This is Why I Go to Work Everyday

I just wanted to post quickly about a great experience I had today. I am a teacher - well, more like a glorified tutor. Today the other teacher brought me the phone. When I answered, the mother of one of my students was on the phone. She said, "Hi, Jamie. I got Daughter's report card today," and I thought, 'Oh no! What's wrong with it?' I prepared to explain to her that our report cards are different than those from traditional schools, but then she continued. "Daughter has never gotten such good grades. She's never been that kind of a student. You and Case Manager have helped her so much. You really have. She has discovered that she loves learning and that's because of you and Case Manager. You both mean so much to her." And on and on. This particular student is one of my favorites. She's almost always bright and cheerful. She's kind and friendly to all of the students. She's energetic and participates in whatever we ask her to. I explained to Mother that her daughter is great and we enjoy her. She told me that she had told someone at work about Daughter's grades, and the person bought flowers for Daughter. Then she said, "She should probably give them to you and Case Manager, though, because it's due to you both that she's doing so well." She told me that she doesn't think people get thanked enough, and she just wanted to be sure that we knew she appreciates us.

I'm sorry I went on and on about that, but I wrote it down more for myself than for you. It's more so I can remember it. And I'm not trying to boast. I'm not that great, and it's not because of me that Daughter is doing so well. She's a good kid, and she's teaching herself. It's like I said, I'm more like a tutor who has her own class. The school is self-paced, so my students work on their subjects on their own. I just help them when they have questions.

It was just such a nice gesture of the mom. I love my kids. I think they love me. However, work can be pretty stressful. Usually, I just see what I do wrong. I feel like the absent-minded professor. I'm always misplacing things on my desk, I'm NEVER caught up with grading, there are more kids who need help than I have time to get to in a day, etc. The kids can get pretty frustrated when I make them re-do work that isn't up to my standards. So, it's nice to feel like something has gone right, for a change. I almost started crying after I got off the phone, but I was in class. Fortunately, my attention was pulled to something else pretty quickly.