Friday, November 22, 2013

That's My Sister!

Today was an unusual day.  We had the first school-wide assembly of the year.  We're going to have one every trimester.  Given that the end of the trimester is rapidly approaching, we had the assembly today, since we didn't have much time left to have one.

We started off the assembly with a prayer.  As always, we invoked Saint John Baptist de la Salle, the French priest who did so much to further education in France 300 years ago, and who founded the tradition of Catholic schools to which we belong.  We implored him to pray for us, as we also did at the close of the assembly.

After the opening prayer, we had the students compete in several groups.  We quizzed them, including about facts they had learned in Social Studies, Math and Science classes.  They were excited to compete against each other. 

But before we got to the contest, we teachers handed out awards to the youths we teach in our particular 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes.  Students received certificates for excellence in Social Studies, Science, Math, Literature and Writing.  Students had also voted to decide which of them was the most supportive of his or her fellow students, which pupil motivated others well, and which student was the most organized, in addition to which children have taken other positive approaches at school.  We also recognized particular students for reading in class in a loud voice.

I was enjoying hearing students' names being called, and I was liking watching children walk up to receive their certificates.  Partly I was feeling satisfaction in seeing these young scholars get these awards because I know that some of them have expressed that they wanted to be academically successful, but some of them have seemed to doubt that they could excel in their studies.  After seeing them apply themselves to their work, I felt joyous over their achievement, their advancement, their betterment of themselves.  As I saw students stride up to receive their awards, my eyes grew watery as I repeatedly felt happy for them. 

Given that I was taking in the recognition of these students in this emotional context, I was primed to feel especially touched when one particular boy spontaneously shouted in excitement when his sister won an award.  When her name was called, he proudly cried, "That's my sister!" 

It was delightful to hear his unrestrained enthusiasm and show of affection and love for his sibling, partially since he was cheering her for her intelligence, her motivation, her application of herself and her academic accomplishments.  I do indeed literally pray that I am contributing to such intellectual growth and development in these youths.  I hope that I am helping these students to progress and learn.  I hope that I can be partly responsible for causing children to extemporaneously call out in praise of their siblings.  If I can, hearing such cheer will certainly serve as a reward. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Willingness

In the last couple of weeks, the Director of Student Life approached me again to check in with me about coaching basketball this winter.  I'd barely gotten words out of my mouth when he said that they had more than enough people to coach, so that they didn't need me to coach.

I'd been wondering how I'd have enough energy to coach.  I'd attended some of the kids' late season fall soccer games, and, as a result, felt not prepared enough to teach on the days following the games.  Consequently, I'd wondered how I'd be able to coach.

Perhaps it wasn't about me actually coaching.  Maybe God only wanted me to truly be willing to do it.  Once I'd honestly said I'd coach, perhaps that was all He had been wanting of me.  Maybe sometimes God just wants to see that we are willing to do more than we think we can do. 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Teaching Immigrants And Feeling A Little Like One

I'm sitting here planning a lesson for the Seventh Grade Literature class I teach.  In Literature class, we're about to start reading a story about a Mexican boy and his father who sneak into the U.S.  All of the students in this Literature class are Mexican-American, so they were interested when we started talking about how we're going to be reading this story about immigration. 

As I was just sitting here planning this lesson, I thought of how, so often when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, Moroccan students would tell me that they wanted to come here to the U.S.  Now that I'm back here in the U.S., I find myself considering the desirability of living in the U.S. from a different vantage point, both for myself and when considering students I teach.  At least one of my current students arrived here in the U.S. a couple of years ago.  I used to teach children who wanted to come to the U.S.  Now I'm teaching students who have made it to the U.S.

As I write this blog entry, I am realizing that I am in somewhat analogous of a position to those of my students who have come here to the U.S.  While there are many significant differences between them and me, nevertheless, like them, I too used to live in another country; I longed to come to the U.S.--in my case, to return to the U.S.--to enjoy living here.  And now, like those of my current students who had wanted to come here from a foreign country, I too came here from a foreign country and am now enjoying the benefits of living here.  And like them, having lived in another country, I can appreciate the blessings of living in the U.S., having the perspective of what it's like to live elsewhere.  Having lived without what I have here in the U.S., now I am much more thankful to God for so many blessings.