Archive for the “Teaching Stories” Category

The Learning Community

When I was working toward my teaching degree, building a learning community was one of the new big buzz phrases. There were lots of activities and strategies out there to help you turn your classroom into a community of learners. As a student teacher I diligently tried some with varying results. I did have a wonderful student teaching experience, and felt as though by the end of my time, the class had become closer and more cooperative with one another for the most part. There were still those few misfits, who just couldn’t quite be fully accepted. I felt badly about that, but my supervising teacher told me I had done a great job and she was happy.

I was a substitute teacher for the next semester and I noticed a big difference in the rooms where I taught. It was a great learning experience for me, both what I should or could do and what I would never do(leave a sub with NO PLANS). I had big ideas and plans. However, when my first position was as a reading teacher, not a classroom teacher, I had to rethink a few of those. Instead of a classroom of 25 learners, I had small changing groups of 4 to 7. I got lucky though, one of my first groups that year was a group of misfit 5th grade boys; “Jason”, “Terrence”, “Kirk”, “Derek” and “Casey”. Their classroom teacher, Mr. R. (no relation), asked if I would take this group for the year. Each of these boys had a specific reading difficulty and Mr. R. stated he would like them to have the whole 45 minute period. If I would take this group for the whole period, he would handle the other three groups. As a new teacher, I was willing to try anything.

In the beginning it was rough. Their abilities were varied, their challenges different, and their motivation nonexistent. We struggled together, that group of misfits and I, for the first quarter. They were given assignments, which were completed sporadically. EXCEPT for “Kirk”, a nice, quiet redheaded boy who would rather be outside playing any sport than sitting in my room reading. He had every assignment completed to the best of his ability. I started building him up as a leader and a reader. The others followed, but still, the assignments were hit and miss. Exasperated one day, I had a meeting with them. This they were interested in, anything but talk about the assignment they didn’t have completed.

I explained my dilemma and asked “Kirk”, if he felt it was fair they depended on him for all the work. Then I asked them if they thought it was fair. They all agreed, sincerely, that it really wasn’t fair. So together they decided the next person to show up without their assignment would get a detention – this was their decision, not mine – no assignment = detention, no questions asked. I had my detention slips ready, figuring at least one would need to be filled out. Everyone had their assignment. I told them they surprised me! Explained I had the form right there, and I LOVED that they proved me wrong! I was so proud of this group. That whole week and not one missing assignment!!! I was on cloud nine, this community stuff was great!

On Monday, it happened though, one of the boys didn’t have their assignment. To my surprise, it was “Kirk”, the steady eddy of the group, the leader. Oh how I didn’t want to give him a detention, but that was the group’s rule. I didn’t have to say a word to “Kirk”, he knew, he was already beating himself up. As I started to fill out the form I hear “Casey” say, “Ya know that’s really not fair.” “Derek” and “Jason” pipe in, “Yeah, Mrs. R, that’s not fair, Kirk shouldn’t get a detention.”

“But that’s the consequence you came up with guys, that’s what you agreed on. Kirk hasn’t said a word, he knew walking in here this was the consequence and he is accepting it.”
“Terrence” says, “He should get a pass this one time. We all dumped on him and had him do the work; it’s only fair he gets to dump on us, least once. I say we take a vote. If we make the rules, we can vote on how to use’em, right?” The other boys agreed with “Terrence”.
“Kirk” still hasn’t said a word, he is sitting wide-eyed watching and listening to the others stand up for him in complete disbelief. They called for a vote. I voted he get the detention (I had to – I didn’t want to – but I felt I had to) the rest voted he didn’t, so he didn’t. After the vote, “Kirk” says, “Thanks guys, you didn’t have to do that, but I’m really glad you did.” I was never so proud of a group of misfits in my life, but even more important, they were proud of themselves. I know they learned much more in that group than the plots and themes of the books we read. Mr. R. told me he also saw a huge difference in his classroom after that. The boys who would try hard NOT to be seen were now standing up and participating. At our last meeting I told them they were my favorite group of all time, and I had learned much from watching them work.

In the 9 years I have been teaching, I have had many groups, some make better “communities” than others, but none has touched my heart like that group of boys. They graduated this year, all of them. “Kirk” was a star on the football team. When I run into them, they always stop and speak and ask me how it’s going and if they are still my favorite group. The answer….. Always……. “Yes”!

