"Like A Dream"

I keep thinking I'll figure out the right way to start this blog post.
Like it will somehow come to me.

When I let my mind simmer in the past week, I often come back to this song from Shrek the Musical, "When Words Fail"

'When words fail

What will I do'

When words fail

How will she know how I feel'

When words fail

Will I fail too'

If you've never enjoyed Brian Darcy James as Shrek and this beautiful song about being awkward and awesome, I implore the reader to do just that (and google Freak Flag - chillbumps!)

It was in thinking about words, that I thought - well - my partner said, "Just tell the story of the day."

So.

Here we go.

If you need to get caught up on where the story began: Oh Ma' Yoga!!

On Wednesday June 6th, I waited anxiously ALL morning.

Would there flight take off okay?

Delays?

Would they get out of Boston okay?

Delays?

Was this going to actually happen?

I was reminded that EVEN if it were delayed, since it was an entire school surprise, it's not like anyone would be totally disappointed, lol, just me.

My partner and I chatted a little about being nervous that someone you've never actually met would be able to live up to the expectation you've built in your own brain, my response,

"Something tells, they'll be even MORE incredible than I've imagined."

My phone buzzed with an international number, and a few hours later, Jaime and her husband Martin were on the walkway to Newton School.

All my anxiety melted away and we picked up like old friends I guess, even though we were just meeting! A couple of hours later, they were sufficiently tired, ha, had a tour of our school, met some excited teachers and were on their way to dinner with their Agent, Elan.

And I knotted up my anxiety again with the surprise of tomorrow morning.

I should add - June 7th, their scheduled visit day was...
My Birthday!
Hooray!
AND...the scheduled visit of DESE to evaluate our Extended Learning Time program.

Pack it in.

The morning of June 7th was to play out something like this:

I'd pick my kiddos up outside at 7:50am - we'd rush inside for breakfast in the classroom and then I'd announce we were getting the ONCE in a lifetime opportunity to SKYPE with Jaime in England. She'd sent us a short video of not being able to hear us. 

So, picture me at 7:45 going to pick up my kiddos and hearing the cheeriest little kindergartner strolling past one of my students shouting, "HOORAY, today is the day we meet Jaime and do YOGA!!"

Most of the teachers stared at me devasted, but I smiled and managed to convince everyone we were just skyping.

We raced around getting our Newton Shirts on and getting ready to Skype.

At 8:20, Jaime and Martin arrived and I put them in the hands of Miss Welcome who is our building monitor and a HUGE Cosmic Kids Yoga fan!

She ushered them down to my room and waited for us to say the secret code word.

My class yelled it loud - and the door popped open!  It was tears and open mouths for the next few minutes while everyone caught their breath. Of course, since we're sassy and in 4th grade, they were all like, "I could tell that wasn't really skyping." :)

Martin filmed from their angle, and I captured ours - I hope to able to share both with you dear Donors and friends in an upcoming post.

And then, as if I had imagined it exactly right, they gathered at family meeting and asked a million and one questions.
And talked about what yoga was for them.
Camden and Zaire had been on a student panel and arrived back late, but just as excited as ever.

At 9am, my class went off to art, and I came back to help Jaime and Martin get set up in the gym for Kindergarten.
I was on a panel myself so I missed the actual kindergarten class, but I do know they were equally excited!

Jaime yoga-ed with every class.
Every student.
And to say it was a thing of beauty is an understatement.

I had a vision in asking Jaime to come and in planning the day.
What actually took place, exceeded every one of my wildest dreams.

It was a day of being seen.
Being loved.
Being Zen.

We lunched with Jaime, though I'm not sure how much she ate, considering so many of my littles were nose to nose with her the entire lunch.

They couldn't get enough.

We Q and A'd again at the end of the day and did a little more meditation.
And my gracious.
Was it ever lovely!

All day long in the halls of our little school, you heard,
"This is like a dream"
"I can't believe this is happening?!"
"Is this real?"
"She's really here?"
"I feel like I'm dreaming, I have to touch my face and I'm awake."

The lasting impact of her visit - well, it's days later, and the energy is still palpable.
My fourthies are filling out scrapbooks for the end of the year and of course, their favorite day is the one Jaime came to visit.
Mine too.

