One Day Without Shoes: 2016 Edition

Pretty much everyone has heard of Toms Shoes. What started out as basic canvas shoes has really exploded into so much more than that. And it all started because the founder of Toms, Blake Mycoskie, went to Argentina and witnessed, firsthand, the effects of children living without shoes. Lacking something as basic as shoes can led to illness and the inability to attend school. 

A lot of us see these struggles, whether it's on TV or Facebook or through trips of our own, but are unable, or unwilling, to actually do anything to help solve the problem. But Blake actually did. In 2006, he started the Toms company. It has since expanded to, not only giving shoes, but funding to help restoring sight to those who need it, clean water, safe birthing experiences to those in impoverished countries, and bullying prevention. 

All of this started because one man saw the need for a change and realized that the "someone" who should help out was him. 

Which definitely Toms One Day Without Shoes one of my Top Five Favorite Holidays. (And joining ranks with Thanksgiving, 4th of July, and Cinco de Mayo is definitely a big deal.)

As in years past, we spent a few days talking about all things empathy. And kindness. And mercy. And we watched this video which may or may not make me tear up every single time we watch it.

Because regardless of our age or social status, we can promote change. This is the biggest message that I want my kids to understand. They may be "only" 9 or 10 years old, but they can spark change NOW. When they're older, I don't want them to forget the impact that they can have on others.

And, of course, we collected shoes.

Because WE can be the someone to step up and change the world.

One Day Without Shoes-- 2012 Edition (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
One Day Without Shoes-- 2013 Edition (Siguatepeque, Honduras)
One Day Without Shoes-- 2014 Edition (Siguatepeque, Honduras)
One Day Without Shoes-- 2015 Edition (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

More than I care to admit, I think that teaching was pretty accurately summed up in Spiderman.

One of my students has had an emotionally difficult year and it all seemed to catch up with her today. At the end of the day, she came to me sobbing, so we sat together on the bleachers in the front court while she talked it out. But mostly so she could just cry.

In the midst of trying to comfort her with my best teacher advice, I was (selfishly) thinking about how special it was that this particular student chose to come to me in her time of distress. Out of all of her friends and all of the teachers in the school, she searched me out. She wanted to be with me.

And then I realized, oh gosh, she chose to come to ME.

The students who sit in my classroom each day didn't chose to be on my class list. But every day we work through all sorts of things together. Every day they come to me to help them solve problems, whether they be academic, personal, social, or something else entirely. Every day they are trusting ME to be there for them.

Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way, but wow. Talk about pressure.

One Day Without Shoes-- 2015 Edition

"This one goes out to the heroes. Every day heroes. Yeah, I'm talking to you. You probably are all like, "I'm not a hero. You're talking to the wrong person." And I'm all like, "You're talking to your TV!" So listen up! I think you're a hero and don't even know it yet. Maybe you're like me. You look in the mirror and you don't really see a hero. You look and you just see a regular kid. A really good-looking regular kid. But you? You're a hero. Whether you're a kid or a grown-up. You're way more than you might think you are. You're more than your problems and you're more than your mistakes. Somewhere inside, you're a hero. You might not have a cape or wear underwear outside your clothes (that's probably a good thing). You have everything right now to change the world. EVERYTHING! Heroes are just ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. They inspire other people to be extraordinary."

-- Kid President (For the Heroes)

Kid President is awesome. He and I could say the exact same thing (I could even dress up in a cape and jump off benches in the park) and my students are going to be more receptive to Kid President because he's their age. He's also hysterical and charismatic and I wish he was a student in my class.

His "For the Heroes" video tied in perfectly with TOMS One Day Without Shoes campaign which just so happens to be one of my favorite days of the entire year. TOMS is an American based company that started in 2006, when it's founder, Blake Mycoskie, traveled to Argentina and witnessed, firsthand, the hardships faced by children living without shoes. (You can read all about how TOMS got started and how the company has grown on the TOMS website.) TOMS operates under the motto "One For One"-- for every pair of shoes that is purchased, another pair is donated to a child in need.

I think it's easy for people, especially elementary school students, to think that they're too insignificant to make any real change. TOMS has clearly blown that myth to pieces as they have donated over 35 million pairs of shoes since it's foundation. There are many pieces of wisdom that I hope to bestow upon my students (multiplication, long division, the scientific method), but more importantly that differences among people are what make us special, that our words and actions have lasting impacts on those around us, and that each person is capable to make significant change in the world around them.

And so we went barefoot. We learned about empathy versus sympathy, we laughed along with Kid President, we posted photos on Instagram with the hashtag #withoutshoes, we started a shoe drive to collect gently used shoes for people right here in Rio de Janeiro who need them.

One step at a time, one day at a time, we're making a difference. Because, as Kid President says, heroes are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Click here to read about One Day Without Shoes of years past.
One Day Without Shoes-- 2012 Edition (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
One Day Without Shoes-- 2013 Edition (Siguatepeque, Honduras)
One Day Without Shoes-- 2014 Edition (Siguatepeque, Honduras)

Let Me Take You To Rio

Has it really only been three weeks since I boarded a plane in Cleveland headed to Rio de Janeiro? Yes. Yes, it has. 

A lot has happened in the three short weeks that I have been here. Mentally, emotionally, physically, professionally-- it has been quite a roller coaster.

When first studying abroad, I was shown this cultural adjustment curve model and have since seen it many times. Every time I have encountered this model, two points have been heavily stressed. The first being that this model isn't linear. A person can go from the surface adaptation, back to the honeymoon stage, to confronting deeper cultural and personal issues over and over and over again. The second point is that there is no set amount of time to be in a given stage. Adjusting to a new culture, as with life, doesn't come with a nice recipe. There's no guarantee that an individual will ever leave the honeymoon stage, just as there's no guarantee that the frustration and annoyance with every day differences will disappear if you can just last the allotted thirty days. Each country, each individual, each experience is different.