What Every Parent Should Know #2

There are many things parents should know before sending their kids off to school.

#2. Creativity Works Both Ways.

Most parents try hard to cultivate creativity in their children, as do teachers. I am often amazed at how creative some students can be if given an opportunity to explore something. Each year with my 4th graders during our “whole group” days I do a writing activity with them that allows them to fracture a fairytale. Some of their stories and illustrations really should be published I think, they never cease to amaze me. But on occasion creativity can also work against you. Here is a little story about a fellow teacher and friend of mine Mrs. D.

This past school year Mrs. D. had a challenging class. She knew at the beginning the year that 3 of her students had some interesting behavior issues and often caused disturbances in the classroom. But, when it was revealed that 2 other students, new to the district, who were placed in her room also, had behavior issues, life in Mrs. D’s 2nd grade classroom got very interesting. In fact a substitute teacher left her a note after spending one day with her class telling Mrs. D. if she had to teach in this classroom on a daily basis she would probably be drinking her lunch. That same substitute teacher told the principal that Mrs. D. deserved combat pay.

On this particular day, she had 3 of the 5 spinning. One of them, “Tim”, had been under his desk and torn up his work more than once that day. She informed him because he didn’t have his work completed he would be staying in at recess to complete it. This sent him under his desk again. She ignored this behavior until she noticed him playing with the case to his eyeglasses, so she took that away from him and placed it on her desk. Later in the day, she also took away his glasses and put them in the case – as you can tell neither his day nor hers had improved.

The next morning he arrived in a much better mood and things were going well, until he needed his glasses. Mrs. D. opened the case on her desk to give them to him and noticed a little drawing on the inside of the case. Inspecting this more closely she realized “Tim” had drawn a picture of a hand “flippin’ the bird” then drawn an arrow pointing to the words “Mrs. D.” She looked up at “Tim” and before she could say a word he very calmly said, “Weeeellllllll, I was mad at you yesterday.”

She shared this story with me later in the day, and showed me the actual “artwork”. Mrs. D. said she really did appreciate his creativity on a certain level since he hadn’t literally expressed this during class which would have caused a major disruption, but she had to contact his parents about it anyway. Let’s just say his parents didn’t quite have the same feeling about Tim’s creativity.

Mentors
In my district, as in most now, we have a mentoring program.  It was just in the beginnings when I was hired, so in the 3 years of mentoring that I and all new hires are required to complete, each year was unique.  Although I didn’t always find the information or assignments helpful, my actual mentors were, well, quite honestly, priceless.
  
My first mentor was Mrs. B.  She had been teaching for well over 30 years.  She had been a special education teacher, classroom teacher and reading teacher.  She was the only Title I teacher in the building where I began my teaching career as a “guided reading teacher”.   (It was a part time, 9/10ths, position – you know where they get you full time really but don’t have to give you full time benefits)  Mrs. B. was a soft spoken, low key, small, gray haired grandma type lady.  She was kind and extremely patient with the students, and with me!  I have since lived on some pearls of wisdom she gave me my first year.  “You can’t save them you know, you can give them strategies, tools, and encouragement, but you can’t save them.  They have to do that themselves.”   I have recited that quote to myself numerous times, as I struggle to “save” one.  “Some are just hardwired different, dear.  You have to figure that out, that’s your job.”  Man, if that isn’t the truth.  Funny thing about that though, the ones that are hardwired differently are the ones that I end up enjoying the most!!  Imagine then, that after you are so impressed by this dignified, upstanding, master teacher who never raises her voice, you are walking by her room one day and hear, “Well, shit, shit, SHIT!”  My head spun ‘round, and I peeked in and said, “Mrs. B.  are you OK????!!!”  Her answer, “Sure, why do you ask?”  I sputtered to explain why I’d asked and she laughed…..laughed long and loud.  She said, “Yeah, I’m a teacher, but that’s just my day job, the rest of the time…..I’m human!”  Probably the most important pearl of wisdom she ever gave me.  As I continued that year, I learned she was very human, smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish and told the dirtiest, funniest jokes you ever heard.
 
