Special class

It's very rare that I have a rewarding class, but today it happened. First off, I was tired all day and each class seemed to find a new way to tick me off. Toward the end of the day however, I had an awsome class.
There's a new student in this class who hardly knows the alphabet. Yet, he was stuck into this class that is not appropriate for him. Luckily, two of the smarter students weren't there today, so that left me with two lower level students, both new within the last two weeks. I decided to go back in the book and do page 1 with them. Since it was just the two of them, we could take time to go over the subject repeatedly. What a difference. I could see how excited this one student was after grasping the concept and applying it.
As I was leaving work an hour later, I saw one of my students (the other boy that had been in that class) opening an ice cream bar. I smiled and said hello (his mother was there too). He came running after me and offered me his ice cream (probably at the command of his mother, but still) I was touched. I'm sure he was able to buy another one.
Classes and gestures like that remind me of why I'm doing this (temporarily anyway). It was definitely the boost I needed...