Teacher Tells Students To Go Look At A Photo Of Her Favorite Student Inside A Bucket
Their reactions are adorable!
TikTok In grade school, not every teacher leaves a positive impact on a child. Many of us remember having teachers who didn’t care, or worse, straight-up disliked us.
No teacher is perfect, but kids remember when they are mistreated, just the same way they remember when they are uplifted and loved.
One teacher was determined to leave an impact on her students and came up with the perfect plan.
During class, she told her class that she had put a photo of her favorite student inside of a bucket… and then surprised them with something they never expected.
Even if most of us had a mixture of good and bad teachers growing up, the impacts of the loving, encouraging teachers usually stay with us far longer. Many adults can still remember the names of their favorite grade school teachers, even decades after they took their classes.
After all, a school can be a brutal, challenging place, where many students face bullying, high pressure and expectations from adults, and even gun violence.
Because of this, any attempt a teacher makes to give their students a chance to be uplifted and loved will help them to thrive. Sometimes, it only takes one person to take a chance on a child for their success to come true.
TikTok user and elementary school teacher Chrishae Powell has made it her life mission to be that teacher who takes a chance on kids and helps them thrive. During a class, she told her students that she had placed a photograph of her favorite student into a recycling bin, and set it on the side of the room where students could go look at it.
One by one, the students came forward to peer inside, and one by one, each child walked away with a wide grin on their face.
A few students were so overjoyed by what they saw that they dramatically fell backward onto the play mat behind them.
Eventually, Ms. Powell showed what she had put inside the bin. Inside was not a photo at all, but a mirror to reflect the faces of each child who looked inside. She then asked her class: “Who are my favorite students?” to which they all replied “All of us!”
“All of you!” She agreed. “And I love all of you equally.” At this, one of her students grinned and raced forward to give her a big hug.
Ms. Powell’s passion for uplifting her students doesn’t stop with this video, though. In fact, her Tik Tok is full of examples of the acts of kindness she implements in her classroom.
In another video, she shared an emotional moment right before the STAAR, a state-mandated test given in Texas starting in 3rd grade. It is a standardized test meant to measure a student’s progress in core subjects, and failure to pass could mean a student has to take summer classes to catch up.
Needless to say, it can be stressful, but Ms. Powell had a confidence boost ready for her students in the form of unexpected letters given to every student from an adult in their life who loves them.
“Moms, sisters, teachers, dads, brothers all came together,” she wrote as she showed the students’ emotional reactions as they opened their letters.
Her care for the kids and their self-confidence is evident and incredibly heartwarming.
Little affirmations like these will certainly stay with these kids for their whole lives. The environment of acceptance and affection this creates is so important to learning, and also to a child’s development in general, especially if they don’t have the best home life, which not every child does.
Ms. Powell’s work here proves that gestures of affection don’t always have to be grand, either. Everyone knows that teachers aren’t paid that much, and oftentimes classroom supplies and random trinkets of kindness have to come out of their own pockets.
But kindness like this doesn’t need a price tag to matter, it just needs to come from the heart, which it so clearly does. Here’s to all the beloved teachers in our lives.
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.