I had a wonderful day here yesterday! The whole school knew it was my birthday and everyone I saw stopped me, shook hands, looked me right in the eye and wished me a happy day. How sweet!
When my fourth graders came into the classroom that morning they stood up as a group on their own and sang Happy Birthday to me. And then they wanted to clap for me the number of years old I am. I told them if they could keep a secret I'd tell them. So they stood up, clapped and counted probably higher than they've ever done before!! haha!! :)
And the fifth graders also spontaneously stood up and sang to me when I popped in to see Kathy for a moment.
Throughout the day I noticed surreptitious cutting and drawing and coloring on little scraps of paper from the recycle box. Every once in awhile, during a grammar lesson for instance, someone would come up and present me with an intricately designed little gift with the sweetest words of appreciation and birthday greetings. Karthikeyan made a monkey that slides in and out of a tree. He said he made it because I told him Max likes monkeys. They may not be learning much about possessive nouns, but I am sure learning about making do for others with what you have!
It's a tradition in India to give to others on your birthday, so I gave each student and adult in the school a piece of candy which I bought last weekend in Bangalore. And also at assembly last night I presented the school a book about character traits and values, something highly respected at this school. The book is Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters by Barack Obama.
I think this may be about the best place in the world to be having a birthday!
