Today was a great day! I love when I get to teach everything that I need to. I love when I get to have lunch with a couple of my kids and share some meaningful conversation about their lives. I love when I can get a great deal when I am shopping for Christmas presents.
But the best part of today was right at the end of the school day. I was going to try and jet out early in order to get some shopping done. Well, when your new best friend is a five year old who loves your classroom and hamster, it makes trying to get out a little harder. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Gillian, and her mom is one of my favorite people (plus a great 4th grade teacher!). However, I needed to get out of the school. It turned out that it was a good thing I got “stuck” talking with Gillian in my room.
When I walked her back to her room I poked my head in to say goodbye to Lisa (her mom) and Barb (who teaches next to my room) and got caught talking to them for a few minutes too. Now, if you know me, this is not unusual. Me, have a hard time getting out the door because I keep stopping to talk to people? Nooooo! NEVER! Yeah right. At any rate, as I stood in the doorway I happened to see someone coming out of the corner of my eye. I thought- “Hey, that kid is too big to be a fifth grader.” When I turned around I realized that my whole week had just been made. Why? Because the “big kid” coming down the hall was a student of mine from last year!
Right, so this may not seem too fantastic to you, but for me it made the whole week. Not only is Landon the first of my students to come visit me, but he happens to be one of my favorites! Teachers try not to have favorites and I certainly did my best to treat everyone exactly the same, but Landon was just one of those kids for me. In fact, I know I didn’t treat him any better than the rest because I was constantly giving him a hard time for missed assignments because he forgot to write them in his agenda. Landon’s other main quirk was NEVER putting up his chair at the end of the day. Despite me getting on his case, he took everything in stride. He was an extremely funny kid- very quick witted. He was incredibly sweet to me and his mom was the best! I don’t know how else to say it- this kid just stole my heart (not in a dirty Mary Kay Loturno way)! He just was a good kid, cared about his family, cared about his teachers, was nice to the other kids, and could joke with me when I posted giant notes on the board about not putting up his chair (which became a running gag with him). When I saw him in the hallway all I could do was hold out my arms and say: “I can’t believe you came to see me!” I introduced him to Barb and Lisa (who agreed that the first time a kid comes back to see you is indeed a bit of a magical moment) and then we sat in my room and talked until his brothers came to get him. I got to talk to his mom for a while, get the scoop on some of the other boys in the class, and talk to him about how he liked Middle School.
Two things that just warmed my heart and made me feel so proud of him:
1) The kid joined band! He wasn’t the type I would have pegged for it, but he now has switched from trumpet to french horn. When I asked what his favorite class was he looked at me in the most sincere way and said: “Band. I look forward to it everyday. It cheers me up.” For a teacher who tried every chance she got to expose the kids to music in many varieties, it was great to hear this.
2) He told me about a math teacher he had who just isn’t that great. Landon is not the type to exaggerate and his mom confirmed the “bad teacher” business as well. I didn’t teach math last year, my partner in crime, Clare, did. So when I said: “He’s no Mrs. Copperwheat, eh?” Landon smiled and said: “Or a Ms. M, either.” Landon is no Eddie Haskell. He says what he means when it comes to these things. This is why I became a teacher. To know that even just one student feels this way about being in my class- it’s priceless. It’s worth gold. It makes my week.
So, stay tuned. Melanie, Landon’s mom, is e-mailing me the dates for his winter concert with band. At least three other boys from my two classes last year are in band too. We’ll see how the whole crew is doing. You know, I loved the girls in my class, but there is just something about the boys at this age. They’re harder to get to know, harder to reach. So many of them are starting the whole “I’m too cool for this” thing. It’s so nice to see I had some boys from last year who weren’t too cool to stop remember their crazy teacher from fifth grade.
1 comment:
That moment right there is why my folks taught for 32 years. The moment when the student comes back and tells you how much of an influence you had on their life, whether one year or 20 years later.
All the discipline stuff and the crappy days go out the window when that moment happens.
One from my mom is when Tim McCormick (the basketball player from Michigan, NBA, now on ESPN) came back to talk with kids. My mom didn't have Tim in her class, but had spoken with him frequently in school when he was a student. Anyway, in between talking in class and recess, Tim - all 6'9" of him - goes out to the playground as kids are running around at recess and hops on a swing and starts swinging back and forth. All the while, talking with kids and keeping a big grin on his face. It was pretty funny to her and makes it all good.
Hope you have more of those types of moments in your years to come.
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