April 11, 2013

Warm Fuzzies

Yippee! Huge sigh of relief! After four days of testing, we are officially done for the year.

I, for one, couldn't possibly be happier!

I'm excited to have my own students back in my classroom tomorrow. It's funny how much we miss each other when we can't be together. Every day during lunch (students had brown bag lunches in our classrooms to accommodate all three grade levels at once), I had a revolving door of my students trying to come in and hang out.

"We miss you!" they pleaded as I redirected them back to their rooms.

"We haven't seen you all week!" they argued.

I literally stood in my doorway like a gatekeeper, trying to keep my testing students in and my actual students out. One of our small group test administrators reported that she had to take her students on a walk just to keep them from coming into my room while we were still testing.

I love how they love me!

Speaking of love, I've been receiving quite a bit of unexpected feedback from my students this week. I already mentioned how several students told me on Monday that the test was easy, but the compliments haven't stopped.

Yesterday, I was walking back to my room after lunch when one of my SPED kiddos stopped me in the halls and said, "Ms. L, you must have done a great job because that test was easy!" That was the first time a student has contributed his perceived success on my efforts. To be honest, I was surprised to hear that from this particular student, but it definitely gave me warm fuzzies.

Today, I was preparing dinner when I saw a student's name on my caller ID. Knowing how much my students prefer to text, I immediately thought something was wrong. When I answered the phone though, here's what I heard:

A: Hey, Ms. L! I have T on the phone with me and we thought we should call you because we were talking about you.

Me: You were talking about me? Why?

A: We were talking about how easy the test was because of you.

T: Yeah, you prepared us perfectly. We knew exactly what to expect.

Me: Wow! Thanks, guys! That's really nice of you to say.

A: Really, though, Ms. L., we can't even imagine where we'd be without you.

How freaking cute is that?!

I honestly can't think of a time in my previous years when my students have thanked me for how I've taught them. I've had many students thank me for being funny or caring, and sure, I've had students give me great feedback on specific lessons. But never before have I had students thank me for the overall education I've provided them.

It feels really good to know that they felt ready for this test (and, therefore, high school) because of my instruction, especially since this year has been such a learning curve for me.

To be completely honest, it kinda makes all the frustrations worth it. It's just the encouragement I needed!

1 comment:

  1. Wow this is such an awesome post! Very cool that your students have made the link between your efforts and their results (and of course their efforts)


    x Serena x
    Magic Mistakes & Mayhem