A student smiled at me today!

Well…I don’t know if she actually smiled or if it was one of those “I have no response but I’ll send a smiley face and an lol anyways” moments, but she sent me a smiley face emoji in the online call chat after I made some corny joke.

I’m taking it as a win.

A student smiled at me today!

And I genuinely can’t stop grinning about it.

Like for real. Ear to ear, teeth showing, its kind of making my cheeks hurt, grin. All over a little smiley emoji.

I didn’t realize how much I needed, and I mean physically needed, that smiley face emoji.

In my virtual classroom, cameras are encouraged but not required. Those students didn’t ask for me to invade their space, the home that used to be their private sanctuary away from the school building. They didn’t ask for me to enter their bedroom or their living room or whatever space they’ve made into their temporary online classroom (for me, teaching from my office/bedroom has forced me to start making my bed every day which is a win for adulthood amiright).

But I want to invade those spaces.

That makes me sound creepy or like a stalker, and I don’t mean it that way at all. But I want to see who they are and where they are. Partly because I’m nosy and I want to make sure they aren’t napping or at McDonalds getting lunch, but mostly because I want to see them smiling (or not smiling) at my jokes. I want to see when they roll their eyes as I sing a random (but usually applicable) TikTok song or do my attempt at a popular dance. I want to see their faces as I teach to know if they’re understanding the concepts or if they’re zombies just there to get the attendance credit.

I didn’t realize how important such a small thing like seeing student’s faces would be.

We talked a lot in my teacher prep program about how crucial building relationships with your students is. How diligent a teacher must be about learning and using student’s names. How “building relationships” extends beyond who they are as students and into who they are as people.

But we didn’t talk about what to do when you can’t build relationships with your students.

If my student’s never ever turn on their camera or speak up in class or turn in any assignments, how do I build a relationship with them?

Unfortunately, in this world of many un-answerable questions, that is a problem that I have not yet solved.

A student smiled at me today!

And that smile meant more than she will ever know.