14 Teachers and School Staff Kids Remember for a Secret Lesson, a Whole Pie and a Bus That Waited

When I was teaching grade 5, I had a student who really struggled academically and misbehaved a lot. During one of his “punishments” which was washing dishes with me from our morning breakfast time, I straight up asked him why he kept getting into trouble.

The boy admitted that he just knew that if he misbehaved he would get to spend time with me 1:1 and we would talk about life and his hobbies.

So, the most misbehaved kid in the class was actually just playing the system the whole time, and really just needed a positive male role model in his life.

After that, I told him he didn’t need to act up in order to spend time with me. He could just ask for extra responsibility and I would give it to him. He was (mostly) better behaved after that.

I miss him, a lot.

Not a teacher, but my mom is and has wonderful stories.

One of my favorites is this kid that forgot to bring something to show and tell. Instead of panicking, he just pretended to hold something about a foot big in his hands and presented his ‘Invisible Car’. He even took extra care to ‘carry’ it back and put it carefully on his desk, moving it a bit to the side so he could access his colouring sheet.

My mom asked him about it a few days later and he goes, “Oh that? Yeah, I got bored with it so I gave it away.”

I had one little guy bring in rocks and fossils to my class (teacher here). Now, I love that stuff, too, so I’d bring in pieces from my collection as well. It started with bits of obsidian, amethyst chunks, local mollusks in shale, and it went back and forth for several weeks. We even traded a few pieces.

Then I brought in a big, complete fish fossil from a local river, complete with sparkling scales.

Then he brought in a complete fossilized beehive. I didn’t even know this was possible.

His parents and I contacted the local museum, and that fossil is now on public display. It is the finest of its kind found in British Columbia, and the kid dug it up on his grandparent’s farm.

Lending it to the museum was the student’s idea.

My 6-year-old came home from school yesterday and casually asked me why her teacher wanted to know if I was “doing okay at home.” I learned that my daughter told everyone, “My dad sleeps in the garage a lot.”

For context, I do not sleep in the garage. I’ve been restoring an old dresser after the kids go to bed. A couple weekends ago I was exhausted and sat in an old camping chair. My daughter came out looking for me, saw me asleep, and apparently this single event has now become established family lore.

I asked what else she’d told the teacher. Then my daughter added that she told them I “keep secret drinks” in the garage. Those are sparkling waters in the mini fridge.

This morning at drop-off her teacher gave me a very warm “Good morning!” and asked if I had a second. I immediately said, “I promise I have a bedroom.” Thankfully she laughed and said my daughter had given them quite a story yesterday, but she did want to make sure everything was fine.

On the drive home, my daughter asked why I told her teacher about the dresser because “that part was boring.” The truth was rejected for lacking narrative quality.

At my high school, we had an annual week long science trip, fully paid for by fundraising. Only 4 people were selected to go each year.

My sophomore year, I was chosen. I had never been out of the state, never been on a plane and never been away from home for more than 24 hours. My parents were incredibly conservative and immediately said no.

I had a science teacher who just didn’t accept the no. He called and tried to convince my parents. When that didn’t work, he came to my house and had dinner with my family. He sat and ate my mom’s terrible cooking and talked to my parents for over 2 hours until he got a “we’ll think about it”. Then he just kept following up.

I had never had someone in my corner like that before. He wore them down and it was the best week of my teenage life. I’d never seen the ocean. 20 years later and I can still recall every detail of that trip.

I teach 1st grade.

I had a kid who is kind of never quite paying attention. We read a dinosaur book and were answering VERY basic 1st grade questions in the back of the book. It literally had a brachiosaurus and said: The dinosaur’s legs are: a) long, b) short.

He pretty much got stuck here and didn’t move on. To me, it was the easiest question in the book. After like 7 minutes of doing my rounds and assisting other students, I came back to him.

He had written in: c) “Long” and “short” are both opinion words.

When I was in 6th grade I moved from a really small town where I could walk to school everyday, to a much larger one where I had to ride the bus. I was having trouble finding my way around the school the first week, and ended up running late to catch the bus at the end of the day.

When I got outside the bus was pulled right up to the doors waiting for me. The bus driver knew I had been on the bus that morning and verified with my brother that I was supposed to get on the bus to go home, so he waited.

With all the stress and anxiety I was feeling trying to settle into a new house, new city, and a new school it made a lasting impression on me. Thank you Ron.

Class camp, we’re out walking a trail to the next campsite. I was not in great physical shape and was well back in the rear. So it’s basically just me and one teacher to make sure no one fell too far back.

We came to a part where a branch had fallen across the trail.

I grabbed the branch and tossed it to the side of the path.

The teacher said to me: “Thirty boys walked past that branch. It took one man to move it, and he made life easier for every person after him.”

It became a personal motto, of sorts: “Make it easier for the people who come after you.”

Senior year of high school. I was on the wrestling team and I had cut about 30lbs that year, from 170 down to 140.

I happened to have the same math teacher 3 years in a row so we really got to know each other. She knew how much weight I cut for the season, I told her and it was obvious just from my face. She had a strict no eating in class policy.

The day after the wrestling season ended, I walked into math class and sat down. She walked over to my desk and put a whole apple pie right in front of me (she knew it was my favorite), handed me a fork, and said she’ll ignore the no eating rule for 1 day. I finished that whole pie in maybe 30 minutes.

Linda, I’ll never forget that. You absolutely made my day.

In middle school I would go to my social studies class instead of the cafeteria for lunch bc I never had food. Teacher started leaving a few dollars on my desk and would let me get lunch and eat with her.

I ate with her most of my eighth grade year and I’d always bring her money that I got (like for bday/holiday) to try to pay her back. She’d just put it in her drawer and give it back to me later.

I remember that to this day and I try to make sure I have change and 1s on me at all times for any of my students who need it. My students always know they can count on me for food if they are hungry.

I faked my way through 4th and 5th grade math.

I never understood how to do long division, but managed to hide that from the teachers and answer test questions by reverse multiplication — basically guess a number and multiply it out and see how close I would get, and keep doing it until I got the answer.

My 6th grade math teacher figured out that I was faking, and had no idea how to actually divide anything.

She had me come in one afternoon to “help with cleaning the erasers” (all the kids fought for this privilege, so I was thrilled), sat me down and tutored me until I grasped the concept. Bless you, Mrs. Gillespie!

I had a student that used to get into fights and was extremely aggressive and violent towards others. On the last day of fifth grade his last words to me and his class were “[a curse word]!”

Many years later he came back to the school I’d been teaching at and looked for me so he could give me a big hug and apologize. In his words, “I was garbage when I was here, thank you for putting up with me and I’m sorry.”

I cried like a baby — I was so proud of him.

You know, teaching can sometimes be a thankless job and a lot of the things I’m really proud about are usually only shared between me and my students.