JESSICA PARROTT:  There’s no amount of words honestly that could explain how thankful we are for everything that she has done and continues to do. She’s made a huge impact on on Ben and his life and our lives as well, and the fact that Ben knows he has someone other than mom and dad in his corner and supporting him and believes in him, there’s no amount of words that honestly could explain how much that means to me as a parent, to know that he has somebody else that he can turn to.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Seeing Marcy each day was what made school so exciting for Ben. From getting lots of hugs to feeling seen when he was struggling, Ben shares more about what makes Marcy’s classroom so special.

BEN PARROTT: She gives me a lot of extra help. Even times with just me when she could. The best thing is seeing Mrs. Anderson and getting lots of hugs.

JESSICA PARROTT: So that was his most favorite thing was getting to see Mrs. Anderson every day and getting lots of hugs. And then all the extra help. And then, what about these other things?

BEN PARROTT: I got a lot of positive notes.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: In Jessica’s nomination, she mentioned that Marcy had a slide in her teacher night presentation that stuck out to her, that said, “I call my students my kids because in our one year together, they aren’t just kids in my class. They become a part of my heart.” In talking with Marcy, she shares more about how this has come to be a value in her teaching and the passion she feels to ensure her students feel taken care of and capable of succeeding.

MARCY ANDERSON: I have a parent night where the parents come in, and we talk about what we’re going to be learning during the year. And I did include a quote that I can’t take credit for. I don’t know who started it, but I know a lot of teachers use it. But it just really resonated with me because it’s sincerely how I feel. It just says, “I call my students my kids because in our one year together, they aren’t just kids in my class. They become a part of my heart.” And so I have three kids of my own, but I really do consider all of the kids in my classroom my own kids as well.

MARCY ANDERSON: And so, even when they’re not in my class anymore, I love getting hugs from them and seeing them in the hallways. And even you know, when they get older as well, hearing from them is pretty special.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Marcy’s passion for supporting her students doesn’t go unnoticed by the parents. Jessica shares how in just two weeks of knowing Ben, Marcy became an advocate for him—speaking up for his learning needs in his IEP meeting. Her ability to recognize when a child needs help is truly a gift that has had a lasting impact on Ben and his family. 

JESSICA PARROTT: The first time where I really felt like Marcy, I really understood what Marcy meant when she said the students are my kids, was when she walked into our IEP meeting two weeks, what, two weeks into the school year, or whatever. And I was super nervous because Ben, up until that point, other than speech therapy, hadn’t had any accommodations or anything like that. But school was starting to get more difficult. We’re struggling with some of his ADHD meds and everything. And I grew up watching my parents fight the school system to try to get my sister the help she needed. And so that was really my only experience with it because he’s my oldest, and so I was super nervous. And she walks in, and I didn’t say more than like three words the entire time because as soon as they started talking about, you know, moving on from the speech therapy and saying, okay, you know, anything else, Marcy immediately spoke up. And no, he needs help with this and this and this. And no, it’s not just reading. He needs help with all of the subjects. He needs more small group time and all that kind of stuff. 

JESSICA PARROTT: You know, it’s difficult as a parent watching your kids struggle. So even just there were plenty of times where my countless emails on a weekly basis where she was just making me feel better about things. Frequent updates about how he was doing, you know, at the end of the year, when he came home saying that he was hating himself and he was biting and hitting himself. You know, she immediately helped us get a meeting with her and the school counselor on a Friday afternoon, of all things, to figure out what to do, coming up with different things to try. She watched out for him at recess because he was isolating himself. And there were multiple times where she would go and try to find kids to play with him so that he wasn’t over there by himself. Or if she wasn’t at recess, she was having the other second-grade teachers keep an eye on him. And then there’s the good times when you know she continues to be a positive influence and a positive impact and encourage him and cheer him on, and every little thing you know, whether it’s the ups or the downs, she’s there behind him, supporting him.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: As Ben transitioned from second to third grade, Ben missed being in Marcy’s classroom. But they have continued to create ways to stay connected through emails, notes, and opportunities to see Marcy at school. Continuing to build relationships with her students beyond the time in her classroom is a testament to how much Marcy truly cares. 

BEN PARROTT: She wrote me a special note about how much she believes in me in my special book. Lots of hugs. She emails me all the time, and I got to have a special lunch at school with her this year when I was missing her. I really like telling her things and hearing from her. We share pictures of our trips. And we both were tracking the same adopted seal.

JESSICA PARROTT: So he struggled a little bit transitioning from second to third grade, a whole new teacher. He was comfortable with Mrs. Anderson and got to the point where he was inviting her out for ice cream in all of the notes he was writing during class to her. And so I asked if there was a way that he could have a lunch with her. And so he got to have a special lunch at school with her to catch up because he was missing her. And then for Christmas, he got Mrs. Anderson an adopted seal bracelet, and then he got the same one from Santa. And so they’re both tracking the same seal, which he thinks is really cool and exciting.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Jessica shares the positive impact of Marcy’s teaching on Ben beyond the classroom. From the start of second grade to now, his self-esteem and his ability to believe in himself have grown exponentially. Since being in Marcy’s class, he has become more willing to try new things and believes in himself more to achieve his goals. Through her teaching, Marcy created a safe space for Ben, where he knew he had someone believing in him. 

JESSICA PARROTT: There’s lots of different ways. I mean, there’s the obvious. He had made a lot of improvement over the year academically, but one of the biggest things I think that we noticed and we continue to notice is the impact that she had on improving his self-esteem and his ability to believe in himself. School is very, very challenging at times. Ben, when we were going through these questions, said, “Mrs. Anderson helped me get through the impossible second grade,” which it wasn’t impossible because you did it. 

