It’s always tough returning to school after a snow day—particularly after a three-day weekend—with teens having forgotten what they studied the previous week and readjusting to getting up early. So, I want to acknowledge students who made my day by going beyond my expectations. Each of these young people made me proud through their strong work ethic, respect, kindness and honesty. 

So, this week I acknowledge students who made me feel good about teaching. I was appreciated—and as an administrator once told me, I was good for the kids. 

One ninth grader girl privately spoke to me about her presentation on an amusement park. She admitted she had already completed it since on Google Classroom the due date had been that morning. Wow, I told her, she had taken seriously deadlines, not complaining as a few other students had that snow days meant they didn’t have to work. I almost hugged her. She had restored my faith in young people. While other students worked on their Power Point, I told her, she could work on assignments from other classes—or prepare for a short quiz they would take the following week. 

Her friend, standing beside her, mentioned that she would be gone for ten days on a trip with her parents. She needed to know what assignments she’d missed. Bless her heart! She could get a jumpstart on our new unit on Paris and art museums, so that while abroad—where Internet was sketching—she wouldn’t worry about school work in my class. I told her I’d update regularly on Google Classroom lessons and assignments. What a conscientious, hardworking student! Several lazy students who moaned about the workload could take a lesson from her. 

Later that day, an eleventh grader apologized for writing complex sentences that looked as if he had used Google Translate. During his presentation, I’d pointed out awkward and grammatically incorrect sentences. I advised him not to just translate English sentences into French ones, and should depend on wordreference.com to translate words, not Google Translate. He could also use resources I provided on Google Classroom. He felt bad about his presentation, tears welling up in his eyes, and I reassured him. He had learned his lesson. Use his own words. Don’t lean on online translation programs for answers. Take learning and studying seriously all the time. 

In the hallway, I ran into a ninth grader who’d been absent in her class first period. “We missed you in class today,” I said. Well, she said, she had arrived late to school since her parents’ car hadn’t started. Perhaps it was the cold, the snow. No worries, I said, and mentioned what work she should make up. This was the same girl who two months earlier had announced to the class that she hated school. I had tried to convince her that school was a good place to be with so many young people to get to know, so many activities to participate in, and so many classes to learn from. Maybe now, my words had sunk in. Perhaps I was the one who made her see the benefits of this school—and how changing her attitude can make a huge difference. 

Several eleventh graders made me laugh during their presentations about going on a camping trip in France. They inserted YouTube videos of a song in French about the joy of camping and another one of cricketing insects. They wanted to please their teacher. They wanted their peers to have fun. They were taking charge of their education—and I was their guide. I liked these upper-level students, whom I had gotten to know over the past few years. There were good vibs in that class, and I tried to forget how several students had complained about our lack of a review period for a quiz.  But, I said, I’d reviewed adverbs earlier that morning with students doing two activities, and we’d gone over the vocabulary of camping through several student presentations. I encouraged them to refresh their memory on how to conjugate the verb dormir (to sleep) in present and past tenses over the weekend. 

It was a good day. I want to thank students who impress me with their diligence and hard work. I do notice. It makes a difference in how much you learn, and how educators feel about being in a classroom with you.