Feeling Appreciated
Feeling Appreciated
Jon, K-3 Literacy Interventionist, Detroit
I recently had an interaction with the mother of one of my virtual students that was totally unexpected. I had never “met” her before, as my only prior interaction with her was chatting on Microsoft Teams to schedule a time for our sessions when the student was first added to my caseload. After picking up my call for tutoring that day the student immediately told me “My mom wants to talk to you”. The mother explained that she had recently been hospitalized and that the student’s grandmother had been watching him during school hours. Apparently, the grandmother had been overhearing our Reading Corps sessions and praised me for how “patient” I was and how good I was doing with “helping him to read”. That the mom felt compelled to pass this message along to me was really special and made me feel really good about the work I was doing with her son, albeit in a virtual setting that can be really challenging to navigate. I thanked her for the kind words while telling her that it was my pleasure to work with her son who always does what I ask of him, gives his best effort, has a great attitude towards learning, and told her she should be very proud.
Grandma’s kind words made this one of the most rewarding days of my service year.
