The Little Things

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say, sometimes I really don't like my job. It truly is a thankless job most of the time. I try to celebrate the small steps my students make toward improvement and forget their crabby attitudes (they can't help it, they're 8th and 9th graders) this tactic is usually enough to make me feel pretty good about what I do. However, every once in a while something unexpected happens and reminds me that I really do have a pretty cool job. The other day at an IEP meeting my student introduced me to her mom saying, "Mom, this is my speech teacher Mrs. Stott, she's a really good teacher." Or a student will see me sitting on the bleachers at an assembly and will yell out, "Mrs. Stott, save me a seat by you!" Occasionally a parent will say something like, "Thanks for everything you do for my daughter." One of the best moments (lately) was when my student who is learning to use an augmentative communication device independently grabbed her device, walked over to me and said, "I love you." "Are we friends?" How could you not feel good about what you do when you work with kids like this?