While I was sick last week and out of school, my colleague got my students to write me get well cards and thank you notes. It was super awesome gesture on her part and my students wrote some really nice things.

This one really got to me, mostly because for a long time I wasn’t sure if I was really reaching this student or not. He doesn’t speak much English and he sits by himself off to the side of my Algebra 1 class. This student is in the United States illegally and he’s afraid of getting deported. He understands English better than he can speak it, but sometimes I have to use Google translate to communicate with him. I love that he only knows me as “Mister Jhon” (not my real name, obviously).

One thing I’ve learned about teaching high school: the low points can be so low, but the high points are correspondingly high too.