I started my morning with an unexpected email from a former student…checking in, updating us on the new school year, and letting us know that she misses us. And she reminded me that she had a couple of blog posts pending and would I please publish them. (Her blog is still connected to my class since we haven’t started blogging yet this year in our class and her class hasn’t started blogging yet either.)
Last month she started celebrating a “person of the month”…her aunt was her person of the month for August. Imagine my surprise when I found this afternoon that I was featured on Mallory’s blog as her September Person of the Month. Here is a glimpse of the post:
Mrs. Douillard was very supportive of my writing career, yes I am very interested in being an author, she encouraged creative thinking and when someone said they were “done” she said you could always make things better! She taught me many different writing styles, and introduced me to blogging.
It is amazing to be celebrated publicly by a student for inspiring and encouraging her as a writer. This unexpected honor touches my heart and reminds me that the work of teachers is often not realized in the moment, it unfolds over time, often in unexpected ways.
The end of the post celebrates teachers and urges teachers to “take a day off and relax at the beach…” By coincidence, I did stop by the beach after work today. It’s been oppressively hot here in normally moderate San Diego, and with no air conditioning in my classroom, sweat has become part of my fashion statement! So to cool off, I headed to the beach to dip my toes in the waves. When I pulled up I noticed the large waves caused by the hurricane off the coast of Mexico and the towering white clouds in the sky…not just over the mountains, but more to the west and north than usual. Of course I had to capture some pictures of the waves…although they don’t begin to capture the size and power I watched.
As I cooled my feet along the edge of the water with my sandals in my hand, still dressed in my work clothes (a skirt and top), a rogue wave surged and drenched me nearly to the waist! (Definitely cooled me off!) I chuckled to myself as I walked back to my car and searched for a grocery bag to sit on as I drove home!
Thanks Mallory, for the honor of being named Person of the Month for September…and for encouraging teachers to “take a day off and relax at the beach.” You definitely made my day today!
Thinking Through My Lens 
So wonderful that you had that time at the beach, but even better that a student has been inspired because of you. What a celebration. 🙂
So true…and I didn’t even mention the unexpected wild weather that yesterday brought! It was quite a day!
That’s a wonderful tribute to you and your work–congratulations! It was obviously well-deserved.
I’m still looking for the selfie of you getting drenched by the big wave… Pleased that you got soaked by the much deserved tribute.
I’m glad I wasn’t trying to take a selfie at that point! I would surely be laying in the surf with a ruined phone… It was quite a day! Thanks for your reply.
What great moments…the unexpected surprise of a student’s tribute and the fun of being caught by that rogue wave!
Thanks for sharing this heartwarming story, it’s always amazing when former students reach out to us, and I am sure you sooo deserved what she wrote about you 🙂 All that influence cannot be measured by any learning outcome or test but is way more valuable 🙂
Isn’t that true…some of the most amazing learning never shows up in the “data.”
I love that your student continues to blog and honors you. I tell my students that it is my dream to be thanked on Fresh Air on NPR.
Wishing I had an ocean nearby to put my hot toes into. September seems hotter than August.
That would be fun, wouldn’t it? I love those NPR stories. September is definitely our hottest month…I’m always wishing that July, August and September were considered “summer” in these parts! (And it will likely be warm here through October too…but hopefully not this hot!) Wish you had a beach to cool your toes too…it is heavenly!