Together

A couple days ago a student asked if she could move to a table where she knew someone. I said of course: the flipped model doesn’t shine unless students trust their group-mates.

I chatted with her today for her intro assignment and she thanked me profusely. She said sitting by a familiar face, even if it wasn’t a close friend made all the difference. She even said the acquaintance messaged her the next evening and said she’s happy to work on calc anytime and told her never to feel bad asking questions.

Oh how my heart swelled.

I was just reflecting today on how I need to teach several of my kids to start relying on each other more and me less—especially in my large classes. And then this. A student telling me another student is encouraging collaboration outside of class time.

I mean…sometimes our prayers are answered right in front of us, in small glimpses, if we’ll only open our eyes.

Here I was, so worried that my kids wouldn’t quite mesh like I wanted them to, and then this.

*****

I’ve been calling the parents of my third hour roster to welcome them to the year. They’ve all been so grateful for the contact. There’s a script my school gave me about important upcoming dates and such, but it’s a whole lot of info and oftentimes people are driving when I call so I’ve been offering to just email those dates and parents have unanimously accepted that offer. So we end up just chatting for a bit, which I think was the whole idea of this assignment in the first place. Today I noticed several said things like, “You probably remember that I wrote about ____ in the parent survey…” (I send a parent survey out at the beginning of the year.)

It made me really grateful, for multiple reasons. First, that many of these kids have parents or guardians who take the time to fill out a survey and remember what they even said. Second, that they feel connected enough to me to share certain things and then to bring them up again. That’s the whole point of that survey—to connect me to parents (what parent doesn’t love to brag on their kid?). And that’s also the whole point of these phone calls.

I’ve been reading The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Both of these humble, inspiring men believe the world getting better. But that we also have a responsibly to keep moving it forward, to bring healing and restoration. They believe we do this by tuning into suffering—both our own and those around us. They believe gifts of joy are tucked into hardships—that growth only comes when we’re willing to open our lives to others.

While I haven’t gotten super deep with any parent, I think this is—in a very small way—what His Holiness and the Archbishop articulate so well. We move the world forward—toward Heaven, is my belief—when we connect with each other. We are wired for connection and compassion. We are made to take care of each other.

We belong to each other.