It's Worth It!

The building I teach in is a K-5 building and being a 5th grade teacher it is rare that I get to see my students once school gets out.  Every once in a while I'll have some students come back to visit the next year.

About a month ago I was asked to come and speak at a volunteer recognition breakfast for one of our science units.  They also asked for some students to attend and speak.  Right away I sent out some emails to the students that just left my room in June.  Well, they all had orientation for middle school and couldn't come to the breakfast.  Since they were no longer an option I reached out to two former students.  Both of them were super gracious and took a morning out of their summer vacation to talk about a project that they had done two and three years ago.  

During their brief speech in which they talked to about 40 engineers this morning about the project I was blown away.  The students spoke from their heart about their experiences like it happened yesterday...not two or three years ago.  Spending the morning with them reaffirmed that all of the hours put into lesson planning, prepping, teaching, and building connections with the students are totally worth it!