Category: Humour

Saudade – Night Skies & Inner Worlds

Saudade, Fernweh, or Anemoia?

I wanted to spend two hours admiring the November colors. It has been a beautiful few days with the weather cooling down, clouds providing beautiful skies. Yet, on recent walks, I found myself on walks as Thoreau would put it, ‘taking the village with me’.  Thinking of human follies, triumphs, setbacks, wisdom and the lack thereof, behaviors, grief, love, friendships, and so much more.

It is true that my recent walks haven’t been long enough for the human mind to ponder and wonder about the world around me. Not enough to listen to the bird’s call, or the brush of a leaf fluttering down upon me. They have been snuck in 10 minute intervals, just enough to pull my head out a little, but not enough to give me nature’s perspective which is always more expansive, forgiving and sensible.

I missed it all. I missed something that I could not name. Was it saudade (a bittersweet longing for something or someone), fernweh (longing to explore a faraway place), or could it just be anemoia (nostalgia or longing for something you never actually lived through)

The tug of an astrophile

The daylight savings time has already kicked in, which means that  the sun has been setting early. I am not a fan of this in general as I admire sunsets more than I probably should. Usually, I swap the sunset out with star-gazing, and my phone’s Skyview app is a constant companion.

So, last night, I decided to set off around our community. It had been too long without me gazing at the familiar Orion’s belt in the winter skies. I started off thinking of this world, our world, my much smaller world as usual. But then, slowly, I made myself look up, feeling the familiar tug of the astrophile in my gut.

How many worlds are out there? What are their atmospheres like? How must it feel to gaze at multiple moons from a different planet?

To be a Star!

Slowly, my eyes roved to all the familiar constellations and bright stars in the skies.

We all want to be stars in our lives but what must it be like to be an actual star? Burning bright, always shining. The nuclear fusion processes providing the energy, igniting more. How do the stars sustain their fusion processes to keep burning? I am sure we were taught all of this in school, and yet when I stop to think of it, the scientific processes are not as keen as the wonder. Maybe that is the beauty of the universe.

Each question just enough to open a quantum tunneling loop into which we can disappear for hours on end, finding ways to ignite fusion processes in our thoughts. The universe is really a fascinating place.

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.

— Bill Watterson

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently. #calvinandhobbes inspired tees in store now. Store Link in bio. COD Available XS-2XL Sizes

When I stepped back into the house, I felt refreshed, but felt the immediate pull of duty too. How quickly our inside and outside worlds swap in and out of our thoughts?

The stars do not think, do they? Why should we?

🍁🍁🍁 Summer collapsed into Fall 🍁🍁🍁

🍁🍁🍁 Crunch Party!  🍁🍁🍁

I love Novembers. The weather finally starts to cool down. Crisp days with a nip in the air, mean the leaves are crunchy beneath our feet, and I find myself smiling as my feet go towards the dried falling leaves of fall.

“Crunch party!”, I say to myself in that sing-song tone of voice I used to use with the children when they were younger. The other day, the son came on a short stroll with me, and he said, “You know, I say – ‘Crunch Party!’ when I am running with my friends and land up crunching the leaves as I run.”

It isn’t something most parents would be proud of, but somehow that made me proud.

I used to ask them whether they missed me at school when they were younger, and after the first few days in school, the answer changed from a commiserating hug as they knew I was missing them to a shrug to an eyeroll to a look that clearly meant ‘Are-you-for-real?’ So knowing that he thought of our sing-song silly rituals of ‘Crunch Party!’ as he ran with his friends made me feel happy.

🍁🍁🍁 Neighborhood Reds 🍁🍁🍁

The other day, the daughter told me to send her pictures of the colorful trees in our neighborhood, and I was thrilled. The day was cloudy and the leaves against the dull greys made for excellent pictures. That every evening it started to rain, and off I went with an umbrella. Rain and eucalyptus scented earth with red, yellow and maroon leaves fluttering down is sublime.

When I stepped into the house only slightly wet and wind-blown, I was greeted by a wet son who had run in the rain. I sent the daughter pictures of the leaves and she sent back a smiley.

“Just like that summer collapsed into fall!” I said, as I collapsed on the sofa with a cup of tea in my hands, and thinking of Oscar Wilde’s quote.

