There’s a special language that exists between a teacher and
their students. This language grows and changes over the course of the days,
over the course of the year, and over the course of time with our students. As teachers, we need to learn this language,
and sometimes it is learned in the most amazing ways.
The Hero’s Journey
Life is a series of journeys. We never know where these
journeys will take us and who we’ll meet along the way. As teachers, we are
lucky enough to encounter people at various parts of their journey, one part no
more important than the other, but the impact we can have as teachers on that
journey can be life altering. This post is the story of one such journey and
the languages used to tell of this journey.
The Call to Adventure
People love stories and I thought what better way to engage
my students in the study of Greece than by examining their stories and myths.
We began the study by looking at an engaging TED-ed Original by Matthew Winkler
entitled, “What Makes A Hero”. video
Over the next few classes we discussed this and looked at
what the Ancient Greek considered a hero. My students were then given the task
of creating an “epic” poem about a journey they’ve been on, or a legacy they
want to leave behind. This would culminate with students sharing their poetry
to a global audience during the Second Annual Poetry Summit. What I got from my
students was more than I could imagine. There
were dozens of poems and journeys I could write about, but I chose this one
because it brought tears to my eyes, and truly shows the power of words.
Treasure
I’ve been blessed this year to have to amazing students in
my classroom who have been not only trying to learn the “social studies” part
of my classroom, but have been trying to learn English as well. They have
taught me much this year, most importantly, that there are no barriers to wanting to learn.
When I presented the task of writing a poem to them, they
struggled a bit, but when I gave them the option to write it in Spanish, they
beamed. And when I told them they would get to share it with students who were learning
to speak Spanish at a school in NJ, they couldn’t believe it. I won’t lie to
you and say the first attempt was magical and worthy of recognition. Initially,
they googled a famous Spanish poem and began to share that as their own. With the
help of the ELL teacher, I was able to communicate a very important lesson on
digital citizenship and plagiarism. We encouraged them to talk about the journeys
that they had been on. What one student wrote was nothing short of amazing, not
because of the literary devices or hidden message, but because of the story it
told.
It Touched My Heart
At 12:20 PM Dayana read her poem (1:28)
to the world. One of my other students read the English version that ended with the lines "with your help, I could go on". The poem told
the story of her journey from Cuba, the struggles she’s encountered, a
friendship she developed, and her hope for the future.
After Dayana shared her poem, the students in Raquel
Williams’ 8th grade class shared a poem by Cuban poet Jose Marti
Perez. As Dayana listened, I asked her if she understood, and she began to cry.
There are no words a teacher can use to describe the feeling you get when you
see one of your students cry. When I asked her what was wrong, she just shook
her head, smiled, and said “That touched my heart.”
“New Life”
There’s always more to the story, especially in middle
school. We talked more, she cried more, I gave her a hug, I cried a bit, and we
talked some more. Late in the day, she came by my room, looked in the window
and waved and smiled. What was said during that conversations between her, me,
and her best friend. If I told you what was said, I’m not sure you’d
understand. It was a combination of English, Spanish and that “special”
language that only teachers have.