My second mentor was also a Mrs. B.  She was different from the first but just as good.  She told me, “Administrators come and go, and you get to jump through new hoops each time.  But, kid, the students stay the same, so just shut your door and teach.”  She gave me OLD stuff.  Old basals, old games, old lesson plans…..and you know what I figured out, for my strugglers, they often WORKED!  That slow building repetition, it was just what they needed.  She LOVED the students and they knew it.  They worked so hard for her.  She most often got those with the biggest behavior issues.  It didn’t matter how quirky they were, they were just another student in the class, expected to follow the rules.  You know, it took some of them the first semester to figure that out, but once they did, she rarely had behavior problems.  She had over 30 years in the district, taught in 4 different buildings, taught reading, classroom, and special education, and survived half a dozen superintendents, and more principals.   Her best piece of advice, “You gotta start where they are and find something about them that you truly like.  They don’t care until you do.”  That was true for academics and behavior, and I remind myself of that almost every day.
 
Both of my mentors have since retired and I miss them both, immensely, if for no other reason than they reminded me to “keep it about the students”.  There is so much other, well, crap that you deal with as you sit on committees and go to professional development and get new administrators that it can be easy to forget why you are really there.  So on those days, I find myself asking not “What would Jesus do?” but rather “What would Mrs. B. do?!” (Either one of them).   After I ponder that for a minute, and pull up one of their pearls of wisdom, I just shut my door and teach.

Connecting
In today’s instant, ready-made, immediate gratification world, students are used to where interactive things react to them with the flip of a thumb, and books seem like too much work to understand. Struggling students often give up before they even get started. Because of this, I make all of my guided reading students a promise on the first day we meet. “I promise we will only read GOOD books.” That’s my promise, it’s easy to make and it’s easy to keep. I have some real aces in my pocket that get pulled out regularly, “Crash” by Jerry Spinelli, “Riding Freedom” by Pam Munoz Ryan, “Dead Man in Indian Creek” by Mary Downing Hahn and “Summer of the Swans” by Betsy Byars are just a few that are always big hits with my fourth and fifth graders. I know the real reason these books work for students is because they can connect to them, to the characters, to the situations and to the messages.

In my district, a reading teacher co-teaches in a classroom with the classroom teacher during the guided reading block. This normally means I will see two groups of 4 to 6 students for a 20 minute period each day. I LOVE guided reading groups, LOVE them! I am passionate about reading and this is my best opportunity to pass that passion along. In the end, you get moments that make all of the struggles of the year worth it, and I got two of those this year when I saw struggling students get excited, and become active learners.

The first “yes this is why I teach and why I am still paying those student loans” moment happened with a fourth grade group. We were discussing vocabulary and the students had to create definitions using just context clues. The word we were defining was “cajole”. None of the students arrived at the right definition independently, but as we started to discuss what was happening in the book, one student said, “Oh, I know now!!! It’s like that word from “Terror at the Zoo” (another staple), you remember don’t you Noah, you know, that word, “coax”.” My teacher’s heart soared!!!!! This group then went on to bring me a visual example of a “brand”, after that was also a vocabulary word. I drew a poor visual on a white board, and they felt the need to bring a “good” picture of a brand to have in my folder for next year’s group. They also found more biographical info on Wild Bill Hickok, the main character of the story we were reading, to add to my file again. All of this, not assigned, not suggested, but very exciting from the “buzzard” group – you know the diehard strugglers, who come to the table already defeated – well, look out world, they have just realized they can own what they’re reading AND help out next year’s groups too!!

The second came from a fifth grade girl, “Shelby”. Shelby had actually been a special education student, had received Title I services and although she “graduated” out of both programs, she still struggled. Her group was working with the “Lit Circle” set up as we were reading “Run Away Home” by Patricia McKissack. This group of 3 girls and 2 boys was particularly cohesive, and I enjoyed their mix of personalities immensely. They certainly never let each other get away with “doggin out” on their jobs, and pushed each other to excel. Shelby came to group one day, ahead of the rest, clutching something to her chest and breathlessly these words tumbled out of her mouth, “Mrs. R, I know I am not the connector today, I’m the summarizer and I have my summary but I have the best connection, a better one than anyone ever had, even Aly, who is the connector today, has and I just want to know if after she does her connections I can share mine even though I know it’s not my turn and if I can’t share it then I really really really really want to be the connector tomorrow because I have the BEST connection, you aren’t even going to believe and I found it all on my own, nobody even had to help me so can I please please please share it today?! PLEASE!!!” YES, of course, you may share your connection today; I am certainly not going to put a damper on that enthusiasm! What Shelby had made was a text to text connection. In the story we were reading, a female Apache Indian warrior, named Lozen, was mentioned, quite briefly actually, as well as Geronimo. What Shelby brought to group was the book, “Cool Women”. Lozen was discussed, and a picture of her with Geronimo was included. Shelby was right, her connection WAS pretty spectacular. Spectacular enough that not only did she impress her teacher, she impressed her group as well.