The Rich Web of Love

Is Love Rational?

“Is love ever rational? If it were, half of literature and human history would not be there, would it? “

That’s what I wanted to tell folks who asked me a question about human history and some famous figures’ marriages. But of course, brilliant repartees are not my forte, and I thought of it on my evening walk instead. A wood duck was so amazed, it flew right past me letting me know what it thought.

Sigh.

I know people would choose to use time-turners for more important things in life, but I just think I would use them for things like this. Go back in time and give a cheeky retort, dazzle people with my blunt opinion, say what I mean etc etc. Always the little things.

This natural tendency of mine: ‘Least said, soonest mended!’ does not always seem to make me happy.

Love’s Strange Mark

Even as I teach history lessons in my classroom , I wonder how love’s arrows pierce and change the course of history.

  • Did the conquerors want to impress someone?
  • Did the soldiers fight especially fiercely because they wanted to go home to their loved ones?
  • While you are reading about the conquistadors making their way through American Indian territories, you wonder how many stories of Pocahontas took place in those faraway times. How did they affect political alliances, did they make the conquering armies more humane?

Then, as is said in Jane Austen’s adaptation of  Mansfield Park:

“There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time.”

How do you list out all the kinds of love that hold human-beings together?

The Different Kinds of Love

Watching the election updates unfold on television, I wondered the same thing. What were the motivations of all these people who chose to fight the good fight. Love for your community? Love for your country? And through it all trying to foster a sense of belonging and making history all at the same time.

We did a small presentation for the children in our classroom. We did not need to go into Republican and Democratic Party lines, we just needed to tell them about all the ways in which history was made that night. How many firsts? How many more people who get to hope, to feel they belong, or be heard and seen.

That is not even going to the kinds of love not involving human-beings. Love for nature, animals, pets.

We really are a complicated species being pulled and pushed, sustained and nourished, by a rich web of love.

To that, I am grateful.

October Boooos

October Boooos:

October in corporate environments were hectic for different reasons (buckling down towards year-end goals, planning for the next year’s goals, keeping an eye on the market for seasonal trends prior to holidays, elections, and whatever the rest of the world wants to do.)

October in schools is hectic for different reasons, as I am coming to learn.

We have settled into the rigors of the curriculum, but the children are distracted with a hundred promises of candy, halloween, field trips, fund-raising and all the rest of it. “That’s the nature of it. “ I hear veteran teachers sigh in the staff room as they know in the midst of all this activity and excitement is also the expectation to have the report cards ready.

Candy Marches & Spirit Weeks

So, they march on bravely inducing the children to take on fractions to gain a candy salad on Halloween, or to answer a tough question with the promise of a small halloween treat from the treat bag.

The children, for their part, play along with everything. It really is fun to watch them come to school with ridiculous hair-dos for spirit week, lounge in pajamas, play bingo with math, create puzzles with social studies, and do science experiments. Somehow, the teachers make learning happen through it all, as I learnt on our field trip.

Museum Visits

We had been to the Oakland Museum to catch a live performance on the Dia Dos Los Meurtos (Day of the Dead). It was a wonderful performance with the artists calling on the children from the different schools to come and participate in the program on stage too.

Afterwards, we were free to explore the museum’s history, art, and natural history sections.

The boys seemed inordinately interested in spinning their fortune wheel during the California Gold Rush and seeing what they’d get.

  • “Man! I die of cholera!”
  • “I want to strike rich!”

Some of the boys were most enamored by the bean-bags near the entrance of every floor. They begged to flop on it from various vantage points and tried to see the world from there (upside down, sideways). I tried telling them that the bean-bags weren’t actually exhibits and were only meant for a short respite after roaming the remaining sections. But they good-naturedly ignored this.

We bundled them all up and came back to school only to buckle up for non-stop Halloween fun today.

Learning Goals

I have always respected good teachers, and having a close view to how they do it all has only increased that feeling. They try their best, keep learning fun and alive, and hope it all sticks. Sometimes, it does, sometimes..well, the children only want to play with the bean-bags.

Did you know about Mawsynram?

The first rains of the season were here last week.  I shook my umbrella out and let the children dash into the classroom well before the bell rang. 

