By Amanda Klare
Beechwood School
Several years ago, I was posted by my door like I am every morning to greet my students, and I shook the hand of each student to welcome them to their first day of fourth grade.
One student’s response is one that I will never forget. I reached out my hand and with a smile I said, “Hello, nice to meet you! I’m Mrs. Klare! You must be Riley!”
Without a smile he grasped my hand and in return he responded, “Do you like honey?”
Stuttering over my words as I was taken back by his odd response I said, “As a matter of fact, I do like honey.” All I got in return was a smirk and a muttered “Good” as he entered the room to find his seat.
I stood there in shock and laughed. He might not have known it, but he truly made my morning that day with this brief interaction.
After this encounter, I was able to follow up with him later with questions to get to the root of why he had inquired if I liked honey; I came to find out that he and his family were beekeepers.
If I hadn’t been standing at my door to welcome Riley, who knows if I would have ever had found out that I had a bee charmer in my room.
As cliche as it sounds, my favorite part of the day and in my opinion, the most imperative part is when I greet my students in the morning. I can tell just by the way they walk down the hallway whether their day is off to a solid start, if it’s been a tough morning at home or if something happened on the commute to school. I can be there with a hug when needed, offer a simple “Good morning…”, or give a high five.
We’ve all seen that viral video with the teacher who had a specific handshake for each kid and one of the best compliments was when one of my student’s parent pointed out to me, “This sounds like something you would do…”
Though I don’t have a unique handshake for each of my students (that would require too much coordination that quite frankly, I don’t have), I do show my students every morning that I care for them as I ask them if they won their basketball game or I tell them how impressed I was when they buzzed in with the correct answer to the math question at their academic match the previous day; with these personal connections first thing in the morning, I let them know that today is going to be a great day to learn together.
Like all working parents, on some of my mornings before school, it is a true struggle to get my two daughters to the babysitter on time and manage to get things organized before students come in the door, but I can’t let students know that I’ve had a rough start to my morning.
Instead, I stand at the door, smile and with their smile in return, our instructional day is ready to begin.
Voices from the Classroom is a regular feature at NKyTribune, thanks to Beechwood teacher Amanda Klare’s initiative. If you are a teacher and would like to contribute to the column, please submit it to judy@nkytrib.com