It’s all about connections….between students in a group, between students and their teacher, between students and the book; but mostly it’s between students and themselves

I am currently a Title I Reading Teacher in a small rural district that is experiencing big growing pains.  My job is actually two parts, I teach guided reading as a “push-in” in classrooms 1 thru 5 in the morning and have “pull-out” Title I Reading groups in the afternoon for at risk students in the grades 1st and 2nd.  I absolutely LOVE my job.  I came to teaching 9 years ago.  My first degree was actually in Social Work and I did that for 11 years before I finally decided that wasn’t what I really wanted to be when I grew up.  Back to school I went, and the rest is history….being a teacher is definitely what I want to be when I grow up.  I must admit, I do use many of the counseling skills I learned as a social worker with both the kids and their parents, though.  Old habits are hard to break.  There are 3 Title I teachers in my building, and 5 sections of each grade K thru 5, plus a “Jump Start” Kindergarten and an “At Risk Preschool” class.  Each day is the same, but each day is different……that’s the best part!

There are actually many things parents should know when they send their children off to school, this is just a story about one of them. 
 
#1.  What goes on at home, shows up at school.  This is particularly true of Kindergarteners, which is why I will not teach that grade level.  They truly scare me.  It’s not that they aren’t cute, oh no, they are all adorable little cherubs with big grins.  It’s because they will say ANYTHING at ANYTIME and as a teacher, you must have a quick and appropriate comeback.  I have a tendency to laugh….because they are hilarious, which is not normally considered an appropriate response. 
 
First graders aren’t too far removed from Kindergarteners, so their filters have some pretty big holes.   They often come to school and regale me with stories about their siblings getting into trouble, their parents fighting, why they can’t ride their bike this week and the fact that their mom is going to shoot their cat if it poops one more time on her carpet!  Some of their stories can break your heart, but others put a smile on your face for the whole day.  This is one of those stories. 
 
A couple of years ago, when the “Curious George” movie was about to come out, we did a unit about monkeys and Curious George.  Our local movie theater offered to let our entire K-2 classes attend a showing for free!  Small rural towns are nice to be in for just this reason.   To make the movie a little more meaningful, we had the big build up ahead of time.  This meant lots of Curious George read alouds.  The first grade class I worked with and I discussed George and described him, before reading a story.  In this particular story, George goes along and gathers up all the newspapers that have been delivered.  After I read this particular section, I stopped and asked the students, “What do you think the people are thinking or saying when they can’t find their papers?”  Lots of hands immediately started waving – first graders are never shy about putting their 2 cents out there.  I got a good variety of answers; “They probably think their neighbor took it.”, “They might think the dog tore it up.”, “They might think the paper person forgot.” all plausible answers.  Then I noticed a boy in the back, with his hand raised and a big grin on his face.  You can just tell he KNOWS the answer.  So, I called on him and he responded, “ Well, my dad would just say – F**kin’ monkey, stole my paper again!”   I stifled a laugh…which about killed me, and in my best teacher voice I said, “Let’s call him a naughty monkey instead, naughty is a better word for school.”,   and quickly went back to reading the story. 
 
Close call and I don’t doubt a bit that his dad would probably say that.   As uncomfortable as it was at the time it happened, it did make me smile and chuckle for the rest of that day and for many days since.

Show and Tell

With so much discord and craziness occurring in both our schools and the economy I figured we could all use a few giggles to remind of us how blessed we are to work with children.  This past weekend I received a great letter from a fellow teacher that brought back so many crazy memories of show and tell days. You never know what to expect on Show and Tell Day.  With that in mind, I had to share this with you all.   You will soon see what I mean.  Enjoy the following and if anyone knows the marvelous anonymous woman who passed on this story, please give her our thanks. 

The ‘Middle Wife’ by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back. When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that.  I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome. 

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. ‘This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his birthday.’ ‘First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.’ She’s standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I’m trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me.  The kids are watching her in amazement. ‘Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. ‘She walked around the house for, like an hour, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning..) ‘My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.’ (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.) ‘And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!’ (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)  ‘Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom’s play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.’ Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I’m sure I applauded the loudest.  Ever since then, when it’s show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ‘Middle Wife’ comes along.