Mawsynram – not Cherrapunji

“Thinking of folks in Mawsynram?” I said, smiling to a girl who was looking for a place on the carpet to set her wet umbrella. 

She gave me a big smile. The kind of smile that lights up at the recollection of something we had learnt the day before. 

The previous day we had started a new unit on water. After learning about what it takes to be an ecologist in Yellowstone National Park, we were setting our sights on water.

“We are going to be hydrologists!” I said, trying to enthuse the class into learning about water. They moaned. I groaned. “Must you kids moan for everything?!”  

“Yes!” they chorused. I ignored this and set about infusing enthusiasm into the class. “Today, we’ll go to Mawsynram – the wettest place on the planet. All the way to India!” I said. Though, even as I was saying it, I remembered answering a general knowledge quiz as a girl: “What is the wettest place in the world?” “Cherrapunji!”

Apparently, Cherrapunji relinquished its spot to Mawsynram a few decades ago. A fact that would have been cause for much excitement in the younger me. But these younger ones were waiting for me to go on and I did. 

The lesson went on – an interesting article on how folks in Mawsynram clothed themselves in full body raincoats made of bamboo and banana leaves. The children were interested enough by the end, though how much they would retain I would know only later. 

A Rainy Day

The day was beautiful. The rains were scheduled for the whole day and I joined the children in peeking out the door every now and then. 

“Have you been in a hailstorm?”

“Have you seen a landslide – just with rain?”

“Have you worn a bamboo raincoat?”

Have you this and have you that? 

I indulged them as best as I could, enjoying their obvious delight with the rains. I thought they might miss their regular outdoor recess time. But they seemed content to play indoor games and said it was wonderful to sit and watch the rain. 

I agreed. 

It was magical to watch.

Mawsynram or the Sahara?

When they had to go to lunch, they moaned at being asked to leave the cozy classroom. I laughed, well aware about these trends in enthusiasm.

“Mawsynram not looking so good now, huh?” 

The ones who remembered the raincoats made of bamboo and banana leaves lit up. 

“I want to make a raincoat with banana leaves.”

“I just want to be a boabab tree in Africa – I never have to drink water again.”

Off they went, chattering in the rains. It looked like they had not listened. But a little rain told me they did. 

I smiled. 

What About Your School?

The joys of aging in a digital age

The son flopped on the bed, and gave me a commiserating look. I had a harried look on my face. I had just come back from university after a full day of teaching, and was surrounded by my course materials, some student books for grading, and looked like a demented owl looking for her sunglasses.

“Looking for your glasses or phone?” He said astutely, and I felt a little laugh gurgled up at that. He was right – I was always looking for one or the other. Talk about the joys of aging in a digital age.

Read Something?

“Well – Amma. How about I read you something while you look for whatever it is this time?”

I mumbled and groaned at the same time. “I would love that, but don’t you have work to do?” I asked him. It was 10 p.m. on a week-day night and most nights, he is busier than I am. High schoolers.

“I do….but let’s do this.”, he said, and picked up the book, My School Stinks.

I rolled at my eyes at his choice of book. I had picked it up from the library earlier that week, but still.

My School Stinks – Words by Becky Scharnhorst Illustrated by Julia Patton

It is truly a remarkable book. I love how children always astonish us. They have the ability to take something that unreal, know it is preposterous and go ahead to enjoy the nonsensical whimsical tales anyway. 

It starts off with

My desk mate STINKS, my locker buddy bites, and my teacher is UNBEARABLE.

I told Mom my classmates are WIL ANIMALS, but she said ALL little kids are wild animals. I think I’m going to be sick tomorrow.

The book carries on this vein, slowly turning our expectations and sentiments towards friendship on its axis, rotating it, reflecting it, and giving us a hilarious experience anyway. It turns out the boy was right – the school was full of wild animals – real animals and the family just drops him off and picks him up everyday without realizing that their son’s best friend could be a crocodile.

Well ?

The son & I cackled at the book, and I asked him. “Well – any wild animals in your school, my man?” And he responded with dead pan humor, “Of course!”

Then he went on to relate a totally hilarious and grossly exaggerated tale of the red hawk that made its home in the rafters of the school one time, and all the drama that ensued.

I told him about the time some child tried to flush a tree branch down the toilet and we each went back to our respective tasks with a smile on our faces.

