Operation Iraqi Christmas: A project within my project

While helping Aunt Tara and Sarina clean out their garage one Saturday morning, I received a call from my sister, Chaela.

Let me interrupt myself for a moment here and quickly mention that our dad is on a year-long deployment to Baghdad right now. Okay, interruption over!

She told me that she and Mom had been talking about doing what they titled "Operation: Iraqi Christmas," which is a little thing Chaela and I did for Dad last time he was deployed over Christmastime. What we did was send Dad a "winterization kit" that contained a dozen or so paper snowflakes, string, and tape, with instructions to hang the snowflakes from his tent's ceiling. After hearing about the struggles many of those working with Dad are facing, they thought it would be a nice little encouragement to send them a bit of white for their Christmas.

Chaela's additional idea was to have the WCS students contribute some snowflakes to send over. Aunt Tara loved the idea, and let me take a few minutes here and there between classes to explain the project to the kids and help them make snowflakes. They all had so much fun, and especially liked the idea that they could send something to someone so far away to cheer them up! I showed the younger kids a picture of my dad to help them realize that their little works of art were being sent to real people.


[Syrie, Santiago, Chris, and Koven wanted me to take a picture of their work.]


[I personally LOVE doing artsy-crafty type things, so I just HAD to add some snowflakes, too!]

In the end, I left Utah with 55 snowflakes in all. It was such a blessing to me to see everyone chip in with such enthusiasm!

Little Things

The first week of my project - the first few days especially - I noticed that the students I worked with all had that funny, antic-filled attitude whenever I was near. I recognized it from so many first-time babysitting jobs. The little bobbing head of messy hair and exuberant face begging me to run after them to see their bedroom, playroom, latest masterpiece, favorite toy. That was the sort of excitement I saw in these kids' faces.

Later, when I looked in the mirror as I brushed out tangles in my own hair before dinner, I saw that expression there, too. I could not wait to get back to the school building the next morning, see what new things awaited me - whether challenging or simple - and discover new things about the students and myself.

Then IT happens. By the second or third time babysitting, by the fourth or fifth day at school; when my presence is no longer a novelty, routine sets in. I see this more strongly in hindsight, how my aunt's students were easier to calm down after goofing off, how they weren't as distracted by my every activity during their lessons, and how I actually had to try to hold their attention when I was in charge of a class.

So it went for me, as well. No, the students never ceased to intrigue me. Rather, I noticed as I reached the middle of my second week that I felt more worn out than excited, and more like I was facing another day of School: 8-3:30 (teach, grade work, and monitor recess as needed), Tutor/Babysit: 3:45-4:30, Grade Papers: 4:00-5:00, Go Home and Make Dinner: 5:15ish... more that than wonderment at all that was taking place. Fortunately for me, my tasks were rarely dull and I had many opportunities to do new things, which certainly kept me on my toes! (I suppose that's part of why I felt so worn out.)

The little things were no longer fascinating in and of themselves.

This is one reason I am so thankful for the reflection points, whether I have been carrying them out the way I'm supposed to or not. After the school day was over, it was far too easy to go home and have dinner, do the dishes and play a game or complete extra grading or work out the details for tomorrow's lessons or watch a movie. It was far too simple to let my brain shut down and not consider the day and absorb what lessons I had learned.

The reflection points encouraged me to look into the day as it had passed and both laugh over the silly little things the kids had said or done, and contemplate what little and big things I had learned while teaching them.

I found that so many of those little things were huge.

Reflections #4

4. What (I) specific skills and (II) new knowledge did you apply/acquire through this experience?

(I) I admit that I came into this project with a slightly overconfident attitude where my abilities are concerned. That is to say, I figured this wouldn't be too challenging since I have worked and taught with my aunt before, am familiar with the main curriculum WCS uses, and I tend to mesh well with whatever kids I happen to be around. Well, I have definitely learned a lot about how a multi-grade classroom is run.

(II) One skill I believe I have acquired here is the ability to keep track of what's going on in the classroom with, say, the third grade boys while teaching a second grade class. I would call this a form of multitasking, but it is certainly a form I have never before dealt with as I have in my aunt's classroom.

One piece of relatively new knowledge I have applied is how to improvise in a classroom setting. This is something I learned mainly while teaching an art class in Papua New Guinea last summer: I had prepared a few well-rounded classes for the younger children, but realized at the last minute that none of them were really interested in what I had planned to teach them, so I quickly thought through what their teacher had mentioned would more likely interest them and proceeded through a rather successful class (if I do say so myself). Now - here in Utah - I have been able to put that knowledge to practice while teaching first grade classes. One prime example is from my first day teaching handwriting to the little girls. I hadn't considered before that I really didn't know what the handwriting they're learning is supposed to look like, and therefore did not know how I could teach them that handwriting properly. What was my improvisation? I had the girls teach me what each letter ought to look like! This turned out quite well, as they not only practiced the letters on their own, but they also had to think carefully through what those letters should look like.