Its the little things

So this year I opened a school. I opened a program designed for kids with special needs. This has been a life long dream of mine. Something in my heart has always told me that there was more to life then this. That all the kids I have taught deserve more and they are capable of more. My house is littered with pictures of my past students. I think of them often. I still have parents email me and tell me about their child. And since opening my own program I have been able to be reunited with the kids I've had before. There is one thing that strikes me with all my students. My kids. It's the little things that stay with them. Whenever I meet a new student I try to find the things they like, I like to try to figure out what speaks to them. I try to meet them where they are. See who they really are and connect with them. And after all this time its the little things that matter.  And I am thinking about this, because today I was dropping one of my students off at his house.

A little history, he came to me as a 6th grader. Sweet kid, quiet and always wanting to do right. He was a pleaser. He wanted to always be the one to help, the one to correct other kids, the one that just followed the rules. But he also was extremely sensitive to being corrected. If at any time it seemed like someone was reprimanding him he would start to cry and run away. So I started to hug him and tell him "you're my favorite...shhhhh." I would do this at random times of the day. Just to remind him that its ok to be corrected, its ok to get things wrong... he's still my favorite. Now is he truly my favorite.... nah... I don't have favorites. I love all my kids differently and for different reasons. This student just happened to need to hear this.

Fast forward  3 years and while I'm dropping him off, I give him a fist bump and turn around to leave. I hear "you're my..." and I turned back around and he is waiting for me to finish the sentence. I almost teared up... I look at him and say "you're my favorite.... shhhh" and he does the quiet signal while saying shhh with me. A huge smile breaks out on his face...He needed it. Its our thing. Its a small thing but as his mother says "its made a lifetime impact." 

I don't think I intentionally do things to make a life time impact. I never know the kind of impact I have on these kids. But when something like this happens I realize just what an impact the little things do. 

"Be calm and flexible" is probably the most simple phrase spoken to these kids but they make a lasting impact. At home and at school. I've had parents tell me they never have been able to go out to eat and once their child learned to be calm and flexible suddenly they are going out as a family. Another favorite of mine "who's the boss?" 

For some reason reminding the kids "who is the boss" helps turn them around. I don't know why and I don't know how but it does. 

Taking my kids camping for the first time has impacted one student so much that he can't stop thinking about going camping next summer. He keeps asking about it and just wants to experience it again. Even saying the words "hey pretty girl" just puts a smile on one of my students faces. It just speaks to her. She could be in a terrible mood and I can say hey pretty girl and it instantly turns her around. 

I don't know why or how but I do know it makes an impact. I hope that for as long as I am teaching I never stop doing the little things. I never stop just meeting my kids where they are. Because honestly They are all my favorite.