When Laurie knew Annie was going to be around, she asked if we'd both like to come to her fifth-grade class at Farmin School and help with her Native American art projects. So, that's how we spent our rainy Friday afternoon. The teacher and older sister appeared in the teacher's classroom, along with the niece and former student to both.
How's that for confusion? I taught my sister Laurie for three years in high school. She's been teaching for 20-plus years. One of her students at Farmin School, when she taught sixth graders, was her niece, Miss Annie Love. Later, one of my students at Sandpoint High School was Miss Annie Love, my daughter. So, we enjoyed an educational family reunion of sorts and got to know Laurie's students.
The projects included beadwork, basket weaving, mask-making and coloring. Thankfully, Sharon Gunter, the art teacher, volunteered her expertise in basket-making, which is definitely the hardest of the four disciplines. About a third of the class drew the honor of the looms and started their beadwork by drawing patterns, establishing color schemes and then poking themselves or the beads with sharp needles. Laurie was pleasantly surprised to learn that the kid with the messiest desk in the room has a special knack for the beadwork.
I helped a couple of students glue their mask parts together and fooled one into thinking she had glued my finger to the mask. I always have to remember that ten-year-old's figurative thinking skills are not quite developed yet, so I kept my sense of humor and fetish for teasing under control. A couple of the shy kids smiled, though, and seemed to like the old woman's yakkity yak as we worked on color choices for the Indian symbols.
Annie supervised the beadwork patrol, while Laurie moved around the room, helping wherever needed. The two hours went by fast. Soon the kids were cleaning up their materials, loading their back packs and lining up to head out the door for the weekend. It was amazing when Laurie assembled their work on the classroom counter how much they'd accomplished as a class.
I enjoyed an added benefit when another of my former students, Lisa Thompson Green, who took up teaching later in life, came in for an after-school visit. We caught up on our kids and what they're doing. I learned that her son lives in the same part of Seattle as Annie. He's an engineer for Boeing. Lisa has always been a fun conversationalist and thinker; I can remember those yearbook deadline nights years ago in Room 4 when we'd work on page layout and gab way into the night.
It felt good to go back to a classroom. Laurie offers me those opportunities from time to time, and they somewhat satisfy the one void I feel as a retired teacher----my connection with kids. It's very sad to go to the grocery store these days and not know all the courtesy clerks by name. My association with Sandpoint's young people for the better part of my life was definitely something I took for granted until I walked away from it three years ago.
Yesterday's experience helped remind me of the spontaneity that often comes from working with kids. Fortunately, those occasional visits keep that association magical because I don't have to see them in all their moods on a day-to-day basis. Call me a school marm grandma!
1 comment:
Your sister should also invite your mother in to talk to her students about her "growing up" years...I once invited my father into Joseph's fifth grade class...and he had those kids sitting on the edge of their chairs as he spoke about wearing "knickers"....Papa Bal was born in 1921...so he had quite a few stories to tell them!
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