Hearing from former students, or their parents, is always the highlight of the day. There is something lucky about teaching high school seniors because you have them on the cusp of their Next Big Step–and you imagine that their experience in your class and your face (for better or worse.. heh) becomes particularly symbolic of their secondary school experience.
One was an email that a student from the senior class of ’08 sent yesterday evening during the last half of President Obama’s State of the Union address. Apparently watching with another student from that same class, he wrote that “you came up for the simple fact that you were one of the people that understood that we could be more after high school. So we were wondering how have you been…” I tell you–after that email? Couldn’t be better… this particular student pressing all the way to the line to make it to that graduation stage two years ago, struggling, and then ending with an arm around my shoulder at the end of that school year. Sporting a big, big grin.
I also happened to run into a parent of another former student from that same class, asking me for my contact information so she could pass it along to her daughter (“who has been getting honor roll for the past five semesters,” she proudly told me). “You did good by her,” she told me as we parted ways.
How affirming and incredible. These are the moments that make it all worthwhile– lives lived, no? It just makes you feel good. Connected.
Hearing From Former Students
Hearing from former students, or their parents, is always the highlight of the day. There is something lucky about teaching high school seniors because you have them on the cusp of their Next Big Step–and you imagine that their experience in your class and your face (for better or worse.. heh) becomes particularly symbolic of their secondary school experience.
One was an email that a student from the senior class of ’08 sent yesterday evening during the last half of President Obama’s State of the Union address. Apparently watching with another student from that same class, he wrote that “you came up for the simple fact that you were one of the people that understood that we could be more after high school. So we were wondering how have you been…” I tell you–after that email? Couldn’t be better… this particular student pressing all the way to the line to make it to that graduation stage two years ago, struggling, and then ending with an arm around my shoulder at the end of that school year. Sporting a big, big grin.
I also happened to run into a parent of another former student from that same class, asking me for my contact information so she could pass it along to her daughter (“who has been getting honor roll for the past five semesters,” she proudly told me). “You did good by her,” she told me as we parted ways.
How affirming and incredible. These are the moments that make it all worthwhile– lives lived, no? It just makes you feel good. Connected.