Mi maestra preferida

In the middle of my 3rd grade lesson today, a quiet girl on the front row, but off to the far side raised her hand to show me a picture she had drawn. This is not rare. Any time something pops into their head (oh so very often during my teaching) they tell me about. The difference here is that this little girl raised her hand and waited patiently, whereas most students just get up and come tell me. They’re learning. Poco a poco (little by little). After I looked at it (I was suckered by the raised hand into thinking she wanted to answer), she gave it to me. It was just a regular drawing with colored pencils, but she had written at the top, “Para Miss Laura, mi maestra preferida” (For Miss Laura, my favorite teacher). Wow.
I was touched because as I said, she sits off to the side, keeping to herself. She causes no problems, rarely participates, but demands no attention. She’s the good student that falls through the cracks not academically, but in relationship with the teacher (we always get to know the troublemakers!). I asked her to put her name on it. The purpose of course was two-fold: I wanted her name on it for my scrapbook, and I had no idea her name. Rosita. This is the class that is huge and gives me trouble often, so I only know about 10 names. I am happy to now know hers, and I doubt it will ever slip my mind.
This is what I love about teaching, here or at home. There are days when you KNOW you’ve touched a student. You know that the lesson you taught encouraged them because they could participate when before they couldn’t. Or you know that they’d had a bad day and something you said made them smile. Or you know that they love you because they tell you while hugging you. Other days, you think you’ve failed and still a student lets you know in his or her way that you did something right. Granted it’s just one student, but like I said before- poco a poco. Sometimes, even though you don’t know the student’s name, you’ve touched her.