Every Student Can Be Successful

This week I had the opportunity to work with many students on one-on-one basis.  In this particular classroom of kindergartners, the majority are ESL students, making their scholastic journey an extra struggle as they pursue to master learning the basics of both languages.  

On Wednesday, the teacher assigned me to pull kids aside one-by-one and help assess where they were at with their math skills.  I would read the questions aloud and they would follow instructions to the best of their abilities.  

One experience really touched my heart.  Little Juanito (name changed) has the lowest scores in the entire class.  He struggles with the alphabet, with sounds, with numbers...you name it!  He gets frustrated and says he can't do things like every body else.  

Well when it was his turn, Juanito was asked to fill in the missing number.  

The problem looked like this: "11  12  __  14  15."

Juanito looked at me and said,

"I can't do this!"

I looked in his eyes and said, "Yes you can!!  You know your numbers! :) Let's count them!" I pointed to each number as he slowly said,  "....eleven....twelve......thirteen??" 

"Yes!" I exclaimed, "Now write it in the blank."

Again, Juanito replied,

"I can't do this!"

"Yes you can Juanito!  You are so smart!  Remember when we worked on patterns?  What pattern do you see?  Look," I said pointing to each number, "one and one....one and two....??"

"ONE AND THREE!!!" he shouted!

"Very good!!! :) Write that down!"  

...

When he finished, he put his pencil down, and with a big smile on his face he said,

"This is FUN!  I LOVE school!!!!"

:)

It nearly brought tears to my eyes.

Every student is important.  Every student has the potential to be someone great.  Every student needs to be reminded of their own self-worth and that they CAN succeed.  He found all the right answers.  He felt empowered and smart.  I felt so touched to witness such a tender moment in this child's life.

I heard a quote that said, "Teaching, its not about the income, but about the outcome."

Its moments like these that mean more to me than gold.