One of the first times I went to visit my wife at one of her schools, I learned a lesson that has stuck with me.

I walked into the front office, checked in and told the lady at the desk that I was there to see Jody.

She looked at me confused.

“Jody?”

“Yeah, Jody. Her office is right there.”

Then it clicked.

“Oh, Joanna.”

Apparently at school, my wife wasn't Jody. She was Joanna.

“Okay. Joanna it is.”

It was a funny little moment, but there's actually a pretty good lesson buried in it.

I hadn't met them where they were.

Meet Them Where They Are

If you're in education, you've probably heard that phrase more times than you can count.

Meet them where they are.

There's a reason people keep saying it. It's true.

Every child who walks into a school comes through those doors from a different place.

Different home lives. Different backgrounds. Different personalities. Different struggles. Different abilities. Different experiences.

Even the same child can walk through those doors as a different person from one day to the next.

Maybe they had a great morning.

Maybe they had a terrible morning.

Maybe something happened over the weekend that nobody at school knows about.

Maybe they're excited to be there. Maybe school is the last place they want to be.

You don't always know

​That's why one of the greatest opportunities a teacher has is learning to recognize where that individual child is and finding a way to connect with them there.

Make the Personal Connection

You can have a classroom full of students, but that classroom isn't just a collective group.

It's made up of individuals.

And I've found something to be true throughout my own life and career: when you can make a personal connection with somebody, that's when you have the opportunity to really make a difference.

That's true in business.

It's true in families.

It's true in leadership.

And it's certainly true with kids.

Before somebody really listens to what you're trying to teach them, it helps tremendously when they know you see them as a person.

That's a tremendous responsibility for teachers, but it's also a tremendous opportunity.

You have the ability to positively affect the life of a young person who may remember something you said or did long after you've forgotten about it.

Never underestimate that.

Communication Changes Everything

There's something else I talk about constantly with our team at Simmons One Hour: communication.

So many of the problems we deal with in life eventually come back to communication.

Problems at work? Look at the communication.

Problems between a husband and wife? Communication is usually somewhere in there.

Problems with our kids? Again, communication.

When people aren't on the same page, somewhere along the way there was probably a breakdown in communication.

Schools aren't any different.

Teachers need to communicate with students. Teachers need to communicate with parents. Teachers need to communicate with administrators and support staff.

And sometimes that means saying three words that some of us have a hard time saying:

“I need help.”

Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness.

It's a sign that you care enough about the outcome to use the people and resources around you.

Good schools aren't built by one person. Good businesses aren't either. They're built by people communicating, helping one another and pulling in the same direction.

You May Never Know the Difference You Made

This message originally came from something I shared with the teachers and staff at Rowland Norment Elementary, where my wife works.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized the message wasn't just for one school.

It's for teachers everywhere.

You have a tremendous opportunity in front of you.

There will be hard days.

There will be kids who test your patience.

There will be times when communication breaks down, when you're frustrated and when you wonder whether you're getting through at all.

Keep going.

Talk to the kids.

Learn who they are.

Lean on the good people around you.

Ask for help when you need it.

Communicate.

And above all else, meet them where they are.

Build that personal bridge with the individual, not just the classroom as a whole.

Because somewhere in your classroom may be a child who needs exactly what you bring into that school that day.

You may not see the result tomorrow.

You may not see it at the end of the school year.

You may never get to see it at all.

But that doesn't mean you didn't make a difference.

To the teachers in the communities we serve and teachers everywhere: thank you for what you do.

​Have a great school year.