VIRAL: Teacher leaves students inspiring messages for students on exam day

Genna Ash

26 May 2016

Those of us with enough experience of education are all too aware of the stress levels felt at the height of exam period. But while this is the time when student blood pressures soar and sleepless nights reach an all-time high, it also represents the perfect opportunity for teachers to lead, motivate and inspire.

One New Jersey-based fifth grade teacher recently seized the opportunity to do exactly that, using a touching gesture to ease her students’ nerves on the first morning of a seven day-long exam slog.

And now Chandi Langford of the Woodbury Public School system is a viral internet star.

“To motivate her 5th grade students, Mrs Langford at Evergreen Avenue prepared inspirational, growth-mindset messages for every one of her students,” the Facebook post writes. The message is accompanies by images of Langford’s personalised motivational memos.

“A lot of my kids were nervous that if they don’t pass this test with good scores they won’t go to the next grade. They feel a lot of anxiety about that,” Langford told Philly.com. “I thought this would be a cute thing for them to walk into.”

Inspired by a similar idea she found on Pinterest, Lagford decided the “#growthmindset” tag, a learning strategy the class had been trialling since January, would be a really nice way to tie the individual messages together.

While the post’s 20,000 likes and 21,879 shares (at the time of writing) showshow well the public has received Langford’s thoughtful gesture, the most important outcome of the deed lies in its effect on her children.

Julissa, one of Langford’s 19 fifth grade students, told Philly: “When I read the message, my fear went away. I knew I could actually do it.”