TRANSFORMATION

                              " TRANSFORM: to change in form, appearance or structure"

 

 

I'm always looking for ways to enrich my life. So I decided to take a class in Sign Language. It was one of the neatest things I've done. I had a great teacher and asked him if he would be willing to volunteer in my classroom to teach my 1st and 2nd graders Sign Language.  He did, and he was fantastic with the students!  They loved him. He would teach Sign Language once a week. Then at the end of the school year, the teacher would invite about 12 of his retired deaf friends to come and spent the day in my class with my 1st and 2nd graders. The students were not allowed to "voice" with the deaf...everything had to be done in Sign Language. The retired deaf had a blast with my students. I'd have the students do an art project with the deaf.

 

 

 

 

Every other year I would do the Life Cycle of a Butterfly.  I'd send away for 50 Painted Lady butterflies starting from the caterpillar. I'd set up these caterpillars so that the students could watch them grow and then change into a chrysalis. They could actually watch the caterpillars knit themselves into a cocoon.. We'd just stop everything in the classroom and put up our chairs to where this was happening and spend lots of time watching this happen.

 

 

 

 

When the chrysalis were about to hatch....we would put all the students desks to the sides of the classroom.  Then I'd put up a HUGE tent.  We would watch the chrysalis hatch into beautiful butterflies. When the butterflies would hatch they would be very weak. It took a few hours for the butterfly to gain strength by opening and  shutting their wings without flying. My students were simply amazed at the entire experience.

 

 

 

 

But what was really neat is that when all the butterflies were hatched and flying around, we'd put the 50 butterflies into this huge tent.  We'd put in wet sponges filled with sugar water.  Then I'd let 3 students at a time sprinkle sugar water all over them, take off their shoes, and then climb and sit down very carefully in the tent. Soon enough the butterflies would come and land all over them....on their faces, hair, socks, arms...etc.   Some students would actually hold 5 butterflies at a time on their hands.  The children were delighted.

 

 

 

 

It so happened that one year when the retired deaf spent the day in my class, that I had up my huge tents with the butterflies. The deaf were very engaged in watching the children in the tent with the butterflies.  There was senior deaf man, named Johnny, who asked me if he could get in the tent too. That was fine....so he took off his shoes and went to sit in the tent. I completely forgot about him...and finally remembered. I tapped on his arm and he twisted around to me ...and there he sat with butterflies all over him with tears running down his smiling face. He "signed" to me that this was the best experience of his whole life!!

 

 

 

Sometimes it's difficult to be "transformed."  Sometimes life changes unexpectedly and that is really hard...(especially as we get older.)  I try to look at unexpected changes as new experiences in my life as a way to grow.  We may find in these changes a  new direction in our lives for the good!

 

I need to heartily thank Bob Pelkey for his advice about starting a blog...which is really outside my comfort zone...and a big thanks to my friend, France, for encouraging me on this project!

 

"Everyone needs beauty as well as bread,  places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul."       John Muir