 

Which Planet Are You Feeling Like Today?

Learning to Teach Science

One evening, I trudged up the hill to my classroom. It was after a long day of teaching, and I had spent a hot hour commuting to the university for my teaching credential lessons. The evening’s session was on learning to teach science. It is one of my favorite classes, but I did not envy our professor who had to infuse engagement and learning in a bunch wannabe-teachers after we had sent the whole day and week teaching. She is an excellent educator and never shies away from the task though. Somehow, she ends up making us feel invigorated and inspired to teach science by the time we leave, and that is noteworthy in and of itself.

Really, I am glad some people chose to develop others as teachers, and are so generous with their time and talents.

Moody and Muggy – like Venus?

This class, she chose to have a guest educator come in, and the lesson they had planned will stay with me for a long time. She had us answer a question related to our solar system as we walked in. She asked us which planet’s moods matched our own. Hot and muggy like Venus, or dealing with too many moons like Saturn.

  • Mercury: swift orbit – cratered surface
  • Venus: scorching heat – thick clouds
  • Earth: liquid water – teeming life
  • Mars: red dust – massive volcanoes
  • Jupiter: big red spot  – swirling storms
  • Saturn: beautiful rings – gas giant
  • Uranus: tilted axis – ice giant
  • Neptune: supersonic winds – deep blue

It was an interesting exercise and she soon solicited a few responses. Some felt they could be like Uranus or Neptune just to freeze or pause for a moment, or maybe just to escape the heat of the past week. 

A giant step is ?

Soon afterwards, she led us outside to the sprawling campus grounds overlooking the bay. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky, and she said a little walk might do us all a little good. We agreed and off we went. She set up a traffic cone in one spot and called it the sun. Then, she had us estimate the number of steps we would have to take if the scale was : one giant step  ~~ 10 million kilometers.

We guessed and took the steps placing the cones as we went. We only went up to Saturn, but it was enough to get us out of our heads, and into an expansive space. A place to let go of our daily worries and revel in the grand universe we belong to.

A simple search gives us this, but walking outside and acting silly with our classmates as we took giant steps never teaches us things the way a textbook or video does.

If 1 step = 10 million km, here is the step-by-step distance from the Sun out through the solar system (rounded to the nearest whole step):

Sun to Mercury: 6 steps (~58 million km)
Mercury to Venus: 5 steps (~50 million km)
Venus to Earth: 4 steps (~41 million km)
Earth to Mars: 8 steps (~78 million km)
Mars to Jupiter: 55 steps (~550 million km)
Jupiter to Saturn: 65 steps (~646 million km)
Saturn to Uranus: 143 steps (~1.43 billion km)
Uranus to Neptune: 165 steps (~1.65 billion km)
Neptune to Pluto: 140 steps (~1.40 billion km)

The more I live and experience life, the more I realize how little I know.

As we headed back inside, my head was already buzzing with a dozen different activities I could do with the children with this simple activity. They would never forget scales, and the enormous universe we live in once we had tried this.  Everything can be wondrous.

Where is the time?

The only problem is the classic one faced by all teachers. Where was the time? There is precious little of it given all the curriculum demands, testing requirements, standards to be met, small-group coaching, differentiated learning for different skill groups etc. Dedicated teachers try their best, and learning all that goes into running a smooth classroom, is something I am enormously grateful for.

Excerpt from Billy Collins poem: 

Early People – By Billy Collins Book: Whale Day & Other Poems

“Teaching is a noble and time-honored profession,
But little is known about it
Because no one is allowed in the classroom
Except the teacher and the students”

As we babbled our way out after the class, we were an invigorated bunch full of ideas to try out with the children, and I saw our Professor’s smile turn wider and fill her face, as we thanked her.

My mood, as I walked back to the car after a long day, matched Earth – teeming with life and ideas.

I wish I could give my own students lessons like these over time- lessons they will enjoy and remember. Even if they do not remember the specifics, it is enough if they remember feeling awe, accomplishment, sighing with understanding, and being happy to be learning.

