3.4 miles: This morning I was working on a variety of different centers and stations and reading and math and science and one of my students got so lost in her reading assignment that I forgot and she totally forgot to head down to breakfast-which she does every morning. It was about quarter after and we were ready to start morning meeting when I saw the look on her face and immedietely knew what I had forgotten. Her voice trembled as she said in a tiny voice, "If I go down now, they won't let me get breakfast." So I sped out of the classroom with her behind and we went down to the cafeteria to demand that a cereal and a milk be brought up with a spoon. And I think it was in this particular moment when I realized how much I have changed as a teacher from my first year as a 22 year old fresh out of college. Because I don't think I would have ever marched down to get the cereal, or even realized that the student needed cereal. Because you start realizing as you march through the years that academic learning is important but even more important is the well being of the child. And cereal with milk was more important that the reading she was doing. And cereal with a little milk and a bit of trust sprinkled in is all you need to encourage a child that today is going to be a good day. Her words to me after we got the cereal were in the form of the question: "You really are going to let me eat the breakfast in your room?" I replied, "Of course...why not? If I'm a little hungry, I may have some of that too." She laughed. And just like that we had built trust together. Never underestimate the power of changing a mistake into a beautiful moment. And of course, never underestimate the power of cereal with a little milk.