Happy 2009! Hopefully all  year-rounders  went back to school with renewed spirit and vitality!

I hope you’re all enjoying this new year so far; so much excitement and changes in our world already.  I found some really neat educational challenges and building tools I can’t wait to share with you. Some of you may have seen these but for those of you who have not…

Google.com is very excited to again be hosting the Doodle 4 Google competition, where K-12 students are invited to play around with the Google homepage logo and see what new designs emerge. This year U.S. kids can join in the fun, to the theme of, “What I Wish for the World.”  These are some exciting times, for the US and the world. Significant changes are on their way. Google believes in thinking big, and dreaming big. I can’t think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same.  This year, Google is partnering with the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for the competition as they hope to encourage the next generation of designers and artists.  Registration closes on March 17, 2009 and entries are due by March 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time. Everything you need to get started can be found at the official website http://www.google.com/doodle4google/.  Only teachers or school employees should register. *Parents or students who are interested should contact their teacher to register them.

Speaking of changes around in the world; when it launched, Google Earth changed the way people everywhere access the world’s geographic information. Since then, Google has added many other useful features like 3D buildings, Street View, Sky in Google Earth, and tons of educational content layers. This week three exciting new features have been added in Google Earth 5.0. Touring in Google Earth… students can record and play back their own tours, complete with voiceovers! Plus, new historical imagery allows you to use a time slider to explore local and global changes over the past few decades. This is too cool!!! But wait, there’s more….you can now dive to the deepest part of the sea with oceans in Google Earth! This new edition allows you to fly beneath the surface to explore underwater canyons, see shipwrecks in 3D, and watch YouTube videos submitted by oceanographers and aquatic experts. Check it out at earth.google.com! So many cool projects; so little time you say. These are great center time, solo or group project building ideas. You can cover just about every subject area using these easy websites.

As a teacher I remember one of the hardest assignments for my class was always writing and following directions. Spice up the normal “write me an essay on how to do blank” by having a student partner follow the directions precisely and see if the blank comes out the way you imagined it to be or if it resembles nothing it was supposed to……

For those 7-12th grades, here’s another idea….How about writing a knol?  Knols are articles written by people who are knowledgeable about specific subjects. Anyone can write one and now Google is giving a little added incentive to show off individuals’ skills.   They’ve teamed up with the people at Dummies.com to give everyone the chance to write a how-to article about something they’re great at and possible become a bit more famous in the process.  Go to the official contest page, have students create their own knol about a subject they feel they know well, and the contest judges will select five finalists who will be eligible to have their knols featured on the Dummies.com site. The best entry overall is being awarded a $1,000 grand prize.  Submissions are open through March 23rd, 2009. If you feel this is a tad above your students levels try making it a class or class level contest instead. It will surely spice up the directions section of the curriculum a tad. As always, keep smiling and have fun. Life it too short for boring assignments. J

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

While shopping at the mall just before Christmas, I was utterly disgusted with the behavior of the shopping patrons.  I understand this time of the year can be a bit stressful but if I remember right, the idea of the holiday season is to care about your fellow man, be extra considerate and kind to others.  We shall just say that I had to put on an extra smile and show my kids what the proper shopping behavior should have been (not an easy task under the circumstances).  We decided to make a game of it and see and list what we witnessed.  We saw an older lady almost hit by a car in the cross walk.  We heard people complaining because the lines were too long (imagine that during the last shopping weekend before the holidays), and many people being verrrry rude to the sales people.  With all of this craziness going on it reminded me of a story I once heard…..

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.  What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.  Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.  There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me.   I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my thoughts.”    

The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the house!  There is a mousetrap in the house!”  The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”  

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see the venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.  The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, where she was treated and returned home but still with a fever.  

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.   To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.  The farmer’s wife did not get well; she sadly died.  So many people came for her funeral, that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all safely from his crack in the wall with great sadness.  So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.
The End
Author Unknown

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage each other.

With this is mind, try to remember that caring about other people during not just the holidays, but all year long, is more important than long lines, traffic and being in a rush. 

Teach your students that a smile or kind word can go a long way in the face of a frustrating day, their own or someone else’s.

Be kind your fellow man….treat them as you wish to be treated.

