Be the change…

My sister sent this video to me.  It is about 50 seconds long.  If we all started our day this way each morning, what would the world be like?

I guess it comes with age? I don’t know. Acceptance. I used to think as a human being, as a teacher, as a woman, as a wife, as a student, as a friend (those are just some of the roles I’ve played in life so far) I had so much more control over the people, places and things in my life. I’ve now realized otherwise. I don’t have much control and I need to just accept all the people, places and things for what or who they are. I used to be really bad at that, especially with people. My students and my husband in particular have really helped me learn a lot about acceptance and accepting everything and everyone for what it is or who they are. Thank you students and husband. You’ve taught me to surrender, relinquish control and know that ALL IS WELL.

And I thought so differently about acceptance after reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed. See short video with Oprah here. what Cheryl Strayed learned after hiking the Pacific Crest Trail

I completed a graduate program in 2010.  It was a MA in Spanish.  Appropriate because I am a Spanish Teacher, right?  It was a travel study program through California State University Sacramento that took me to Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and Spain.  It was a fantastic way to get my degree because I lived with families in each country, attended a university in each country and traveled around to experience the people, their traditions and culture. To finish the program and earn my degree, I was allowed to complete a project that I might be able to use in my classroom.  What a wonderful way to earn my degree!  The title of my project was All Children Speak the Same Language.  I chose that title because that is what I realized as I traveled from country to country.  I noticed that all children were the same everywhere!  EVERY WHERE!  No matter where you go, kids are kids.  They all speak the same language, just a universal language….that was all I knew.

My project was a video series that I made on a service trip to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic.  It was a video of the children there ranging in age from two to seventeen, talking about themselves, answering questions about their lives, playing and just being themselves.  I created a book to go along with it for teachers (ME) to use in my classroom, proving that all children are the same everywhere.  It was great because once I used it with my very affluent, privileged students here in the USA, my theory was proven.  My students has SO MUCH in common with these orphan children even though their lives are DRASTICALLY different.

A great friend of mine Bryson Adams was volunteering at an orphanage in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic, so I thought I would visit him and complete my project there because it was a Spanish-speaking culture I had not yet experienced, and thankfully my awesome professor, Jorge A. Santana permitted me to do it. I loved my experience in the Dominican Republic so much that I continued these service trips following my friend Bryson to Nicaragua to help the organization called Outreach 360 the following summers.  Each summer I spent helping other people and children, the title of my project was proved day after day.  All children really do speak the same language.

Even with this graduate degree, project and travels behind me,  I wasn’t sure exactly what that language really was until yesterday during my kindergarten class.  I couldn’t put a name to it until yesterday.  Yesterday I was able to name it – love.  It is simply love.  That is the language that all children speak to one another….most times with out any real “words” whatsoever.

It is March and we just got a new kindergarten student in class.  He does not speak any English, only Russian.  Most of the teachers here at my school were a bit apprehensive hearing that this little five year old was going to join us more than half way through the school year, but we knew we would make it work. He’s been in our school now for about two weeks and as far I know…. so far so good!

He doesn’t speak any English, just Russian and I am attempting to help him learn Spanish!  Hmmmm…I wondered how it would go.  I have had several students who come the first day of kindergarten class only speaking Korean, Chinese, Polish or Russian, but not one that comes more than halfway through the school year!

Yesterday was his first day in my classroom.  What was so amazing was that although he speaks no English at all, he has clearly already made some sweet close friendships with a few different little boys that do not speak any Russian, just English.  He was sitting next to, and clinging to, another little English-speaking boy in my classroom.  From time to time he would say something to his little friend in Russian and the other little boy would just respond with a head nod or a smile or a hand hold or a pat on the back or a shhhh quiet finger in front of his lips or just some simple eye contact.  It was adorable to witness these two sweet boys who could not communicate in the same official language, just loved one another and had a connection that required no language nor words. It was just all about love and the energy between them.  There is another little girl in my classroom who speaks English and Russian, but she has already grown tired of being his translator.

As class went on, they continued to “communicate” with one another.  One in English and the other in Russian and me in Spanish.  So funny!  They sat in front of me on the big classroom rug almost sitting on top of one another, they were so close.  At one point as I am teaching and singing and talking about colors and numbers in Spanish, the American student begins to pick his nose (a regular occurrence in Kindergarten, yes).  The new little Russian guy did not like that one bit and was shaking his own finger at him and scolding him in Russian.  The American kiddo immediately stopped picking his nose and they both came back to singing with me in Spanish.  It was hilarious.  We then went on to do a numbers and colors sorting activity at our tables with a book we’d read in Spanish, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle.  They each had a bag of M & M’s and had to sort their numbers and colors on a sorting mat with the animals from the book.  I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to help my new student understand the activity, so I just did what his sweet new little American friend did…I smiled, nodded my head and showed him lots of love.  When he didn’t exactly understand what to do with the M&M’s, I just told him to EAT!  He understood that, but did not want to until the other kids did.

I work in such a wonderful place.  I get to teach these darling little human beings every day.  I get to learn from them maybe even more than they will ever learn from me.  I’ve been studying to become a yoga instructor over the past year of my life.  Much of the teaching of yoga is about love and no matter who we are or where we come from, we are all love.  We are all connected.  I realized that as adults we simply forget this simple language that children speak so easily.  We forget to speak this language because of all that we have been through, or the stories in our heads and thoughts about one another or the sometimes angry world that keep up from this very natural language that we are all born with.  We are really all born with this language.  It disappears or grows and goes in and out over time.  I am so fortunate to have had these two lovable kids in front of me to remind me.  If only we could all hold on to it and know that it is the one and only true thing between us all.  LOVE.

