12.21.11

Happy Winter Solstice.


Each season brings change--in weather, in color, in ourselves. The transition is ready to happen if you let it, if you coax it, if you just allow it to take place.


On the first day of school this year, I looked at both of my French I classes, chock full of the kids who are the "cream of the crop," and I told them, "Look at the people around you. You might think you are in a class full of losers, weirdos, and everyone in between, and the fact of the matter is, you will all be family by the end of the year." (I blogged about last year's family of students here.)


The looks on their faces told me they thought otherwise. The looks also said, "Who the heck are you to tell me who I'm gonna like?" followed by, "You are one crazy lady." 


I sort of believed their looks. This group seemed tougher that most. They all had thick cinder block walls built up, protecting their ideas of who was Miss Popular and who was Mr. Insecure. The cliques were going to be one of my greatest challenges yet if I were going to break them up.


It started small, as it usually does. Partner work, conversation activities, group projects. I let my guard down a bit, we joke and laugh at me, and that makes it okay to laugh at themselves. "Mrs. Kauffman doesn't care what we think of her. Why do I care what this kid next to me thinks about me?" You can almost see the process from month to month, week to week, day to day.


A few weeks ago we tackled the class family tree. After observing who flirts with who, and who needs a little push to get along better with someone, I make them all marry each other, be each other's kids and aunts and grandparents. One cinder block at a time, I chip away at their walls. 


So today, as we culminated this first part of the year with our annual caroling gig to all the classrooms, I shouldn't have been surprised at their enthusiasm, at their mutual support for each other as they sang this strange French version of Jingle Bells, having planned costumes together, choreographed movements together, laughing together, and having fun together.


And I wasn't surprised.


I was floored.


Their transition from stronghold forts of personality to vulnerable and accepting individuals truly came to fruition today, on the solstice.


I had so many doubts, and yet my heart is completely at peace tonight, because I know that I've succeeded, and these families I'm building are only going to get stronger as they continue to transition and change and, well, grow up...together.