Tonight is the first of the local school holiday performances!  It is such hard work practicing and perfecting the show but always such a great joy to see the end result.  The kids always seem to out do themselves.  Just a year ago we had the greatest holiday performance surprise ever!  Our class was having a horrendous time coming up with what we wanted to do to represent the 3rd grade class.  We thought and thought and finally we had a few ideas to vote on.  It was decided that our class would sing and dance to the song Jingle Bell Rock.  Great idea if you were anyone but Juan or Tracy…..

Juan was a very special boy who had led a pretty hard life.  The child had witnessed things that no child should ever have to experience.  Due to his early childhood traumas he had also not learned to speak English and until becoming part of our class family; he had not attempted to.  This lead up is going somewhere, I promise.  Juan was a very shy boy but very emotive and loving.  He was much more physically mature than the other boys as well.   Tracy had been raised in a disadvantaged household. She was a pretty girl with a great deal of potential but had severe anger management issues as did Juan.  Neither child was interested in being part of the performance; or so we thought.

Through the 1st three weeks of December we rushed through our days to get to practice. Neither Juan or Tracy never really showed much interest in the whole thing.  To keep them involved we requested that they be the review team and ensure that we were performance ready.  In exchange they would not have to perform with the class on stage.  They both agreed to this plan.  We worked during lunch break, before and after school, and any chance we had to fit in a few minute review of our song and dance.  With each review our class became a closer knit group.  The students were having a ball.  During these times our non-performers would monitor our mistakes and let us know how we were doing.  Two days before performance time the students were getting the holiday bug and were quite giggly.  We couldn’t get it to flow and this was bothering Juan.  Here comes our holiday miracle.  Juan stood up and yelled across the group in his broken English to get it together, we only have 2 more days to practice.  This shocked all of us, not that Juan had been so vocal because he was known for outbursts but for the fact that he cared.  The class settled down and surprisingly got right to work.  In the dance the kids had a swing style step that was a tad complicated for 9 and 10 year olds.  Most of them were doing pretty well but the step was not tight. 

Upon completion of that review, we stopped, and asked Juan how they had done.  Crossed armed and obviously unhappy, he said NO, NO good!  With this he turned the music back on grabbed Tracy and said this is how you do it.  With that he stepped in to position with Tracy by his side and showed the class how to do the dance the correctly.  It was if Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers had walked into the room.  The grace, the attention to detail in every step, and the snap to their moves was unbelievable.   Mind you neither of them had ever practiced the dance.  Upon completion Juan stated, “That is how you do it.”  He went back to the corner of the room to continue his monitoring job while the class broke into an uproar of applause and shock.  They were amazing.  The entire class begged the pair to be in the performance.  Reluctantly the pair agreed to perform.  After class I asked Juan and Tracy how they knew how to dance like that?  Not surprisingly they both answered, “I don’t know….I just do it.”  I explained to them both that they had done something that no one else in our class had been able to do.   It was at this point that they realized that there was some thing that they could do better than the other children.  They had not thought of it as anything of any great importance.  Out of frustration had come a gift to themselves and to the school as a whole.

Two days later the performance came.  All decked out in their scarves, mittens, and hats we waited for our turn on stage.  The cafeteria was packed with students and parents and the emotions were running high.   Of course, five minutes before performance time Tracy and Juan got into an argument swearing they weren’t going to dance together but by some miracle they agreed to continue the dispute after our performance.  The kids got up on stage, Tracy and Juan in the center of the group and the other couples staggered and surrounding them.  We were all nervous.  The music started, their little voices timidly started to sing.  Out of Tracy’s little soul came this beautiful deep  voice.  Jingle Bell Rock had never sounded so sweet.  With our star performers’ confidence, our room came together as a solid team.  They completed their performance to a rouse of applause.

Where they the best performance that day?  Maybe not in the eyes of a critic, but was the holiday spirit felt in a way none of us had felt before?  Most defiantely! The class hugged, laughed, and congratulated each other all the way back to our portable.  They were so proud of themselves and each other.   A new respect for the “tough kids” was formed that day.  Tracy and Juan had learned they were an important part of our class family and that our show would not have been nearly as good with out them.  The “scholastically more gifted kids” learned that there was a lot more to life than just good grades.  I learned that what I thought of as stress was actually character building school.  Without my challenging kids what kind of teacher would I be?  Thank you Juan and Tracy for our holiday miracle.