It's moments like these that make me LOVE my job!

We had planned a school trip to Costa Rica for spring break.  Originally, it was going to be my colleague MaryBeth Johnson and I as chaperones of the trip.  Unfortunately, as the trip neared it became obvious that for me to go on an 8 day trip right now would be extremely tough on my family.  (I have 3 small kids and the realities of 8 days away weighed in). I gave my place away to another colleague Mollie.  Although I missed the trip myself, I LOVED hearing the stories from the kids today when they got back.

We spent the better part of 3rd period listening to stories from Robert and Jason, two of my level 2 students that went on the trip.  Since we are currently reading Robo en la Noche, it was great for the class to get to hear all about the country, culture, the millions of translations of the phrase PURA VIDA, etc from their classmates instead of me.

The first "teacher high" that I had was this conversation:
Me: So, boys...did you find yourselves able to speak a lot of spanish?
Jason: Oh yeah!
Robert: OH MY GOSH!  We were speaking like fluent Spanish. (BTW They were not speaking fluent Spanish, but I absolutely LOVE that he thinks they were) ...It was SHOCKING!!! Like every time that I needed a word it was right here [points to forehead] I would pause and think I need to say this word...and then I realized OH I KNOW HOW TO SAY THAT!!!

Hearing this from them was better than any pat on the back I've ever received from a supervisor! 

It was SO awesome to hear the boys talking about all their adventures, describing the host mother's cooking, the adventures on the suspension bridge, the experience volunteering in the animal sanctuary, their newfound appreciation for paved roads :), etc.  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I had probably the best 30 seconds of my entire teaching career...

The bell rang and as the students filtered out, I noticed Robert was kind of lingering as I arranged some things on my desk. Then he cleared his throat, shuffled his feet a little awkwardly, and spoke.

Robert: Um, Sra. Rivera, I felt bad that you didn't get to go because I know you were really looking forward to it.  So, I got you this...

He reached in his backpack and pulled out a bracelet that he bought at one of the markets in Costa Rica.  Here is my new favorite piece of jewelry EVER!  Seriously, I think I will treasure this bracelet for the rest of my life.

Developing CARING learners for the 21st Century

Developing CARING learners for the 21st Century

...this is our district goal.  It's on our website...in our pamphlet...maybe even on our stationary.  I recently examined my role as a teacher supposedly trying to reach this goal.  As I reflected, I had to admit that YES, I do quite a bit to prepare my kids for the 21st Century, YES, they are learning quite a bit of Spanish, but caring....hmmm, do I make efforts to develop them as CARING learners? Well, I won't let them be outwardly mean to each other...but do I show them what caring looks like? 

Today we took the first part of class for a little bit of "Character Ed."

What we did:

I set up the activity by handing each kid a square of scratch paper and told them to get out something to write with.  I further set up the activity by telling them "There is only 1 rule... you must all remain silent while we watch the video..I know you will want to talk when you see this video, and I promise to let you react..but at first we want everyone to see the entire thing, so rule #1 Remain silent during the video."

Then I showed this video..if you haven't seen this video before and you work with teens, get a tissue ready:

1. I paused the video at : 40  seconds in and have the students write #1: The initial impression of this team is...
2. We continued  watching the video.
3. I paused the video again at 4:00 and have students write #2: The most obvious lesson to be learned from this video is...
4. We continued watching the video.
5. After the video is finished, we wrote #3: Another/secondary lesson to be learned from this video is...
6. Then they had 45 seconds to share out within their groups (I think this stair step is really important when trying to get critical/reflective thinking from students..let them have time to figure out their answers themselves, then share in a small group before sharing out in large group. This almost always helps the students feel more courageous and will get you a better class discussion.
7. After discussing in groups, we discussed as a whole class.
8. Finally I asked them to turn over their papers and respond to this prompt: If Jonathan was a student at SHS, how do you think he would be treated if people had never seen this video?

 Here are a few of the reflections from my students: