. "I will ALWAYS have your back." ... Jill Puchacz

So this past Friday I was in my room eating my lunch during my lunch period.  Normal day for the most part until a familiar face walked through my door.  This student is a frequent flyer in my class during this period as they make up detentions during their lunch period by helping organize things and keeping things in working order.  It has been a pretty great arrangement actually as other teachers probably can imagine.  They seemed a bit different though because there was no friendly smile and "Hey Ms. P Whats up?".  Just a frustrated look and a plop on a chair.  I knew this couldn't be good as this is a student that tends to act on frustration instead of working through it or talking it out.
As the student began to tell me what was going on, I found it to be a common issue, High School relationships... As my student vented out what was going on I listened and offered up some advice, trying to get them to realize that as an 18year old, they needed to remember to act like an adult as they would be treated like one... After a long discussion the period ended and then new period came... and class began.

I was a little bit worried that there would be some trouble that weekend for my student and hoped for the best as I really wanted them to make some great decisions. On Saturday I got a text message from an unknown number, all my students have my cell phone as my program does follow up outside of school hours as part of our overall goals, and it was from that student. I was relieved when the message said "Hey Ms. P, thanks for the advice I let the issue go and nothing happened, it felt good to be the bigger person."  I am not going to pretend that I didn't get a bit teary eyed realizing how proud I was of them.  My response was "I am so proud of you, and I hope you are proud of yourself, you are a total rock star!" The kicker to all this... and if anyone has ever worked with any child ever will probably get a bit emotional as this next part made me sob like a baby.... "Ms. P, there is a reason I keep your number, it's really great to know that someone has my back."
I have goose bumps just typing this out.  It made me realize that all the singing and dancing (literally) that I do in class to try to get my students attention and all the times where I tried to level with my kids and tell them the way it is.... was worth it!

I am just a long term substitute... this is the first time I have been in a public school classroom as a teacher and I was able to connect with a student enough where they know that they can trust me and know that the things that I tell them are true.  Being a teacher is my dream, not because I get to grade papers or teach kids things about subjects that I really enjoy.... but because I can be that person that helps a student believe more in themselves than they ever did before.