I am once again, dear donors, fellow dreamers and teachers, and framily, humbled by your support of this crazy big dream.

There are many things in our world that are hard
or are hurting,
sad,
and painful.

This.
This gift.
This dream.
Has cast such a vibrant light on love and kindness, the glow is still strong.
Thanks for sharing your kindness.

And to Jaime and Martin, who are, long before Ms. Witherell, the best sort of dreamers I've ever met, thank you both for dreaming YOUR big dreams, so that some random Thursday in the month of June, those dreams would meet the dreams of 240 students in a little school in suburban Massachusetts.

Ohm. Ma. Yoga!

When I was little,

I wrote a letter to Robert Newton Peck.

The author of the Soup series.

And I waited eagerly for a reply.

I got one.

I remember,
And felt so...seen.

---

When I was in college,

I went to hear J.M. Coetzee speak.

The Nobel Peace Prize Winning South African author visited our campus.

and I, of course, remember every vivid detail of shaking that man's hand and weeping.

---

I wrote a thank you letter to Tony DiTerlizzi,

Thanking him for writing books that inspire my students to read.

And that AMAZING man and his incredible wife...

SURPRISED ME, by visiting my students - just out of the blue.

#IsThisRealLife!

---

My 5th-grade teacher, Karen Willard, showed up at every play,

Show, Birthday, Graduation, etc, I ever invited her to.

She even surprised me this school year, visiting my classroom for community reader night.
(Special shout out for showing up 25 years after you had to)

---

All of these moments, these snippets into my childhood and adulthood - are memories of connection. A time when someone showed up for me.

Made me known.

Made me feel special.

Important.

As such, they've also stayed with me, through every step of my journey.

The good bits and the hard.

That I mattered to someone - made all the difference in my life.

---

But this is a story about something that hasn't happened yet.

And someone who lives a world away.

And about yoga.

And maybe more so - the power of the internet.

Several years ago, while teaching in inner-city Holyoke, I longed to bring yoga into my 3rd grade.
On some random weekend and not very deep into my google search, I stumbled upon Jaime and her site, Cosmic Kids Yoga.

As an adult, I was riveted by what she offered - chewable bites of kid-sized yoga that was engaging, movement-oriented and told through story.

As a teacher, I was hooked the first day I introduced it to my class.
And so were they.

I moved to Greenfield in 2013 and took a 3rd and 4th-grade looping position spending 2 years with the same class family. It has been a dream job, at the Disney World of elementary schools.

When I explained to my principal, Melodie Goodwin, that I wanted to add a 20-minute block of yoga to our daily schedule, she was on board right away.

As an extended learning school (our day begins at 7:30am and goes until almost 4pm) our students craved some "body-focused mindfulness".

Over the last five years, Cosmic Kids Yoga and Jaime who facilitates the yoga have become an integral part of our day and our class family.

This June, I will close the loop on the last two years of working with my students as they head off to middle school.

Early in the school year (our second together), a student asked a simple, but big question: Do you think Jaime will ever come visit?

Immediately, I responded that, while we've corresponded via email, sent her warm fuzzies and photos of the class doing yoga, that it was still, in fact, a long way from Manchester, UK to Western Massachusetts.

And this story could have ended here, with a class full of 4th graders who love doing yoga.

But the request itched at the back of my mind for some time.
I even drafted an email I left lingering in my drafts.

Subject: The craziest afternoon email of all time:

Jaime,

I have had - in my whirring teacher brain - this question that I've hesitated to ask...

So here I go: We'd LOVE to invite you and Martin to our cozy Newton School here in the States. I know that a price quote for that will probably be astronomical.;) But if I'm going to teach shoot for the moon, I better practice it...

Peace, laughter, and lots of namaste,

Jami

At the same time, our connection with our friends at DonorsChoose.org was starting to make dreaming big dreams possible.

DonorsChoose.org is an incredible organization that allows teachers to create projects/grants for their classroom supplies, professional development, and CLASSROOM VISITORS.

I wondered as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded professional development for me to Get My Teach On in New Orleans, and the Born This Way Foundation funded materials to make our classroom trauma ready if we could write a project to bring Jaime and Cosmic Kids stateside for the surprise of a lifetime.

