Love and Praise

I'm a high school teacher. I don't usually get heaps of love and praise from my students the way many elementary teachers do. Today was different, and it's amazing how one student can make a teacher feel so good. I received a handmade card from one of my Algebra B students today thanking me for doing my best to help her understand. I will never use students' real names in this blog, but I'll call her Liz. Liz also wrote that I'm one of the only teachers that she can come to with her problems, not only problems with classwork but problems with anything. Wow. I was moved almost to tears by Liz's simple handwritten note.

Liz works very hard in my class but gets frustrated -- as anyone who cares would -- when she doesn't understand something. She has come in for help during her study hall fairly often recently and even after school once in awhile. After all her hard work, she still failed a test earlier this week. I don't usually offer test retakes. I figure that a student needs to put in appropriate effort the first time. However, on this particular test I had two students fail who have been working their tails off and just didn't feel that was fair. Most of the time when a student fails a test, it's because they haven't been paying attention in class and haven't been doing their homework -- something to which I'm sure many teachers can relate! In any case, I let Liz and the other student retake the test and will average their scores. At a quick glance, I believe Liz got every single question right on the retake.

It's amazing what a little effort by a teacher can do for a student -- for their grade, for their self-confidence, for their feeling of worth. I love my job.