Below are some photos I’ve taken on my trips or in my classroom of me or these children speaking their common language.  They’ll help remind me of this love.

I wrote a post earlier last month on the importance of music in my life right now and how I’ve just  relaized what an amazing effect it can have on me and all the people around me.  It is here if you missed it.

A wonderful friend of mine Liz Ciko teaches music here at my school.  She helped me put a song together to use in a music video with my 8th graders.  Here is what she posted on my blog post from before, “That is exactly WHY I teach music!!! I am happy someone gets how it can affect you in such a positive way. I am glad you do this with the kids…I don’t think anyone else does, and it’s SO SO SO important! Yay Lauren!!!”

I am not sure I really got what she meant until today.  I made two music videos with my 8th graders.  They are linked here in my school blog.  It was such a fun experience. I loved it and they loved it.  The videos are SOOOOOO funny and I cannot wait to make more music videos or just record songs in Spanish with my students.  What a difference it has made for me and the students!  I’ve always been a teacher who sings and dances to get her students going…but now I am using songs that my students like and are totally into… and then using them to teach!

Another wonderful friend of mine, Kelly Goldberg, told me a couple years ago (when I was STRUGGLING in a big way) to understand and connect with my middle school students…”Lauren, what about music?  Isn’t there some cool music in Spanish that might help you connect with these kids?”  At that point I was so far gone trying to understand my teenage students (don’t ever try to understand teenagers, just love them and make them feel understood), I thought, “Why the heck is she telling me to play music with them?  Like that would ever help….”  I was in such a frustrated place, I never though music could make a difference.

Thank you Kelly and Liz for your advice!  I have finally taken it and what a wonderful ride I am on in life right now.  I am singing on the way to school each day, I am singing and dancing to begin all my classes at school and now we are making music videos and hopefully will be recording songs in the future.  Music is such a wonderful way to connect, share, have fun, learn, etc.  Again, so simple!

What I’ve finally realized about myself as a person and as a teacher, is that I ALWAYS need to try new things and keep changing up what I do in my personal life and also change up what I teach and how I do it.  I am happier that way and thus a better teacher that way as well.

I’ve already blogged about this…but here I go again.  Short and sweet!

Thanks you to Angela Maiers for starting this movement, this revolution, this simple statement that is changing how some people think, do and act.

Oprah Winfrey ended her show after 25 years with this same message.  We all just want to know each day, and we all just want to feel like we matter and be validated (if possible) on a daily basis.

We began our school year with her TED Talk and then I added this idea to my classroom with my 6th-8th graders.  It is simple.  They take an “exit slip” on their way into my classroom (small scratch sheet of paper).  During class they write anything they want about themselves or someone else.  They write something that they noticed about themselves or someone else. They write anything that they noticed that day during class or throughout the day.  They drop the slip into a box on their way out and then we read the slips to begin our class each day.  It take about 2-3 minutes to read and is a great way to start each class period.

As most people know, 6th-8th graders are wonderful little human beings, but with hormones raging and their bodies changing…they can be a bit awkward and don’t really “like” anything ever in my classroom.  They forget their homework, they forget how to speak Spanish, they sometimes forget how to be the sweet, kind wonderful respectful human beings that I know them to be.  BUT the one thing they NEVER forget to do this year, I NEVER REMIND THEM, is to write their exit slip with some bit of information to make some one else feel like they mattered that day.  Its amazing.  They forget many other things, but they never forget to write some kind, thoughtful words on a scratch sheet of paper.

Here is what Oprah Winfrey posted to Facebook today.

Look at that!  Look at those numbers!  So many people were uplifted and inspired by quotes today because of one person!  So great, right?  Words!  They make a difference and thus affect our actions or state of mind.

I’ve always been a quote lover.  Throughout both high school and college, I carried blank journal books around with me so that I could write in any thing I read that was meaningful in any way to me.  I also wrote in anything that anyone said to me that I felt had meaning or that I simply wanted to remember.  I have so many of those books.  I never really knew why I did it.  It was just “a thing I did”.  Today I keep my quotes/poems/sayings I enjoy in my notes on my iPad.  I read and refer back to them whenever I need or want to.

One of the most meaningful things to me that Oprah said constantly on her show was, “When you know better, you do better.”  I think Maya Angelou said that to her.  So simple, so true.  I miss her show.

I am including my favorite poem/long quote that my favorite Spanish teacher, Señorita Knudson (I wish I could find her!) gave to me at the end of my sophomore year of high school.  I give it to my students now when they graduate after their nine long years in my class.  It is also listed in the “About me” section of this blog.  I think it sums up who I am.

Bits and pieces, bits and pieces.
People. People important to you, People unimportant to you cross your life, touch it with love and move on. There are people who leave you and you breathe a sigh of relief and wonder why you ever came into contact with them. There are people who leave you, and you breathe a sigh of remorse and wonder why they had to go and leave such a gaping hole. Children leave parents, friends leave friends. Acquaintances move on. People change homes. People grow apart. Enemies hate and move on. Friends love and move on. You think of the many people who have moved in and out of your hazy memory. You look at those present and wonder. I believe it is all part of a master plan. We move people in and out of each other’s lives, and each leaves his mark on the other. You find you are made up of bits and pieces of all who have ever touched your life. You are more because of them, and would be less if they had not touched you. Pray that you accept the bits and pieces in humility and wonder, and never question and never regret.  
Bit’s and pieces, bits and pieces.

-Anonymous