Thankful for Teaching

Hello everyone!

So I know it has been a long time since my last post but as with everyone else back in the states I have been celebrating Thanksgiving and as everyone knows during the holidays time seems to fly by faster than usual.  But here is what has been happening in the wonderful land of New Zealand...

Like I said before Thanksgiving has been the topic of focus for the past week, not only on my mind as I think about my family and not being with them on the holiday, but it has also been the topic of a couple days of lesson plans in my classroom.  Trying to explain Thanksgiving to a group of students who have not grown up with the idea of a formalized day to set aside time to think about what you are thankful for was an interesting challenge to explain.  (Also if anyone can come up with a easy way to explain what a cornucopia is and why it's a symbol for Thanksgiving let me know because all I was able to come with was that it is a thing filled with all the fruits and vegetables from harvest to show everything we are thankful for and people use them as a center piece.  Anyways...) As I was saying I spent some time this week explaing the customs and traditions of my family in relation to Thanksgiving and then challenged the students to take some time to think about what they are thankful for.  Although this took the form of a simple art project where students were asked to color, cut and assemble a paper turkey with each feather displaying one thing they are thankful for, the answers they came up with were far from simple and quite moving.

Of course many students put down the traditional "home," "family," "friends," and "pets" that have so often become the cliché responses to the timeless question of "what are you thankful for," there were a few students' responses that not only surprised me but made be begin to think that perhaps these students even at their young age may be more mindful and thoughtful than many of us are at twice there age.  The responses that surprised me the most were from those students who all too often in class seem to be the ones who cause the most trouble, speak out of turn, are too rough with their classmates, or challenge the teacher to explore and experiment with a wide variety of classroom management techniques and as a result, sadly often become the students who are seen if not at the bottom of the class surly towards the lower regions on the class expectation ladder.  However, it is preciously these students who through their thoughtful responses that reminded me that every student is a complex personality and in order to best reach those "challenging" students you must continue to hold high expectations for them.  Although I would love to display the work of all my students I have chosed a few of the more poignant ones to showcase.  As you read them keep in mind that these are not from college students, professors, or even adults but from 9, 10, and 11 year olds who were simply asked to think about what they were thankful for this year....

I am thankful for...

• "that I have such a cool culture" 
• "that my mom cooks me dinner every night"
• "that I am alive"
• "that my mom is alive"
• "that my dad is alive"
• "that God made me"
• "that I have not lost anyone I love"  (I later found out that this student experienced the death of a parent the year before)

So in the hustle and bustle that usually consumes this pre-Christmas season, may we all take time to stop, think, and really appreciate even the smallest things in our lives because as said by the students we should all be thankful that at least "I am alive."  

Once again, as has happen so often in this experience I started out teaching a lesson thinking that I would be the one imparting knowledge onto my students and it turns out that they were the ones really teaching me.  Teaching me what it truly means to be thankful.  It's not the giant dinner, the football games, the parades, and the sales that fill the stores the days surrounding Thanksgiving.  It is simply what the holiday is called "thanksgiving," taking time to simply give thanks.  No matter what form that may take, we all have so much (me especially) to be thankful for and simply taking the time amid the crazy commotion that fills the holiday season, the greatest lesson we could all learn.  

So to once again continue with the WALT (we are learning to) of the week:

Short and simple...

WALT give thanks.


May God bless you and all those you love in this holiday season and may we all be truly thankful for the many blessings in our lives.