Little Things in Teaching: Going the Extra Mile

By Amanda Lloyd, First Year Teacher Blogger — Last week one of my students had his final day of school in Winnetka.  He and his family moved to a different country for a parent’s job relocation.  He had his First Communion early so that he could do it before his family departed.  I attended and was invited to a dinner with the family afterward.

His mother said a lot of complimentary things about our school the entire night to both my principal and me.  One thing she mentioned specifically, however, is something I knew about but had forgotten.

A few months earlier, his mother had alerted me to the possible relocation of the family and let me know that she and her husband were traveling to the country for a week to “check it out.”  I knew it’d be a tough week for the student, to have his parents gone, in particular.  So he was “randomly” picked in our classroom to be the “Star of the Week.” He brought in materials to share with the class, and on Friday, in keeping with our custom, all the students could ask him one question.

Most of the questions revolved around his favorite color or movie, but one was more interesting.  Another student asked him what was the best present he had ever received from his parents.  He paused, turned to me and said, “Ms. Lloyd, can I say that the best present they ever gave me was love?” This question might sound corny or even phony if you hadn’t seen his face., but this seven-year-old was dead serious.

I knew that the decision his parents faced had to be enormous.  They would be moving their family not even to another city or state, but rather to another country.  Knowing that perhaps they might be exhausted upon returning home, or stressed by the decision that was at hand, I felt they might enjoy hearing this anecdote about their son.

I was right.  Months later, his mother remembered the communication, word for word, and asked me to share the story with the family at his First Communion celebration dinner.  She told me she cried right at her computer  upon reading my e-mail that conveyed the story.  She thanked me endlessly for writing that email.

Ironically, I felt a bit guilty.  Let me rephrase: I felt tremendous guilt.  The truth is that I only remembered the email after she reminded me.  I wrote it in my classroom at my desk at 4 o’clock on a Friday afternoon after the students had been dismissed.  At that point, I wanted what most teachers want—to get out of there!  I had probably written countless emails to other parents/fellow teachers that week, and frankly, couldn’t stand to look at my inbox any longer.

The fact is that this was an email I didn’t have to write.  They hadn’t written to me.  There was nothing that I had to respond to.  Believe me—that thought crossed my mind more than once until I convinced myself to write it anyway.

And now that I am starting the first week without this child in my class, I look at his desk and I am so grateful that I wrote it.  I was right.  I didn’t have to write it, but there are a lot of things that teachers don’t have to do, but do anyway.

I definitely don’t do all of them.  I might have been the worst teacher in the school two weeks ago when I quietly ducked out of the seeing the play, because I had too many other appointments to make.

In fact, there are quite a few things I can’t always do.  I lack the time or energy sometimes to go that extra mile or be present at those outside-of-school activities.  Even when I don’t lack the time or energy, though, it can be tough to push further.

But I keep pushing anyway, and so does every other teacher I know.  Eight more weeks of pushing on until my first year of teaching is under my belt.  I think I’ll take a week long break.  Then back to pushing.

Hey, a girl’s gotta get a jump on next year!