I walked outside on Monday to a beautiful day. I saw one of my students sitting on the curb. I said “Hi _____! What are you doing?” He told me he was waiting for his mom to pick him up. We struck up a brief conversation about the weather and being picked up. I thought nothing more of the conversation.

The next day, the student stayed during tutorials and thanked me for talking to him that day. I was surprised - I just did what I thought was natural - but accepted his appreciation.

I wonder what other interactions I think nothing more of that make an outsized impact on my students?