The other week, I saw that I had a message in LinkedIn. Frankly, now that I am retired, I don’t check my LinkedIn page regularly. When I saw this message and the name of my former student, I was absolutely thrilled! I showed it to my husband, but I don’t think he realized how much it meant to me. Here’s the message:
There are those who say that teachers only remember the students who were challenging, the kolohe or rascal ones. That’s definitely not true! And it certainly isn’t true with this former student. He was in the first 2nd grade class I taught at Wheeler Elementary (prior to that, I taught Head Start and preschool special education). He was outstanding, produced quality work, was polite and respectful, an all-around student, and well-liked by all of his peers. I thought about him every-so-often, wondering what he was doing now (I am not surprised that he is doing very well!) I think about some of the other students in that class, too, like the girl who discovered a love for writing and said when she wrote her first book, she would dedicate it to me. Or the boy who was a little awkward socially but was such a whiz at math and figured out math puzzles faster than I could. I wonder what these students are doing today now that they are adults, maybe with families of their own.
Every student I had the privilege to teach made me a better educator. Teachers really do make a difference in our lives. A note from a former student (or a message in LinkedIn) will definitely make a teacher smile 😊. Do it today; it’ll make their day!
