The past two weeks we have been discussing/watching Fantasia in music class. Today I had seven students at a time draw pictures on individual white boards while we listened to different types of music. Then I had them share with the class what they drew and why the music made them feel like drawing their picture/image.
The last song I played was "Claire de Lune." In the end we had four drawings of ballerinas, a mermaid, and a mustached lion named Pearl da Bob.
We had one little guy left. He slowly turned his picture around. It was two stick figures holding hands. He said, "That song made me feel sad so I drew me and my grandpa." His little face scrunched up and tears started to fall underneath his glasses, "He died last year and I miss him so much."
The class was quiet and I gave him a hug and told him that must be really hard and I miss my grandparents too and he did an amazing job and it's okay to cry when we miss people because that only means we loved them a lot and that everything's going to be okay.
I thought I was done holding back tears until I told the three classes that they needed to get ready to go and quietly line up to leave. But instead of heading for the door, all 70 kids quietly lined up to give the boy a hug and whisper things to him like "Good job" and "I love my grandpa too" and "I love you."
I didn't even try holding the tears back after that.
The last song I played was "Claire de Lune." In the end we had four drawings of ballerinas, a mermaid, and a mustached lion named Pearl da Bob.
We had one little guy left. He slowly turned his picture around. It was two stick figures holding hands. He said, "That song made me feel sad so I drew me and my grandpa." His little face scrunched up and tears started to fall underneath his glasses, "He died last year and I miss him so much."
The class was quiet and I gave him a hug and told him that must be really hard and I miss my grandparents too and he did an amazing job and it's okay to cry when we miss people because that only means we loved them a lot and that everything's going to be okay.
I thought I was done holding back tears until I told the three classes that they needed to get ready to go and quietly line up to leave. But instead of heading for the door, all 70 kids quietly lined up to give the boy a hug and whisper things to him like "Good job" and "I love my grandpa too" and "I love you."
I didn't even try holding the tears back after that.
8 comments:
That's one of the sweetest stories I've ever heard.
Very sweet post, Ashley. I don't think ANYONE will be able to hold back tears when they read that post....
That's beautiful. What a wonderful job you have.
How sweet. What a great group of kids.
I can't even tell you how my heart hurts to read your post and remember the bliss I felt being a music teacher- there's probably nothing better and nothing I miss more. I'm so glad you posted this, thank you! And I miss you! and i'm pretty sure you're close by and we should get together...
What an amazing story! What wonderful kids! Thank you for sharing. And i think they are lucky to have someone like you for a teacher, who will encourage them in that kind of thing. :)
I love this story. this has been such a rewarding experience for you!
Thanks for sharing, Ashley. I needed that! You are an amazing teacher.
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