Three days into my first year teaching and I've already had a real rewarding teaching moment.

From what I hear from other teachers at school, these rewarding teaching moments are when, despite all the bad, one good thing happens that makes you remember why became an educator in the first place. And today I had one.

I've been doing various activities all week, trying to get to know my students (who I already absolutely love!) and trying to remember 150 names and faces. I'm pretty proud of how well I've done and love to see a student's reaction when I say, "Hello, Carolina." They are surprised that I already know their names and I think it makes them feel pretty darn good.

Today I did a fun thing where I had two student volunteers hold up a blanket as a sort of screen. Then, these students would point to another student in the room and that student would stand on the other side of the "screen" in front of me. When everyone was ready, the two holding the blanket dropped it and I had to say the name of the student in front of me. If I got it right and within 5 seconds, I got a point. If I messed up or it took me too long, the class got a point. I told them I'd bring a treat for the whole class if they won...but I won everytime. The funniest thing is that they all thought that I was cheating! A teacher, cheating!!! I assured them that no, the blanket wasn't see through and, no, I didn't have a mirror somewhere I was looking at. It was a pretty fun activity.

After we played the blanket activity, I assigned them a letter that they are supposed to write to me explaining why they are the "singular most wonderful student" in Mrs. Hubert's English class. We had a good mini-lesson on letter writing and I let them spend most of the time working.

Now, here's where the rewarding teaching moment happened.

There is a student in my first period that I'll call M. He's quite shy and timid but I try to make sure he knows that I'm glad he's in my class and I spent a few minutes helping him with his letter. Class was almost over so I told them to put their things away and let them have the last few minutes to visit with each other. I didn't notice, but on his way out the door, M dropped a folded piece of paper onto the table at the front of the room. I didn't find it until after 4th period.

This is what it said:
To Mrs. Hubert. Thanks 4 being a good teacher. I am excited to come to English class. Se you tomorrow. M.E. August 30, 2006 Period 1.

I saw M walking on a street right by the school on my way home. He saw me in the car, smiled at me, and waved.

I'm still on cloud nine because of it.