Week 11 Reflection

This week I was able to experience one of my most proud teaching moments. My action research study was completed this week, and one of my students said something that will forever melt my heart. This particular student has gone through a lot in his 6 years of life. When he was younger, he had a severe brain injury which caused trauma to his brain. His mother informed us earlier in the year that he went to the doctor this summer and they told her he had memory issues. Now this little guy is a true puzzle because he is behaviorally a challenge, he has speech issues involving grammar, and he struggles with almost every subject. In all honesty, this little guy is one of my favorites in the classroom because he is such a mystery. He has such a strong want to learn, but since he struggles as much as he does, he comes across as a little guy who doesn't want to do anything.

Throughout the year so far I have tried to work more with this student. He was one of the main reasons I decided to try the TouchMath method. And he was actually one of the students who seemed to pick up on the method more than the other 5 students in my group. The very first time he completed his addition pre-test he scored a 3.33% on it. He scored 1 out of 30 questions correctly. However, on the last day of my study, this child did his absolute best and he handed me his paper. He asked me politely if I could check to see how many he got right. So, I started grading it! The entire time I going from problem to problem this little boy's eyes are glued to the paper looking for that wretched "x" going across his problems. However, to his dismay and disbelief my pen never made that mark on his page. This child scored a 100% on his post-test! I have never had a more proud moment than that very day.

After I told him his score, he left my table and went back to his seat with the biggest smile on his face. A few minutes went by and then he came back over to my table as I was grading some other post-tests. Then he looked at me and said, "Ms. Parks, are you proud of me?" At this very moment the tears began to build up in my eyes and I had a huge lump form in my throat. I could barely get the words to come out, but I managed to look him right in the eyes and say, "I could never be more proud of you!" He then left my desk again and ran over to his friends and said, "Ms. Parks is proud of me! Ms. Parks is proud of me! I got a 100!!"

Out of my entire 11 week experience so far, this very moment I described above has topped all experiences. I was able to see what a true "teaching moment" felt like and it has forever changed my life! It is moments like this one that I cannot wait for in my future teaching years. This very day made me love my future job even more!