy will be fine "with FIRM tender loving care."

* Armand: Doesn't return to Jydstrup after spring vacation in April when his family moves to Henderson. Pendry wonders how the boy with a bright smile, low academic skills and a transient history is faring at his third school this year.

* Cheyenne: Despite transferring to Jydstrup during the school year and then being transferred to another classroom, the quiet girl has adjusted well, her teacher says. She has made new friends and completes her schoolwork. She still reads below grade level, but has made notable improvements.

* Darius: Moved away from Jydstrup. Like Cheyenne, he had been switched to another fourth grade class in October. His new teacher had begun attending the pupil's hockey games and invited the boy, a chronic behavior problem, into a martial arts class he teaches at night. "Just about the time I figured, 'It's working, I've finally got him,' he moved away," the teacher said. "It's typical Las Vegas."

* Dean: Pendry says the boy is strong enough to overcome a sometimes tumultuous family life and will succeed in school "if he doesn't quit on himself."

* Elizabeth: Moved away from Jydstrup before Christmas. She had continued to struggle to concentrate on her schoolwork and performed below grade level.

* Hannah: "Very motivated," Pendry says. "The next mayor?"

* LeAnthony: Moved out of state in October without a goodbye.

* Lily: Pendry expects the bright and bespectacled girl will thrive the rest of the year and beyond elementary school.

* Lucy: After a move to Harvey Dondero Elementary, she now seems happy and adjusted at her third school of the year, her mother reports.

* Molly: The bright girl in gifted and talented classes gripes that Patterson gives the class more homework than Pendry. "Next president of the U.S.A.," Pendry predicts.

* Nasser: "With firm discipline, he will do well," Pendry says of the smart-mouthed boy with a love for Rollerblading. He's "very bright."

* Nick: Pendry says the boy who would never take responsibility for his mistakes -- even when caught red-handed -- will do "better and better with maturity."

* Orwell: The boy with expensive clothes will find his academic success through discipline and extra help offered in special education classes, Pendry says.

* Ramon: Pendry predicts one of his smartest students and worst troublemakers will make a good defense lawyer someday.

* Ray: The hockey-loving boy was crushed when the Las Vegas Thunder pulled out of town and when his teacher left the classroom. He, Nick and Amal continue to give their new teacher trouble. But Pendry predicts that he will mature and do well in middle school.

* Ronny: "He has the tools to succeed," Pendry says. "He needs to use them!" Throughout the year, his teachers continued to remind him to wear his hearing aids.

* Rochelle: For a while, she was the tallest pupil in Pendry's class. The girl who attended six elementary schools during her kindergarten year alone left Pendry's class in November when her family moved to Texas.

* Shannon R.: "President of high school drama club," Pendry predicts for the animated girl who worships the Spice Girls.

* Shannon T.: The family of the bright class know-it-all moved from an apartment in the Jydstrup area into a house. She now attends Frank Kim Elementary.

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