Day maker.

Our school has this awesome tradition:

Teachers' Choice Award night.

Every teacher is invited to select any student for any reason to honor.

It is our opportunity to recognize a student who might otherwise go unnoticed.

It is our chance to support growth, character, or uniqueness.

It is our moment to demonstrate how much we care.

I love it.

We have done this for several years. I want to say five, but I might be wrong.

What I can say is that I have every picture on my bulletin board and I think I have written about every one of those kids already.

The first couple of years I chose Seniors who I got to see grow for four full years into incredible young adults.

The last few years I have chosen freshmen who have impressed the Hell out of me one way or another.

This year, I chose a young man I have written about before.

The child who crushed me in a bear hug when he found out I finally finished my degree.

I told him about my selection about a week ago.

He thanked me and asked him why.

I didn't provide much detail. Instead, I just told him he makes me smile and he would understand when he received the formal invitation.

Basically, this kid just makes me smile.

He is insatiably curious, positive, silly, and creative.

Today, or maybe yesterday we walked down the hall towards class together.  

He said "Ms. Hirsch, I got your invitation in the mail. It made my day."

"That's awesome," I replied, "You make my day on a regular basis."

"Cool, cool. I like being a day maker."

Mic drop. New term, new concept.

In my world #daymaker just became a thing. That is for sure a good thing. :)