The 82nd Circle Time: The Show and Tell Weekly Thread
Show and Tell is wasted on elementary schoolers. Join several dozen bloggers weekly to show off an item, tell a story, and get the attention of the class. In other words, this is Show and Tell 2.0. Everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never posted before and just found out about Show and Tell for the first time today. So yank out a photo of the worst bridesmaid’s dress you ever wore and tell us the story; show off the homemade soup you cooked last night; or tell us all about the scarf you made for your first knitting project. Details on how to participate are located at the bottom of this post.
Let’s begin.
This is how I won an Olympic gold medal.
I was really sad watching the 2002 winter Olympics, so I went to school and told my students about how I could never reconcile the fact that I had no chance of winning an Olympic medal. I’d forever think about it with each Olympics, and I asked them if they would help me achieve this dream by holding our own Olympics at the school with events within my capabilities such as holding very still or standing on one foot for a long period of time.
Over 100 students agreed, and the principal allowed me to organize it and run it during a series of lunch times and recesses. We kicked off the opening ceremony with the running of a paper torch during a school assembly. People came to cheer on each other during events or participated in the “sports.” I won a gold medal for synchronized eating (a group of four–me and three students–had to choreograph a routine to music and we made smores in unison and consumed them while dancing. And yes, I made Josh miss work to come video tape us performing. We would have won the silver, but the gold team was eliminated by using inappropriate music).
The principal knew how much it meant to me, so during the next school assembly, she called all the winners on stage and gave us gold, silver, and bronze medals that she had purchased. Another teacher got up on a ladder and held the flag over my head and the entire school rose and sang the national anthem. And I bawled.
Years later, when I was leaving the school to stay at home with the twins, the new prinicipal threw a chaotic pizza party at lunch time in my honour. It was a new management team who didn’t know me at all and couldn’t tell that pizza was a terrible idea to “honour” my many years with the school. One of my synchronized-eating teammates was in the upper school and she told my students about the Olympics from years earlier.
Near the last day of school, a student asked me to come out into the Commons to help with something and when I walked out, a group of about 50 students–current ones and old ones who came down from the upper school–stood up and sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” for me. And yes, I bawled again because the kids got what the adults couldn’t.
And yes, I cried again writing this.
I’m going to wear my medal to watch the Olympics this winter.
What are you showing today?
Click here or scroll down to the bottom of this post if this is your first time joining along (Important: link to the permalink for the post, not the main url for your blog and use your blog’s name, not your name. Links not going to a Show and Tell post will be deleted). The list is open from now until late Friday night and a new one is posted every week.
- If you would like to join circle time and show something to the class, simply post each Wednesday night (or any time between Wednesday morning and Friday night), hopefully including a picture if possible, and telling us about your item. It can be anything–a photo from a trip, a picture of the dress you bought this week, a random image from an old yearbook showing a person you miss. It doesn’t need to contain a picture if you can’t get a picture–you can simply tell a story about a single item. The list opens every Wednesday night and closes on Friday night.
- You must mention Show and Tell and include a link back to this post in your post so people can find the rest of the class. This spreads new readership around through the list. This is now required.
- Label your post “Show and Tell” each week and then come back here and add the permalink for the post via the Mr. Linky feature (not your blog’s main url–use the permalink for your specific Show and Tell post).
- Oh, and then the point is that you click through all of your classmates and see what they are showing this week. And everyone loves a good “ooooh” and “aaaah” and to be queen (or king) of the playground for five minutes so leave them a comment if you can.
- Did you post a link and now it’s missing?: I reserve the right to delete any links that are not leading to a Show and Tell post or are the blogging equivalent of a spitball.
- If you want it…
I’ve now placed a Show and Tell archive on the sidebar that will be updated each week in case you miss it. And click here for the icon code if you wish to have it for your blog. It links to the archives.
23 comments
I’m sure there are dozens — hundreds — of us who have mentally bestowed on you medals of compassion, wisdom, and wit.
All of the gold variety.
How touching! What a special way to remember your school, and for your students to remember you. I’ll bet it means more than any international Olympics medal ever could–impersonal judges are nice but meh. People who know you and feel you deserve it are the best.
awww, i can picture you now with a wreath of leaves on your head. how absolutely sweet that moment must have been, especially to see the older kids come back for it.
i have always secretly wished i had been a figure skater or gymnast, or both. each olympics i feel this sad nostalgia about it.
Wow! What a great teacher you were and what a wonderful story. Yep, I got tears in my eyes just thinking about it.
What amazing students.
And I agree with Lori. I’d give you a couple dozen gold medals, at least.
That’s awesome that you got a gold medal for synchronized eating! I bet you were everyone’s favorite teacher.
I never knew you were a teacher until today. Suddenly, I understand where all the amazing blogger games and ways of reaching out and sharing creatively come from.
♥
What an incredible story. And, I second what Lori and Quiet Dreams said.
It’s great that everyone got involved in it!
Coming out of Show and Tell Lurkdom…
This is a really great story. It is so moving !
Mel, that is a really great story. I love the synchronized eating- what talent!
I love it! What a “Mr. Holland’s Opus” moment!
what a wonderful story Mel! and the idea of synchronized eating just cracks me up!
Great story Mel. Thanks for sharing. You must post the video of your winning performance.
I’m totally in this week. Thanks Mel for all you do to help support the IF community!
Oh my goodness! Such a wonderful, sweet story! And, doesn’t it just mean all the more when the kids get the stuff the adults couldn’t! Love it!
I’d also love to see the video of your winning syncrho eating routine!
I’ll be watching the winter Olympics in February right along with you (particularly grateful for the distraction this year since I’ll likely be mid-IVF #1!)…and standing to place my hand on my chest and sing everytime an American athlete wins the gold!
Are you allowed to have that much fun at school?
And would you like to share the video of the synchronised eating?
Obviously the kids thought you were a great teacher.
I do want to put up the video, but I have no way in getting in touch with the kids also in the video to ask their permission. Maybe if Josh can figure out how to blur their faces?
Awe how sweet! You must have been an awesome teacher! I was teary-eyed reading this.
I teared up a little myself, just reading your story. If I had been in it I definitely would have bawled!
Great story.
Bea
What a great story. And I’m cracking up at the synchronized eating. That’s something I could do good at.