Staying Connected - The Best Gift I Ever Received

As an educator and especially as an Apple Distinguished Educator, I believe the greatest gift we can receive is the success of our students and knowing that in some small way we played a part in that. In so many cases we never know but it is always great when a student returns to express their appreciation for the time and the caring that you showed as their teacher. One of my former students named Gina Simone was a successful applicant to one of the best film programs in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada and in her second year they were asked to pitch a concept for their culminating documentary film. There we 120 students in her year and each was required to submit and present their pitch and only 6 were selected and then all the other students were to participate in one of the selected films. All during high school my general rule was that "I" cannot be in any film because it would take too much time away from other students and Gina knows this. So one day she came back to visit me and told me that of the 120 pitches hers was selected... and after I congratulated her she let me know that her pitch was to do a documentary on me. Although I momentarily thought to decline, how could I say "no". The result of her work below was the best gift I have ever received.