The Short List

That List.  I think every teacher has one.  It's the short List of students we make sure to check in on regularly.  Teachers see anywhere from 30 to easily over 300 hundred students every week. No matter how many kids we see though, we all have those few that we wonder and think about once the last bell has rung for the day.  As K-12 teacher, I get to develop relationships with students over the course of years.  Kids come on and off my List for various reasons, but it's always there.

I added another student to my List recently.  My conversation with this student reminded me of a couple major things in a very real way:

1. Our students are dealing with much more than the classes they attend with us.  They hear of the "real world" frequently as though the world they're living in now is fake.  It's very real to them, and often much more real than anything we're doing in school.
2. As teachers, our impact is on much more than a student's grade.  We're impacting their life.  It is up to us what that impact is going to be.  This student needed someone to talk to and chose me.  I felt simultaneously honored and scared.  I don't know if I said the right things.  I don't know if my response was the one this student needed.  I hope it was.  I hope this student will always know that I'm here to listen and help where I can.  

Neither of these things should be shocking pieces of information.  But in the midst of the craziness that our school year can hit, it can be easy to forget.  Sometimes though, a student comes along and slaps some perspective back into your day. 

So I'll add this student to my List and make sure to keep a special eye out, like so many other teachers do every day.