Since January 27, it's been on my to-do list to revive this blog. SO, though my time is perhaps better spent creating a unit plan for our Habitats study, or adapting our book for next week (it's Alexander Calder and mobiles!), or or or -- I'm going to write briefly about an idea that has been knocking around in my head.
About a month ago, our bilingual theater, Teatro Paraguas, hosted Albuquerque-based Working Classroom and their production of Blank Historias. The first part of Blank Historias was storytelling -- the audience picked a theme, and then we were free to come up and speak for five minutes at a time about it. The ensemble of actors, made up of school-age students, listened closely and took notes. Then, after a 10-minute 'intermission' of sorts, they presented a gestural, imagistic piece of performance art. There were cell phones and lit up exercise balls and toy cars and fabric that turned into the sea. It was pretty inspired, and beautifully rendered. The experience was made even more powerful by the fact that one of my student's grandparents were there - another granddaughter was a performer that night.
Our topic was "overcoming adversity." As I listened to inspiring stories about moving across the country and eating well and taking on leadership positions, a thought came to me: We cannot overcome adversity without the grace of others.
I had been having a really hard week. Heck, I've had a hard year - due to my friend and colleague quitting in November, there was suddenly a vacancy in the Spanish-language 3-year-old class. I had been teaching a bilingual medically-fragile classroom, but the new teacher hired was not Spanish-speaking. So, I was moved classrooms and positions, my medically-fragile English speakers stayed in my old classroom, my 4-year-olds were shipped off to the 4Y classrooms, and the 3Y Spanish-speakers moved with me. Disruptive is an understatement. Perhaps you understand the extended radio silence? I had to rely so heavily on my friends and family (you know who you are and thank you) -- and also on the small moments of beauty and kindness that I had to fight to see some days.
Anyway, I was struggling to feel anything more than a kitten with its claws stuck on the screen, anything more than keeping my nose barely above the current. (I still have days like this.) I didn't feel very prepared to speak about overcoming adversity.
So I talked about my kids, and how they overcome adversity every day. I got up on stage, and alternating between English and Spanish, I talked about my wild and wonderful littles. "Como que hacen todas las maestras, voy a robar las historias de mis estudiantes. Empezaré con el concepto de que no podemos superar la adversidad sin la gracia de los demás."
As I'm wont to do, I meandered conversationally through a few anecdotes -- but I had been really moved, I realized, by something I had seen that day in our indoor play gym area (called "Choices"). A student of mine was playing in Choices in the little play store. She has Down Syndrome, and is just beginning to engage in cooperative play. A year ago, she couldn't walk. So we were both excited about her play schema. She was hawking her wares, shuffling around pots and pans and pulling money out of the cash register.
A friend of hers came over. This kid. This kid creates fabulous dramatic play sequences as a magical dog; he's curious about everything; he's precise, observant, and just generally advanced for his age. He surveyed the contents of the store, greeted his friend, and asked "¿Me das la jirafa, por favor?" Indeed, there was a giraffe puppet on one of the shelves.
This gave the little girl pause. She didn't understand "jirafa" yet. But she wanted so badly to do this transaction thing right. She looked around, said "sí," and handed him -- a plastic toaster. It was his turn to take a moment; he studied the toaster, studied her, and gave another glance at the out-of-reach giraffe. Then he smiled. "Muchas gracias, amiga." And he went on his way.
To overcome adversity, we all need the grace of others.
Hasta pronto ~
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