What Kids Know That Leaders Forget

Hispanic Heritage Month

It is Hispanic Heritage Month. I was curious to learn the difference between Hispanic and Latinos. In forms from the diversity teams in HR departments, the two terms have been chunked together.  Latinos may be Hispanic or not. Hispanic refers to those hailing from Spanish speaking countries. Latinos are those hailing from countries in Latin America. For instance Brazilians may not identify as Hispanic because Brazil was a Portuguese colony, and therefore do not speak Spanish. 

Cougars roar in Spanish

I now teach in a school where the Latino and Hispanic population is high. So I often get little peeks into the culture. The children like to tease me and ask for science videos in Spanish. “Ms Bala! We want to hear the cougar roar in Spanish!” 

“Can we watch the leopard eat the gazelle in Spanish?”

I give in, enjoying their gentle humor as they giggle, 

“Sounds so different in Spanish!”

“Totally different gazelle you guys!”

Last week, during a session of free play, I was invited to a game of Mexican Bingo. Amidst great cheers, the beans were passed out to each player as the cards were drawn. 

Esperanza Rising & Sonia Sotomayor

When we read Esperanza Rising together, there were so many moments when the children showed me in different ways how much they valued their cultural heritage, and roots. After the book was done, I had the children do a quiet session of art on the book, and some of them did a fantastic job. Some of them needed heavy scaffolding, but they came up with a good theme in the end.

I read a non-fiction book on Sonia Sotomayor to the children to complement the fictional Esperanza Rising the other day, and told them to keep note of the ways in which the books were similar. Once again, they surprised me. A surprise sticker contest really can get their brain cells thinking like nothing else can. 

What Happened?

Schools do a fantastic job of being inclusive, creating a sense of belonging, and teaching everyone to celebrate diversity.  I see the Hispanic child consoling an Indian-origin child for unfairness on the playground just as seamlessly as a Chinese immigrant child looking out for her Polynesian friend.

Somehow, everyday, I wonder how this beautiful dynamic gets lost on the way. Could it be that age jades our outlooks, and makes cynics of us all? 

A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Grass

How we are influenced by the world around us is never more apparent to me than when I am trying to immerse myself in another world – one not rife with human presence. Our effects, unfortunately, is omni-present as the flash floods in Nepal proved.

Lines Written in Early Spring – By William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
…
…

And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

  • William Wordsworth

But out on a nature trail surrounded by bird-song, peering above into the skies through the leaves in the branches above, is when the world feels alive. Alive in a calm, peaceful sort of way. That particular evening, there were no frenzied crows cawing or geese squawking. The goats in the riverbed near our trail seemed sanguine, munching away leisurely at the tall grasses. A great blue heron took flight and the son & I stopped to catch its magnificence, our breath catching for a minute as it flapped its wings directly overhead.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The son was running, I was biking. I was already in high spirits.

When Carnations Give You Hope

The carnations given to me by a neighbor had revived in spite of the hot few days, and as the first bloom smiled at me, I felt hope stir. This plant had been given to me with the assurance that I cannot kill them. “Carnations are hardy. You can’t kill them if you tried!”, she said confidently, and I shushed her.

“Challenge accepted!” I said, laughing. I placed it in a place where I knew there would be plenty of direct sunlight and water. Just as she said. She came over to inspect it and nodded approvingly.

Just a few days later, the carnation died. It took on a pale brown color, and then withered away. My face matched the poor c plant. Never one to give up that easily, I persevered. I watered it with extra care – I hosed down the flower beds, the front yard and the back yard with extra whim on hot evenings but lost hope about the carnations.

Then, the evening I took out my bike for a ride, I peered into the flowerbed and saw the little flower. My heart soared. I have always loved carnations – their bright colors and how long they stay vibrant for being such petite flowers.

If only they knew the vibrations in the heart strings they caused!

A Whiff of Pine & A Hint of Grass

My mind flitted from topic to the next. Carnations to the hawks who sat on low twigs in the riverbed, and the inevitable sufferings that human-beings are faced with. The sun’s rays glistened across the waters I rode by. Calm, soothing.

I got off my bike and took stock of the year gone by. It was already September. How could the leaves be turning color already? Yet, here we are. I rode back, and inhaled the scent of the freshly mowed grass doused with water, and felt grounded once more. The pine trees dripped with water droplets from a rogue sprinkler, and I gazed lovingly at them clinging to the pine needles. A yearning for rain, but a lovely reminder of one of my favorite children’s books, A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk.

