A beautiful moment happened in my classroom the other day. I keep reflecting on it and appreciating it.
We ended a unit last week, and the students had completed small research projects to share with each other. They were allowed to choose their presentation piece. Many chose Google slides shows, but some chose posters, iMovies, or just a prepared speech. My teaching partner and I were happy with any of those choices, we just wanted them to be able to share their knowledge with their peers. Now, we learned some things about the way we were teaching research, and we will definitely be helping our students learn to be better note takers in the future, but that is a different blog! On Wednesday, we witnessed a beautiful act of kindness in our classroom!
The third graders were being chosen randomly, and 36 of them had presented. They had listened to each other respectively and been a good audience. (yes- we took a few brain breaks!) The last boy was called and he had chosen to give a speech. He stood in front of his peers, said the title, and began to "freak out" a little. He began shaking his head and saying, " I can't do it. I can't do it." I went and stood next to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "Yes you can do it. I'm here with you". That didn't seem to help him. My partner teacher said, "We are all here to support you, no one is judging. We just want to learn from you. " She and I continued to try and calm him and get him to present to no avail. Suddenly a voice from the crowd, said, "what if we close our eyes?" We said, "let's try it!" and 36 heads went down with hands covering their eyes.
The student took a deep breath, and began. He read the whole thing and they all looked up and clapped for him.
I'm not going to lie. I think a tear welled up in my eye. The students went on to pack and clean up to head back to class for dismissal (as usual we were running late). I just kept reflecting on that moment.
What if we hadn't listened to that voice from the crowd?
How did they know what he needed when I didn't?
I'm so glad they felt safe giving an idea.
I'm so glad that he felt safe accepting it and went on.
I'm so glad he has this triumph to remember next time he has to speak in front of a crowd and to build on this success.
I'm so thankful for those sweet children supporting him. They could have been cynical, "we had to do it with people looking", but they weren't!
I'm going to keep that beautiful image in my bank of thoughts that I turn to when something is not going perfectly in class. I'm going to treasure this beautiful moment. I hope you treasure your beautiful moments too!
