A Teacher’s Impact

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week

As we’re approaching the end of our fiscal year, everyone in the US firm is getting their files together – asking for feedback from those they supported throughout the year and hoping the feedback tells a story of the high impact they’ve made on the firm and on their teams.

A recent experience with Ryan’s teacher got me thinking about the importance of not only giving teachers feedback, but sharing the impact teachers have had on our children with others.

Teachers are truly the unsung heroes in many parents’ lives – they put their heart and soul into educating, developing and nurturing our children. I feel this is even more amplified with special education teachers and have the utmost respect for those who are committed to working with children like Ryan – their patience, tolerance, and kindness is inspiring. And when I take a step back and look at where Ryan is now compared to two and a half years ago when he started middle school, the impact his teachers have had on him is incredible.

While Ryan is mainstreamed half the day in regular education classrooms, he is in the autistic support room for a few of his classes and has had the same autistic support teacher – and team – (aides, speech and OT therapists, and behaviorist) for the past three years. In fact, Ryan’s relationship with his autistic support teacher – Mrs. D – goes back to his elementary school, when she was his aide in the early years.

We recently attended our school district’s annual choral Music in our Schools concert – which includes the high school and middle school choirs and all of the 5th graders from four elementary schools. Ryan has performed in the middle school chorus concerts over the past couple of years and has done well, but last year we opted out of this particular concert, thinking it would be too much for him. It was mandatory this year since chorus is his elective, so we decided to push him to participate.

Dan, my parents and I were blown away at how nicely Ryan not only stood with a large group of students for more than an hour and sang the songs but then stood/sat off to the side in a crowd while the 5th graders performed. It was loud and a little chaotic with the moving back and forth, and Ryan remained calm and did not even use his headphones, which he’s relied on in past years for noisy, overwhelming situations.

Ryan’s ability now to do all of this is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of Mrs. D and her team. They are patient, yet firm, and have challenged him over the years to go beyond his comfort zone. He no longer needs an aide to go with him to chorus and has not had an aide with him at any of the concerts. Ryan has enjoyed chorus so much that he will be taking it as an elective in high school.

When I think about impact, Mrs. D and team have gone above and beyond their day jobs of teaching Ryan academics as well as improving his behavior and enhancing his speech and OT skills. They have also helped Ryan develop emotionally and as an independent student. He was far from this level of independence when he started middle school, and I never could have pictured him participating in chorus in this way. In Ryan’s early elementary school years, he would run away in these types of situations; as the years went on, he stopped running and remained with the group but needed constant redirecting and an aide, as well as his headphones. He has grown leaps and bounds thanks to Mrs. D and her team. He’s a different person.

I told Mrs. D how impressed I was after the concert. She asked if she could share that story with her supervisors. I offered to send them a note instead – let them hear praise directly from a parent. I put these observations into an email and sent it to the school principal and Mrs. D’s  two special ed supervisors.

The response was incredible. You’d think no parent had ever written a note like this. The principal and one of the supervisors replied with how wonderful it was to hear from me, and Ryan’s teacher was the most touched:  “I love this email. I cannot thank you enough. My whole team is so appreciative of this. Of course it goes without saying this wouldn’t have been possible without your positive partnership with the team! Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart! Ry has and will always have a special place in my heart.”

Wow – making her day made MY day. And inspired me to share positive feedback more often. Saying goodbye to this group of teachers on promotion day next month is going to be very difficult. Thank you, Mrs. D and team, for the extremely high impact you’ve had on Ryan during his middle school years!