When it comes to teachers everyone knows that there are some that stand out from the rest. Whether it’s because of their fun personality or because they make learning enjoyable and are extra patient, some teachers are simply hard to forget.
Of course, the impact a teacher has will have a lot to do with the teacher. An ineffective teacher isn’t going to have an immediate or long-term impact on their young students.
The effects of a great teacher
Young children are extremely impressionable. They are little sponges, seeing and learning from everything going on in their environments. Having positive experiences in their early childhood education—and particularly in their Kindergarten class—can have powerful and lasting consequences with it comes to their academic development and success.
The guidance and support of a good teacher is immeasurable.
This is what Athena Career Academy has to say about kindergarteners:
“While it may be more difficult to connect with older students, kindergarteners tend to have a great deal of love, respect, and admiration for their teacher. They are also eager to please and like to make their teacher proud of them, so they work hard to accomplish their goals in hopes of obtaining praise and approval, making them model students for the most part.
While teaching is a highly rewarding and fulfilling profession no matter which grade level you teach, a kindergarten teacher is the true head of the class.”
Sherrie Klint is loved by all her students.
An uncertain time for all
For many of us, the world changed in the spring of 2020. The disruption was hard for adults. Imagine how hard it was for 5-year-olds.
Sherrie Klint’s students at the Mill Creek Elementary School included. Finding out their school year had been cut short, and that they wouldn’t see their beloved teacher again devastated them.
For about a month after schools closed in the spring, one of Klint’s students, 5-year-old McKenzie Bovie, would ask the same question every morning.
When would she be able to see her teacher again?
According to McKenzie, Mrs. Klint,
“Put’s a little sparkle on each kid.”
This is her way of expressing that her teacher loves each of her students. Perhaps this is what inspires to tell WGN9 in a video interview, that her teacher is,
“The best teacher in the entire world.”
A special surprise
So a group of 27 children were part of a touching surprise for their teacher. With the help of their parents acting as chauffeurs, they formed a caravan of cars and SUVs that drove by her home, showing they reciprocated the love she showed for them.
Klint explains how the surprise played out.
“She [McKenzie’s mother] sent me a text saying ‘I need you to come out to the driveway right now.’ Than all of a sudden there’s 20 cars flying down the street beeping horns and screaming.”
The kids had gifts to share. There were pictures, notes, and trinkets passed out of windows and sunroofs. Soon, Klint had pile of things at the end of her driveway, too much to hold at one time.
Cue the tears
Her reaction? She tells WGN9,
“I was overwhelmed. I started crying. I was shaking. It touched my heart more than anything in the whole wide world.”
As the Career Academy quote above stated,
…”kindergarteners tend to have a great deal of love, respect, and admiration for their teacher.”
And you can bet their teachers love them right back.
Watch the touching surprise firsthand in the video below. Klint is lucky to have such wonderful students!
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