It was more than Turkey!

"A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sorry, I missed class today and that I didn't get to see your presentations. But my students and I had a pre-arranged event. We hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the manamko at Guma Trankilidat; this is our 5th year to do so.

This quote is quite fitting for this evening for me because after the function, as we were waiting for everyone to be picked up, my students expressed their experiences and thoughts of this evening. They all seemed to feel good about themselves hearing that the residents of the home praising them for a job well done and how the made them feel "alive" again with our presence. The kids finally understood why they were there and that the residents really appreciated them visiting.

One girl asked me if we could come back and do this kind of activity again, she asked me this and then started to cry. She told me that she felt guilty and that she regrets not spending time with her grandparents. Another student also declared to the group that they aren' t going to take people and the passing days for granted anymore.

All in all, the emotions that spilled out today made me feel that I accomplished something different, something more than a number grade; that I had reached a new teaching standard/ method. So if you ask me what content standards I used today, I wouldn't just have 3 to justify the lessons learned - I used ALL of them!

In this video, President Napoleon is giving his thanks to us for coming. I sure hope it plays.