I wrote a letter to Robert Newton Peck.
And I waited eagerly for a reply.
I got one.
I remember,
And felt so...seen.
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)
(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:
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
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.
