~and so we invited the country to come and see us~

I hadn't planned to write this blogpost today.  It never entered my mind to do so, but after over 600 shares of a post I put on Facebook on behalf of my class of fourth graders at Newkirk Elementary School,  I felt it might be a good way to explain our request.

I'm one of those old school kind of teachers and having been in the business of education since August of 1979, well I guess it's to be expected.  At age 65 years old, I've seen it all as changes and new strategies in teaching came in and out of the classroom during the past 41 years.  I had to teach 2 years before women educators were allowed to wear slacks to school on a daily basis.  It was another 3 years before we could wear jeans on Friday.  I used to go home in the early days with blue ink from the mimeograph machine covering my hands and clothes.  Back then we did it all on our own without a notion of a classroom aid to assist us or a computer to take attendance on.  Teachers called parents on landline phones, wrote them letters, or simply paid a home visit when a question about a child came up.  Things changed as the decades went on for me, and now as a 3 times retired teacher who didn't know how to quit, in all of those changes there was one thing I knew for certain that would always stay the same.

There are good people all over this country who will do anything they can to help out a teacher and her class.  Let me say that again and please take these words to heart.

"There are good people all over this country who will do anything they can to help a teacher and her class."

I have found that out many times over the years and this year has proven to be no exception.

The business of teaching and learning has been a challenge this year in the times of this worldwide pandemic we are finding ourselves living through.  When I came out of retirement this past August to take the class of fourth graders at our school who needed me to be there, it was a little scary.  What would happen?  Would I have to worry about being exposed to and then coming down with Covid 19 simply because I was mixing in with a new group of people?  Would I be able to provide the kids with enough enriching experiences to prepare them for the next grade and even life beyond their young years?  Could I somehow put away my worries and fears, block out all the bad news and political bickering, and replace them with something fun and educational for kids at the same time?  What could I think of that would take our minds away from all of the chaos of the world and replace the noise with something memorable that the kids would likely never forget.

And that's how the idea of the postcard collection was born.

I wanted for the kids in our classroom to learn about our country and the wonderful people who live here.  My desire was for them to see beyond the confines of Kay County, Oklahoma and to realize that there was a big world out there for them to visit and experience one day.  Sometimes the concept of a place being referred to as a state is a bit hard to grasp when you are 10-years old, but if a postcard arrives in the mail from the Grand Canyon in Arizona, "The Bean" in Chicago, Illinois, or the Statue of Liberty in New York City, well then geography begins to take on a whole new meaning.  

Our classroom had hoped to gain a postcard from each of the 50 states of the country we call "home".  I didn't know how we would do it but I figured if we asked for assistance, that help would be on the way.  I would have been thrilled to at least find a card from each state by the end of the year.  In that way, I could divide them up amongst the kids on the last day of school.  The good Lord willing, we now might have a few more postcards to share with each of the kids in class.  

To those who have seen our post and shared it with others, we thank you so much!  To those many good people who might be willing to send us a postcard, your help is invaluable and much appreciated.  You are helping me teach a lesson not only about the 50 states of the U.S., but you are also teaching my kids a life lesson about the goodness of strangers.  You are showing them what human kindness looks like.  And in a world full of despair and heartache, can you imagine what it would be like if everyone did that every single day?



 We are a small Oklahoma town, one that is filled with uncommonly good people who work hard each day to provide for their families, neighbors, and even those they do not even know.  Folks take care of one another here on the Kay County prairie.  My 4th grade students haven't had the chance just yet to get out and see the world, but I'm positive that some day they will do just that.  And since the kids aren't able to see all the places in this vast country at present, we did the next best thing.  We invited "the country" to come and see us.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

As We All Hang on to Hope/Along the Road to Home

Image
The birds were singing in our neighborhood this early February morning.  The resident Northern Cardinal called out from the tops of the trees in our side yard to any and all who would hear it.  The Cedar Waxwing, House Finch, and European Starling joined in the chorus as well.  It was so nice to hear their voices as I stood on the front porch breathing in the fresh air.  It gave me hope that someday soon all the many birds will return as the weather and the calendar move closer to spring. We hang on to that hope. For the past month, during these horribly cold days of January and winter, I have been trying to get some spider plants to start in the south kitchen window.  Slowly I watched their roots develop, getting bigger and stronger every morning.  I knew it would be time to soon take them from the water and transplant the tender young plants into soil.  I wasn't really expecting to do it this morning, but the weather brought us more tolerable tempera...
Read more

From the plains of Oklahoma, along the road to home

Image
It's early, in fact it's 4:30 a.m. in the morning early, here along the plains of Oklahoma.  The house is remarkably quiet save for the once in a while snoring sound of Gus, our 7-year-old miniature Aussie dog.  I love the quiet and every chance I can, I sit in it and relish the gift of peace that it offers to me.  Soon enough the sun will arise, cars will wake up on the streets of our town, and children will venture up and down Magnolia Avenue on their bicycles as they yell back and forth to one another. The gift only lasts so long so I enjoy it when and while I can. Many years ago, I began blogging right before I left for the Bike Across Kansas in the summer of 2011.  Writing turned out to be something I really loved to do and so I continued during the summer.  In August of 2011, a really poor decision made while I was riding a bike ended up sending me to the hospital with a badly broken left arm and wrist.  The recovery was a long one, punctuated by nume...
Read more

~and I came here to stay~

Image
I learned something about myself as a teacher and a person during the first 3 days of school last week, and the something is this. "I have a plenty to learn." I have wanted to be a teacher for Ponca City Public Schools   for well over a year now.   I wanted to come here because I knew it would be a great opportunity to grow and change as a teacher.  With a quite limited number of years left as a public school educator, I didn't want to waste the chance to be able to help kids in any way that I could.  This particular district offers a tremendous amount of support to its staff who in turn are able to pass that support on to the children they teach each day.  I like that about being here, and it is a win-win  for all concerned. I definitely learned a lot during the first three days of school, and some of it was the hard way.  It's a humbling thing to be a veteran teacher of 40 years now and find yourself making mistakes that others who have bee...
Read more