Lines Written in Early Spring – By William Wordsworth

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

Feelings, hopes, life, all bound together in a single whiff of wet pine and grass.

Tr for Teachers

Teacher’s Day

September 5th is Teacher’s Day in India. This year, I was wished by my parents and family, and I glowed with happiness. It really is a marvelous profession. The day is packed with things to do, and activities to finish, lessons to teach, and all the rest of it. But most importantly, it is filled with loving, energetic children who sometimes dance into the classroom, other times have to be coerced through a tough lesson with the promise of a treat at the end of it.

As my biological children were growing, I often heard complaints about teachers from my friends. How teachers weren’t doing enough, how their children were smart and were not being challenged enough etc etc. Having grown up in a school environment  and the child of teachers, it was interesting to see their perspectives. Like many of us do, the adults seem to have forgotten what we were capable of at every age, and the expectations from the children and teachers was especially high. We live in the Bay Area after all. A place notorious for its high expectations of its children.

But now. I am in a classroom all day long. I see what a hard job teachers are presented with everyday. There is a wide range of personalities, learning abilities, attitudes, quirks, and even motivations for coming to school. A child once confessed that the favorite part of their day was recess, and I smiled at that. How could I blame the child? After all, recess is the basis of culture, as I myself wrote. Every other place, they were being asked to do this and that. At recess, they did what they wanted. Bright sunshine, choice of playmates, choice of play, and more importantly no expectations of them. Of course they love recess! 

Nothing All Day!

I can feel their excitement seep through my ears – the cheers and moans at recess are of a particularly dramatic nature. There is drama too. The cheaters at 4-square, the one who refused to take their place in line, but that rarely walked into the classroom with the children. How can one not admire that?

Sometimes it did. Thorough investigations lead to root causes. So how is a teacher meant to juggle all of that, and ensure that the children feel sufficiently stimulated, develop good behaviors and keep the parents happy? After all, the parents think the children and the teachers happily do nothing all day.

For years, when asked about school, our conversations went like this:

“How was your day?”

Good

“What did you do?”

Nothing!

Never one to let things be, I’d prod.

Ask them about sharks-and-minnows, and their friends, they’d be eloquent, their vocabularies vibrant, and their passions evident. That too, is as it should be. Our learning is safe and steady. Our passions, dramatic and vivid. As parents, we get a tiny window into their day and it is hardly fair to form our opinions based on it. Yet, what choice do we have?

Whenever I asked about what they did learn in English, or Math, or Science, or Social Studies, the answers were hardly inspiring. I can imagine the same across millions of Bay Area homes. But our children learn to read, do math, read and analyze scientific articles, learn about community and history. The growth seems gradual, yes, but it is there, and in just a few years, it is phenomenal. A child who could barely read confidently picks up books for pleasure. A child who struggled to evenly split the pizza between his siblings does so seamlessly, and tells you strange facts about caterpillars when you’re least expecting it. 

The educational calendar reminds me more than ever of one of my friend’s favorite sayings: “We always over-estimate what we can do in one day and under-estimate what we can do in one year.”

I wish there was a way in which we could afford a better peek into their energetic days, but alas!

#TrForTeachers

My loving family in India sent me Happy Teacher’s Day wishes and I glowed all day. I had lost my voice teaching the previous week. But I still croaked to them excitedly and passionately about my children. The biological children rolled their eyes and said, “Ask Amma about her kids, and she doesn’t talk about us anymore. It is all about those 5th graders of hers!”

The parents laughed, and said, “It is what happens to teachers!”

My parents still receive wishes from their own students who are now adults. It always brightens their day, and they smile thinking of their days teaching.

“You aren’t just given happiness, you have to pick it up here and there all through the day.”

― Miss Read, Fresh from the Country

They told me that the Karnataka State government initiated a movement to give teachers the prefix, Tr (like doctors have Dr). What a marvelous idea?! I saw the campaign gain strength and the videos were inspiring and oh so loving. I wish the idea catches on. A simple idea, sure, but a powerful one. One of my professors in my teaching credential program also showed us video, and we all glowed. 

#TrForTeachers

Happy Teacher’s Day to all wonderful teachers.