The Gift of Caring and Acknowledgement

Wow, today was a really run day. Today was the first day that I got my new "toy", um or should I say, educational technology tool, and in a word "AWESOME!". I don't know how to begin to share what a blessing all of you were and continue to be in caring for me and for my students. When I presented the technology to my students I started by saying, "There are people that you have never met nor will probably ever meet that care about you, your education and your future." They were shocked. Some students audibly said "No there's not", others "Yeah, right", yet others sat there with a perplexed and slightly amazed expression on their faces. As I continued to tell them the story of our new technology and how it came to be students were grateful, excited and for many of them one of the few moments in their educational career they have felt proud. They were able to have something that not many other people get to have. Our class has something special. They have something special and dare I suggest they may be someone special. We had an incredible day figuring it out, trouble shooting, them laughing at my "third grade hand writing" and them being very grateful for the new tool. One table of girls that had an exceptionally hard time seeing the board before had smiles from ear to ear and after I had finished notes for the day I asked them, so... and received heart felt, "that is awesome!".

We are excited. We are blessed. I am humbled. I hope that my students make you proud. They may not be on the honor roll, they may not go to an ivy league school, or maybe the will. Maybe one student will pass my class that wouldn't have been motivated to do so before. One student took notes today for the first time since he's been back at school (behavioral issues), maybe just maybe hope will be shared.

I know I have said it many times and I will say it again, we are blessed. Matt and I are blessed by incredible family, friends and support. I am amazed and a bit humbled to know that you are even reading this. Like Matt said in his last post we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to use the comments on the blog to let us know you're listening, facebook, email or a phone call. We will do our best to keep up our end of the deal as well.

To all of you that gave, thank you. To all of you that prayed, thank you. For all of you that continue to keep us in your thoughts, thank you. For those of you that have sent notes, emails, etc. thank you. You are wonderful and a blessing.

Ps... I will post pictures soon of my students and our new toy... I mean... educational technology tool. :-) (One student did tell me today that I was like a kid that just got a new toy for Christmas)