When Teacher Saw What Was Written on Boy's Pencils, Her Heart Melted
Teaching is a difficult but completely vital job.
Staying up late constantly to make lesson plans, differentiate instruction and grade tests or homework is definitely cause for fatigue in teachers, but the students are what make it worth it.
Teaching is not just about managing a schedule to make sure students are taught everything they need to know for the year.
It also is not about teaching students in just the right way so they will look good on standardized tests.
In fact, teaching is about making students feel valued. Students carry their outside burdens into the school buildings, so teachers often deal with personal situations.
Sometimes, teachers are the only adults that care in students’ lives, depending on students’ backgrounds. It is so vital to make each student feel intelligent, valued and cared for.
Teacher Stacy Caldwell exemplified this perfectly when she bought 10-year-old Alijah a drum set after hearing him bang on a plastic blue bucket. She learned he was self-taught and didn’t have his own set because his burned down in a house fire.
It is always encouraging for teachers to see that students are being valued and encouraged at home, as well.
Teacher Amanda Cox was running low on pencils in her classroom, so she asked if students could collectively share the pencils they had in their desks.
One student asked if he could keep the pencils that his mom gave him, to which Cox replied yes. But then the student said, “Well, I guess I’ll give you a few so my classmates can have them too.”
When Cox was sharpening the pencils, she noticed the pencils had writing on them. Upon closer examination, she realized that each pencil had an encouraging statement on it.
Cox asked if she could read all of them, reading statements like “You are so talented,” “This will be a great year,” “You are a math whiz,” “You will change the world” and “You are important.”
Cox shared this heartwarming discovery on Facebook. She wrote about how touched she was by this mom’s encouragement.
“This probably took his mom a few minutes to do yet it lit up his whole day at school. He wasn’t embarrassed that his mom wrote on his pencils. Thanks to his mom, he was reminded of his self worth and wanted to share the same feeling with his classmates,” she wrote.
“THESE are the things that we should be reminding our kids (both parents AND teachers). Imagine the look on a child’s face when they are reminded that they are important, talented, loved, knowledgeable and so much more
“This is why I teach.”
Thank you to this mother for showing us a small act of encouragement and kindness that parents and teachers alike can utilize to help their kids.
And thank you to this teacher for valuing students and placing them above herself!
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