How to Make My Day

So, to set up this short post I need to reveal something about me as a teacher.  Do you know what the favorite part of my day in teaching is?  Every teacher will most likely say that the end of the day is the best.  I’m no different, folks.  The end of the day is the best, but for me it’s more than just the promise of going home.  In my classroom, the last 15 to 30 minutes of the school day are spent with a read aloud.  Meaning, of course, that I read a book aloud to the kids.  Every year I start with the same two books: The Twits by Shel Silverstein because it breaks the ice and is I love to do the voices.  The second book is Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  I love this book because it takes place in Flint, Michigan (near where I grew up) and the kid is around the same age and my kids relate to him.  

We finished both of those books and moved on to a new one called Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo.  I read this to my class last year and they really seemed to love it.  This is actually the first book in a series, so that’s always a great way to draw in the kids who don’t like to read as much.  At any rate, we are getting near the end of Charlie Bone and the kids are TOTALLY into the book (which just floors me).  This is where I get to the point of the post: How to Make Mandy the Teacher’s Day.

A student of mine, who is just a great kid, stops me after school and says: “Hey Ms. M?  This is, like, totally random.  I know everything is totally random with me, but I thought I would tell you:  You read really well!”

So, as hard as this school year has been so far, it’s moments like that when I realize just how much little things mean.  This kid could have said nothing or could have been a smart ass.  But she isn’t and she is SUCH a sincere kid, that I know she meant it whole heartedly.  Its kids like her that makes my life as a teacher worth it, even if it is just the last minutes of the day when I am reading aloud.