A Sticky Note Years ago I had a student who wouldn't speak And when I say wouldn't speak I mean not at all Not one word I have never felt so ill equipped as a teacher I had no tools for this situation So as a way to help connect with her I just drew a cartoon or wrote a little message on a sticky note and placed it on her desk every single day It went on like this for the rest of the year We had parent meetings counselor meetings psychologist meetings and we kept trying to talk to her 2
but she didn't speak all year Two years go by and I get an envelope in the mail What's inside A single sticky note On it it said I saved all your sticky notes Thank you so much you helped me more than you know And that's what is hard about life Most of the time you never get to know your impact But I guarantee you whatever you are doing even the small things like a sticky note have probably made a huge difference 3
4 An Empty Chair I had a student named Maya who lost her youngest sister to cancer She took about two weeks off from school to be with her family and before she came back she sent us an email The last two weeks have been really hard for me so when I come back to school I just don't want to talk about it We wanted to show that we cared but we also wanted to honor her request so we did We didn't talk about it About a month later we were independently reading in class when Maya stood up and walked over to me She was on the teetering edge of crying She said That chair next to your desk can I use it
I nodded my head then placed the empty chair next to hers and it just sat there empty At the end of class she brought the chair back and said Can I use this chair tomorrow It helped me feel better That's when I realized the chair wasn't as empty as I thought it was When I went into teaching I knew in general what I was going to experience I just had no idea how much moments like this would change me 5
