Wow! I've been waiting to share this experience until it was all wrapped up so that I would be able to express every single emotion that came with it. Before I tell you about the best part, I want to fill you in on what lead 50:1 is, and how this was all possible. Lead 50:1 is in its third year among Teach for America corps members and community members. These are young children in middle school and high school that are wanting to volunteer their time in service. A few chosen corps members have a scheduled month where they create a service project for these wonderful children to give back to their community. How lucky was I to be apart of this? I still am in a little bit of shock.
I stress the importance of kindness and giving in my classroom, and it's only right that I am living what I preach. For my project, I did not want it to benefit MY classroom or ME. I wanted everything to be for my kids, the true rock stars. I decided to go with a theme (everything always has to be in theme form for me) of giving. My class studied the book, The Giving Tree. When I was a kid, this was always one of my favorite books, so I guess things are starting to go full circle. We first studied the word give and created our own definition of what it meant and talked about how it made us feel. My kids summed it up way better than I could have, so here you have it in true seven year old fashion:
"Giving makes your heart feel so big."
"When you give, it makes you feel good."
"Giving means to get rid of things that you don't need anymore, like baby toys, and giving them to someone else."
"You can give hugs, love, and friendship."
"Giving makes you feel like a hero." (My all time favorite)
After this, we talked about the relationship of the tree and the boy. My kids went so deep with this, it was unexpected. I had a few students that were REALLY upset. They had time to talk to each other about what they thought of the book:
"All that boy does is want, want, want and gives nothing to the tree. I don't like that mean boy."
"The tree loves the boy so much."
"The boy is so greedy."
Finally, we talked about how we could give. We talked about how giving means more when you don't buy it. Even though were seven, we have so much to give. They came up with so many ideas:
Extra food
Hugs
Love
Smiles
High fives
Art projects
Friendship
Old toys and clothes
We then invited community members into our classroom and "gave" to them by making them bracelets. We learned about how we can make something and even though we want it, it feels so good to give it away. While they were busy making bracelets, the community members and kids had brought in clothes, blankets, shoes, toys, and so much more for the kids. In my initial request, I had mentioned that my goal was for everyone to provide used items that they cannot use, but can make my kids so happy. The idea was to teach everyone the cycle of giving, which ultimately is happiness. Let's just say, the community blew me away. When I walked into the room, it brought me to tears, literally. I can't really express every reason that I was crying. Part of the reason was because I love them with every ounce of my heart, another reason is because of their situations, and finally, because I imagined their grateful faces in their new clothes to keep them warm this winter.
Today was the big reveal, right before our thanksgiving break. I sat them down and talked about giving one last time. They discussed how it made us feel as people, and how important it is. One boy said that this thanksgiving, he wanted to wrap up his old toys and hand them out at his trailer park. Gosh, where does he come from? I did a lesson where I told them how when you love someone, sometimes you want to give them something (just like the tree), and I gave away a stuffed animal to my student. This student said they felt really good, but the lesson continued and they had to give it away. After he didn't have it anymore, he said "I feel good that I gave it away."
To wrap up the lesson, of course I surprised them with bags that were bigger than them. I was in pure amazement. It's so incredible how your clothes that sit in your basement or closet and bring you no joy, can make someone else the happiest person in the world. Thanks to amazing people, my kids will be cuddling up with a warm fleece blanket this winter. They were at recess with new jackets and tennis shoes and their smiles were unreal. They weren't greedy, and could not find anything negative in the situation, even one girl whose shoes were 4 sizes too big- yes she still wore them to recess.
They said it was the best day ever, and I hope it is one that they don't forget. I don't want them to remember it as the day they got presents, but the day that they learned how giving leads to receiving and complete strangers love and care about them. For the parents, I left a note inside to explain why I am thankful for their child and how they inspire me. I also wrote that sometimes unexpected situations happen and they cannot be explained, but I would love for them to accept this act of giving, and continue the cycle when their child outgrows it.
This whole day and service project opened my eyes to the meaning behind what I do. While I love being a teacher, what I love more is loving these children. I didn't have expectations of being a teacher, but I had big goals of loving students with all of my heart, however that needed to happen. I know that this experience happened for a reason and I am in Phoenix because that is where my heart belongs.
We have a saying in our class that we repeat, and it's one of our expectations for being positive people. A lightbulb turned on in my students head when he came up to me and said "Miss Abney, now I really do have everything I need."
With that- we ended the day with our saying, "We might not have everything that we want, but together, we have everything that we need."
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