I sent the email.

And waited.

But not very long.

The following morning:

Dear Jami,

What a glorious idea!! I love it! We would be honoured to come and meet you and your kids who are finding so much value in what we do. We would love to make this happen. 

Can’t wait to build this idea with you and will check in once I have some figures!

Huge love and namaste to you all!

Jaime xxx

Once I was done crying and envisioning what the day would look like, we set about emailing back and forth creating a quote for DonorsChoose.org

All totaled it was a BIG project at just over $3,000.

Never having designed such a big project, we broke it up into three smaller projects and prayed.

Several Cosmic Kids Yoga enthusiasts joined our amazing cause and we were on our way to raising the first thousand.

And just when you thought that was the biggest dream, something even more incredible happened.

DonorsChoose.org and it's founder, Charles Best had been working behind the scenes to make #BestSchoolDay come to life. With new friends at Ripple, they set about donating $29 million dollars and funding all 35,000 projects that were live on the DonorsChoose.org site that #BestSchoolDay.

Including ours.

#omg

#noway

#isthisreallife

And at 2:47am, I realized, Jaime was coming to Newton School.

I emailed her (thank goodness UK time is 5 hours ahead), with delight.

We are still in the planning stages, but we look forward to her visit on June 7th.

We're planning a tremendous surprise for my homeroom and then a day full of yoga for all the students here at Newton School.

I'm pretty sure this is a story about connection.

And how one small email can set into motion something incredible.

It's about friendship.

Learning.

Yoga.

And as I end, maybe it's more about learning and teaching to dream big.

To never stop dreaming.

About asking the impossible and figuring out how to make it possible.

I look forward to June, now, not just as my 35th birthday, but as a day I know my students will remember forever. The internet is a crazy amazing place, and when used for good can connect us to worlds away and people who bring epic goodness into our lives on a daily basis.

Overload.

I start this post in the

Middle of day one of Get Your Teach On,

In New Orleans

And y’all.

It’s a lot.

A lot of goodness

And gracious.

And a lot of loud.

And fun.

But, most of all, it’s just a lot.

To back it up a little bit, I should say,

I’m here with the help of DonorsChoose.org,

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,

And a lot of big dreams.

And like all dreams one can have,

Sometimes,

They are not what you expect.

Sometimes they are horrible.

Sometimes,

As is the case with GYTO,

They are better than anything you might have imagined.

This morning,

I texted my co-worker back in Massachusetts:

#overwhelmed.

And I’d only been here for about 30 seconds.

I wasn’t sure I’d make it past the morning breakout.

And I do so love a good breakout.

And meeting teachers from all over the US.

There are over 900 of us.

Most in groups.

So perhaps part of my overwhelmed status,

Comes from flying solo.

Which I do so love doing, but at the same time:

I miss my #brosquad.

My dudes.

My Mr. S. and Mr. P.

Boy howdy am I ever thankful for my co-teachers.

Lunch time has been exceptionally:

Helpful.

Not just sitting and eating, but,

If I may be so brazen,

In relative silence.

Love me sweet silence.

Now that it’s later in the day,

I am digesting a little more on WHY I loved lunch.

I teach 30 minutes of yoga each day.

We meditate.

We make time for trauma.

And calm.

And while it means something different to their

Little 4th grade bodies,

It also means something to my adult body and brain,

And today, my adult body and brain,

Were taxed to the ultimate max.

Up,

Down,

All,

Around,

A TON of

Call and Response.

And I needed some reset time.

To calm my body and my spirit.

And we got it.

And it made my afternoon,

Fun

Fun

Fun!

I got to chat with grades 2-3 about DonorsChoose.org,

Build burgers with Hope,

And be inspired by Wade.

The most important piece of this post?

Should you got to Get Your Teach On?

In the lyrics of Oleta Adams,

“I don’t care how you get here,

Just get here if you can.”

Because,

Y’all.

It’s better than your wildest imaginations.

Like:

Overwhelming

in the best kinda way.

That being said.

I’m exhausted.

Like little tiny baby tired.

And I’m really unclear on how all those presenters,

are going out tonight to run a book launch.

#energyforDAYS!

#jelly

#GYTO

#DAYONE

#Done