A Phone Call Changes Everything

Most of you know the dark cloud of doom  horrible week I've been having. It all started when I woke up Monday morning and had a feeling that it was going to be rough.  This week has gone on to be one of the worst of the entire year!  My group of kids is great and they always seem to surprise me with their want to learn more.  Well this week my kids changed places with some that didn't want to learn!  I think the reason for all this 'no learning' is coupled with the fact that we had benchmarks this week, I HATE TESTING! (just had to throw that out there) and I am trying to finish up Dibels assessments and that means my kids have to do tons of independent work UGH!  All I can say is thank goodness its Friday, because if it wasn't I would have to take a mental health day tomorrow.

So on to this mysterious phone call that caught your attention.  Each year our district has a writing contest for the Proudest Third Grader in Gaston County.  The winner for our school came from yours truly's class.  The problem is, she had since moved to another school in our district.  I was able to get her phone number and talk to her mom about going to the special dinner.  Now onto the really great part!!!!!  When I was talking to my former student, she told me that when she started at the school several students were bashing our school talking about how the kids there aren't very smart and that it basically sucked for lack of a better word.  Well my little firecracker former student let them have it!  She told them she was very smart and it was all because of our school and her teacher!  (made me blush!!!)  The kids at her new school told her to prove and she said, "I will!"  She then went on to tell me that she had been making A's on her assignments and that when her classmates asked how she was so smart her simple response was, "Duh because I went to Rhyne!"  I was like a proud mama listening to her tell me these things!  That would have been enough but then I talked to her mom who told me that she had taken work we had done in my class and showed it to her new teacher telling her that my former student was very challenged while in my class.  The teacher's response was, "well we will touch on some of that."

Woo-Hoo!!!!!!  Talk about walking on cloud nine!  This was just what I needed to hear on this awful week.  Because my school is a title-one school we are a lower performing school.  My school and our teachers are constantly made to feel like we are not doing enough for the kids, or that it is the teachers fault that the kids are not performing.  I know this is a load of crap, but this parent calling me and letting me know that what I was doing was not only working but....wait for it....challenging her student validated EVERYTHING I have been doing.  What a way to end a absolutely horrible week.