There’s always one teacher, isn’t there? There is always one teacher you remember, the one who saw something in you that no one else saw.

For Jay-Z, rap mogul, that one teacher was Renee Rosenblum-Lowden. She remembers him very well as Shawn Carter, the poor kid from the projects with an extraordinary talent for reading.

”As the rapper tells it, in grade school, he found something of an escape in language. He’s mentioned this in interviews throughout his career, most recently telling David Letterman, “I had a sixth-grade teacher. Her name was Ms. Lowden, and I just loved the class so much. Like reading the dictionary, and my love of words — I just connected with her.”

“That teacher’s name is Renee Rosenblum-Lowden, and she remembers Jay-Z as well, though she still refers to him as Shawn.

“Rosenblum-Lowden, 77, now lives in Columbia, Md., but in 1980, she taught sixth grade at Brooklyn’s I.S. 318. Carter, a shy and avid reader, was one of her standout students.

“The thing I remember about Shawn is he took the reading test and he scored 12th grade in the sixth grade,” Rosenblum-Lowden told The Washington Post in a phone interview. “And I remember telling him — because I really feel it’s important to tell kids they’re smart — I said, ‘You’re smart, you better do well.’ And he listened….

“She said she’s equally proud of her students who found success in other careers, but there’s a certain sense of pride that comes with having affected a young Jay-Z — particularly when he uses his national profile to advocate for better teacher wages, as he did in the Letterman interview.

“One thing that I feel uncomfortable with is all the credit he gives me. I don’t think I’m deserving of all that credit. He was super bright,” she said. Still, “it makes me feel great that I had a part, or that he feels I had a part, in his love for words.”

Teachers make a difference. Sometimes it takes years to know the difference. The student who never forgets you. The one who credits you with changing his or her life.