Sweet Moment - Reminder of Why I Work With Kids

Boy was today an up and down day! First off, our schedule got completely mixed up due to some special guests in the classroom. One of our second grade teachers was running a little late and asked the secretary to take her kids to Music. Lucky her, the Music teacher called in sick this morning which left her class without a teacher for 50 minutes. So the first grade teachers split the class into three and took the 2nd graders in for the first 50 minutes of the day. It was kind of cool because I basically got most of my former students back in my classroom for a bit.

It was great to see my former students in the classroom again! However, our normal schedule is to do calendar and phonics during the first 50 minutes of the day. With around 10 extra second graders in the classroom, I didn't want to bore them so I had the second graders teach my class the first grade song for our school oratorical event. It was tons of fun but completely threw our schedule off which led to a frustrating late morning.

Somehow, the kids were able to turn themselves around after lunch and we were able to catch up on all the stuff we missed in the morning. I ended the day being in a much better mood and somehow most of the class ended up on on "Good Day" and "Outstanding" on my clip chart. Reflecting on today...it makes me really proud of my students that they were able to pull themselves together before the day ended (it doesn't normally happen, believe me).

And another sweet moment to share. When I was in college, I volunteered as a tutor in a non-profit after school program. I worked with third to fifth graders and helped them with their homework. There was this one student in particular who gave me a rough time at first. He would refuse to follow my directions and didn't seem to care much about his education at all. But I never gave up on him and kept going at it. One day, months later, it somehow clicked for him and when my semester with him was over, he was the only kid who wrote me a thank you note thanking me for my help. Now this kid is in high school (crazy!). It's his birthday today so I left a happy birthday comment on his facebook. And this was his reply:

Thanks Pam! Which school do you work for now? You were a great foundation towards my education!!

AWWWWWWW. That made my heart melt. You know, it's the tough kids who seem to show the greatest appreciation for all hard work we educators do for them.

Just had to share. I thought the teacher blogging world would be able to relate. :)