This made my day!

I often wonder if we really impact the lives of the children we teach as much as they touch ours! Something happened today that made me realize that perhaps we do make that impact when we least expect it. One of my third graders has been troubling me for some time. We have been working so hard to help him because academically he is struggling so much & he has gotten himself into lots of trouble outside of our school. We have suspected for sometime that he is involved with a local gang. We have done lots of interventions with him trying to help him make choices that would help him get away from the gang. It was frustrating as it seemed that he was not responding to anything we were doing and he was not really hearing what we were saying or really attaching himself to anything. I was growing more & more concerned about him. Today I entered his classroom & his face just lit up like a Christmas Tree. This just shocked me! He came right up to me, "you're here Mrs P! I was worried!" I asked him why he was worried? He then responded, he was worried that I might not be coming anymore to his class. Wow, I had found something he was latching onto. This was huge! This was so exciting! This was a breakthrough..... He was responding, he was listening & he was taking it in, he was enjoying workshop. This was a big start. Was he still out on the streets? Most likely, but I have him. We have established the starting point. We can go anywhere from here! Thank you writing workshop!!!
Hugs,