Impact

Somewhere back when I was a new teacher, a colleague told me to save any notes or nice things students gave me. The gist was that teachers are often reminded of what we do wrong, we struggle daily and often receive nothing but complaints so keeping reminders that someone, somewhere once liked us can take one a long way. It's advice I always pass along to new teachers and interns.

Today has been my morning to clean out the filing cabinets and file all the stuff I brought in big grocery bags from my classroom last fall. I've been amazed at how much I've thrown away. Why did I ever think I needed to keep all this stuff? The best find though, was a file of cards and notes from former students and colleagues.

My heart if pretty full right now. I've really struggled with education this year, questioning not only the system but my role in it, my purpose and my success. Reading all of these notes not only validated some of the last 15 years of my life; it reminded me of what teaching should be.

What felt good was that the notes had recurrent themes. None of the students thanked me for teaching them how to punctuate sentences, define onomatopoeia, or identify the periods of American literature. Over and over again I read different words thanking me for the same few things. The first was for challenging students and making them achieve more than they thought they could. How cool is that! Students told me in various ways that at first they thought I was crazy but that eventually they realized that although I had high expectations and pushed them, I was there to support them and help them reach success. The second area of comment was for my obvious passion for teaching and respect for my students. I was successful if students felt that they learned about themselves and their abilities and if they believed my classroom was a place where they were valued.

I'm sure I've taught, literally, thousands of students over the years. I know that for many of them I didn't meet their needs and I didn't make a huge impact, although hopefully I did no harm. Just looking at some of these notes from students, and looking at where some of them are now, shows that one person, one teacher, can make a big difference for some students. And that makes it all worthwhile. Cheesy at it may sound, I feel content today.

It's especially ironic because I had a post on Facebook from a former student this morning that said "I'd just like you to know that my sister just informed me that she has a recurring nightmare of showing up to your class having forgotten to do her project. Well done." What does it say about me that I take that comment as a compliment - I made an impact on a student! I just hope I'm correct in that her "nightmare" really isn't that scary or traumatic... having to pay for a therapist may counteract some of the attaboys I've been so proud of today.