"I knew I'd been there before. But I was seeing it for the first time."

As I read these words, I immediately thought of a student during my second year of teaching. The previous was full of challenges, we moved on overcoming most of our challenges and 98% of my students became fluent readers. Time and time again, we went through the stages of becoming readers. But there was one student who was to joing me again in 1st grade. He had made some progress. He enterred 1st grade with about 100 words in his vocabulary. His parents and I met numerous and we both felt defeated. We had been there before -with him. The sense of defeat and frustration had almost won... when in our second year, this beautiful child began to READ! I had been there before, had seen numerous children in the early stages of reading. But this time it was different, my eyes filled with tears as I heard him truly read the short passage in front of him. Though tears ran down my face, my smile let him know that I was not sad, but proud instead. I hugged him (he may have thought I lost "it" temporarily) but to witness, to share that moment with him when he made the connection from syllables to words- well, it was like it was me that was learning to read. When ever I feel frustrated with "me" I think of this moment. This reminder of having been there before and it keeps me motivated to teach.