JESSICA PARROTT: But there were a lot of times when he never thought that he could do it. He would look at stuff and didn’t even want to try. And by the end of the year, even if sometimes we had to start off by saying, Well, Mrs. Anderson thinks that you can do this, otherwise she wouldn’t have given it to you. By the end of the year, on the last day of school, he came home, and I asked him, I was like, “So do you believe that you can do this and you can go to third grade?” And he confidently looked at me and said, “Yes, I do.” And then said that he had all these notes to send to Mrs. Anderson and I had no way to send them to her. So the biggest impact we see is how much he now believes in himself. He’s willing to try more things and do more things. We still use Marcy as a source of inspiration sometimes when he’s feeling down or really struggling with something. There’s been times when, to get him to do some writing or reading, we use Marcy to encourage him to do that. And it works wonderful. So she created a safe space for him, you know, a place that he knew that he could do things and that he had someone believing in him and in his corner, and he continues to feel that way. They continue to email back and forth. Ben has gotten really good at using the voice to text on my phone to send emails rather than writing it out. But they email each other all the time, which we again are greatly appreciative of. They share stories and pictures. 

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Marcy takes the time to truly get to know each of her students through learning about their strengths, weaknesses, and personal interests. Through building connections with her students, she creates an environment where students feel safe, supported, and confident. Her work and dedication help students learn the vital skill of how to believe in themselves.

MARCY ANDERSON: I think it’s super important to get to know each student individually and find out their strengths and their weaknesses and also what they like and what they enjoy doing inside and outside of school because a lot of times you can use that. Like Ben loved to build Legos. He’s super creative. He loves Minecraft and video games and things like that. So just kind of connecting with the kids on things that they enjoy and things that are important to them helps them feel safer with you and more confident. I work really hard on kids that struggle with just any particular subject. I think it’s important that they know, I’ve seen a lot of kids that just if they struggle in maybe reading, they just automatically think, oh, I can’t do anything. I’m not smart, I’m not good enough, I don’t need to participate, I don’t have anything to add. We do a lot of group work in my class.

MARCY ANDERSON: I mean, Ben is incredibly creative and has so many talents in other ways. And I think it’s exciting to see him share that with other classmates as well. I always try to tell them like you can tell when they’re really down on themselves and they don’t think they can do anything. I always tell them that I believe in them, but I need them to believe in themselves too, because I know they can do it. 

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Ben shares more about how Marcy’s belief in him allowed him to feel confident in his work. Building on this, Jessica reflects on how Marcy adapted his homework to meet his learning needs while still helping him to grow—striking the perfect balance between feeling supported and challenged

BEN PARROTT: Always telling me I could do it and that she believes in me. She says it’s okay to make mistakes and would give me work she knows I can do. She makes me feel safe.

JESSICA PARROTT: I think one of the biggest things and that I noticed a difference in his confidence was they would get books sent home daily for him to read. And when Marcy found out that he was spending sometimes close to two hours between the breaks between reading and spelling and practicing math. I mean, two hours worth by the time we were done that we were spending on all of these things. Because reading a page would take 15 minutes sometimes, depending on the words, she continued to send those books home so that he could challenge himself. But she also started sending home books that were more at his level, that was something that he could read independently. Because up until that point, he was never reading by himself. It was always I needed mom and dad to help me. He couldn’t just go off and read a book. And so just working on giving him something that she knew would help build up his own confidence in it, I think was huge because then that helped him take that step to continue to try with the harder things. Knowing that it was okay if we only got through one or two pages. But hey, here’s this book that you can go and read on your own. You don’t need my help, and that his teacher was giving it to him, it didn’t make him feel like he was reading a book that was younger than him or that kind of stuff. And even with the two projects that he did during the year where a book was involved, you know, Marcy helped us find books that were more at his level that weren’t quite as challenging to bring it down to his level so that he didn’t feel as discouraged by it.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: What keeps Marcy’s passion going are the moments in which her students start to believe in themselves. Working with students who struggle with confidence, she finds joy in seeing that moment when everything clicks for them. This continues beyond her classroom as she continues to hear stories from past students as they grow and succeed.

MARCY ANDERSON: I think probably just my most favorite thing, the reason why I love it the most is for kids that really don’t have that confidence and don’t believe in themselves. And I work with them, I do small groups, and once it finally clicks and they have that aha moment and they start believing in themselves, and they’re so proud, that’s what gets me the most excited. But I also love hearing from my past students. You know, getting emails. I’ve received emails from people who have kids now, I was in the hall the other day and one of the substitute teachers walked over to me, and she goes, I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m and she started to say her name, and I said her name, and she she said, “I loved your class.” And I was like, “I loved you.” And it was just, it’s cool to see the kids, even when they go on and get older, because, like I said, I still feel like they’re my kids. So it’s fun to see them succeed as they get older.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: In wrapping up our conversation, Ben shared a heartwarming thought, which sums up Marcy perfectly.

HANNAH BOWYER-RIVETTE: Thank you so much for listening and joining us today to learn more about Marcy Anderson, our March Honoree and recipient of the Honored National Teaching Award. To read more about her story, you can visit our website at honored.org or click the link in the episode description. If you have a teacher who you want to recognize and nominate for our teaching award, you can head to honored.org/nominate to recognize a teacher today. If you enjoyed today’s episode, you can follow us and leave us a review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening in from. Thanks again for listening, and make sure to tune in next month to hear the incredible story of our April Honoree.