#sol17- Day 2/31 March 2, 2017
This year I feel like our team is very teamy! We all feel like we can share our ideas and people will listen openly. For 2017 I picked the word “brave” as my one little word and I warned our grade level team that it would mean I might share more of my ideas in my quest to be brave.
Just over a week ago our librarian sent us information for Book Week (this week) and I had an idea… I wanted to invite parents in to share a book in their home language (after all we teach in an international school with students from more than 60 countries). At first, I thought I would just do this within my class, but after sharing it with my next door neighbor save my sanity friend I asked the team if they wanted to join in and they said yes! We sent a few emails to parents to ask for volunteers to sign up on a shared Google doc for a morning or afternoon session of reading.
Fast forward to this morning and I was so excited the day was here! We assembled 73 3rd graders and some willing parents and then we dispersed into small groups. Adults read in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Bahasa, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Norwegian. Watching the small groups I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes as I wandered and took some pictures. The students were engaged and the parents were amazing. Some students do not speak much of their “home language” and may not often hear stories read in languages other than English, but today they did. It was only two 15 minute sessions, but it was really an awesome experience. It was one of those moments that makes me so proud to be a part of this international community.
I am so grateful to be a part of a team that jumps in to new activities, as it was definitely a case of “together we are better” (shout out to Ellen, Jamie, Brian, Gina, and Maggie). With 4 classes participating we had a lot more parent volunteers thanks to their recruiting efforts! It is fun to see that some of my students also blogged about this activity too.
Ms. Victor Reads 
What a fantastic way to showcase and celebrate the diversity of your families during this special week.
Way to celebrate and honor the diversity in your community. I bet your students will always remember this day!
Wow! I am amazed with how diverse your school is. I can understand why there were tears in your eyes! Such a great accomplishment.
I agree, we are a teamy team. Thanks for the idea and organization. I think a new book week tradition was started today.
What a wonderful idea. So glad you were brave enough to follow through on it. A wonderful opportunity for the students also. Don’t stop now!
WOW! What a great idea. I bet all enjoyed hearing all the different languages. So fun!