Making an Impact

I share my Science, Social Studies, and Math room with one of our part-time Special Education teachers, and to be honest I haven't been the friendliest neighbor. I just get so busy I never open the divider to say hi, but today I made an effort to ask her how things were going. She is a first year teacher and she is a little overwhelmed. She is working with several students I had my first year at Hiseville who were then in third grade, but are now fifth graders, so we were discussing their progress, behavior issues, and other teacher stuff. She mentioned that she gave each of them a questionnaire about reading the other day. One of the questions asked who had the most influence on their reading, and one of them wrote my name down for the answer. When she showed me that boy's paper, I teared up. It is moments like that, that make teaching worth it all. I remembered he came and hugged me last year and told me that I helped him learn to read, but I never realized how much of an impact I made for him. It's good to know that you really can make a difference in someone's life!!