I spent the entirety of my twelve weeks in Rio living in the honeymoon stage. Everything was great; Rio was great, I was great, life was great. This time around, I started this trip smack dab in the middle of confronting deeper cultural and personal issues. Which isn't a great place to start, honestly, but hey, that's life sometimes. Since arriving, I've definitely spent the majority of my time confronting deeper cultural and personal issues, but I've been spending more time in surface adjustment and a little bit of time in the honeymoon stage. Like I said, each country, each individual, each experience is different.

Phew. Now that all that heavy stuff is out of the way-- what have I been doing for the past three weeks? Think about what a teacher does in the States. I do all that except I do it in Rio. Honestly. My day to day life isn't all the exciting. I grade papers, administer tests, attend meetings, decorate bulletin boards, learn way more than I ever wanted about how the mind of 4th graders works, and enforce rules that are completely preposterous (Really. I don't let kids just get up and leave the classroom whenever they want. I'm the worst). 

As far as non-teaching life in Rio? Well, let me quote Ester Dean-- "Let me take you to Rio. Show you all around de Janeiro."

NBA Global Games

My dad and I were talking to one of the ushers at the Cleveland Indians games before I left and we got to talking about how I was moving to Rio. He mentioned that the Cavs would be playing in Rio sometime in October and I should look into it. All right, I don't LOVE basketball, but I do love Cleveland. So I looked into tickets and they were so far out of my price range that I just wrote the whole thing off. Turns out that Dad knows someone who knows someone and next thing I knew, I had two tickets to watch the Cavs play the Heat in Rio de Janeiro. Who ever would have guessed? 

Kadu and I went to the game together and it was so funny to listen to him tell everyone around us that he was cheering for Cleveland. He told me that if the Cavs scored at least 100 points, he would be up all night from excitement. Well, they did, and from what I've been told, he was up all night. Oops. Our seats were excellent and it was so, so wonderful to be surrounded by people from Ohio. 

Praia da Joatinga

It's spring in Rio which means it's cloudy and overcast kind of a lot. Unfortunately, this makes for less than ideal beach conditions. Does that stop us from going? No. Does it keep me from swimming? Absolutely. David, one of the other American teachers at OLM, took Caitlin and I to this lesser known beach one weekend. It was beautiful, despite the fact that it was cold. Which I do love the touristy aspects of Rio and will never turn down a trip to Copacabana or Ipanema, it's kind of cool to go "off the beaten path" every once in awhile. 

You kind of have to hike down a cliff to get down to the beach. Easy. No problem. On our way back up, we stopped to take pictures and I told Caitlin to sit on the side of the cliff and I would take her picture. Cool, all smiles. Then we switched and I was all of a sudden NOT smiling. All I could imagine was the rock breaking off from the cliff and me tumbling into the ocean below. Positive vibes, right? The good news is that we all survived. 

Cachoerias do Mendanha

The art teacher, Thais, took us to the Cachoerias do Mendanha in Campos Grande to celebrate Teacher's Day. She lured us in with the promise of a waterfall that had a pool at the bottom where we could swim, but we conveniently ignored the part about how we had to hike to get there. We took two buses to get to Campos Grande, walked up the road for about 30-45 minutes before actually starting the hike which took us SO. LONG. Hiking is so hard. Not to mention the fact that I wore shoes that were too small and ended up hiking the whole thing in sandals. Once we made it to the waterfall, it was so worth. There were two pools we could swim in and a natural waterslide that we spent some time sliding down. Bonus points for being the only ones there.

The best part of our Teacher's Day hike was that it totally reminded me of Honduras. I started the day with a video of some of my Grade 2s jumping around like crazy monkeys and screaming "MEEEEEES!!!" The hike took us into the country side of Brazil which could have been easily mistaken for driving on the highway in Honduras. The mountains, the trees, everything. Honduras. On the way home, we had a bus driver who, I am certain, learned how to drive in Honduras. He was passing on the curves, speeding up and braking unnecessarily, and generally driving without too much concern for safety. While it was slightly nauseating, it also made me feel like I had been transported right back to Honduras. 

Honduras? Or Brazil? You tell me.

Jardim Botanico
Ever been to a botanical garden in the States? Okay. Same idea, Except this one has sidewalks lined with giant palm trees that I'm positively obsessed with and monkeys and toucans just doing their thing. Seriously, it's really beautiful.

Pao de Acucar
Like I said, we've had a lot of overcast days here in Rio. So when we had a sunny afternoon, we jumped at the chance to go to the Sugarloaf. We got there in the early evening and stayed until after sunset. Also managed to snag ourselves a super spot to take sunset pictures, so there's no being mad about that. Last time I was here we didn't ride the cable cars, nor did we go up to the Sugarloaf (we only hiked up the Morro da Urca). Both were beautiful experiences, but both were very different experiences. The views were breath taking and it was such a powerful reminder of how beautiful this city is.

Girls Weekend

A couple of the other teachers at the school and I had a bit of a girls weekend this weekend which is totally what I needed. We ate pizza, drank (and made) caipirinhas, and shoved our faces full of gelato. Pair that with great friendships and you've got yourselves a solid girls weekend.

Phew. Rio. I'm here. I made it. Let's do this.

I'm Torn And It's Tearing Me Apart

Being a teacher is hard. Hard. Difficult. Difícil.

I'm not talking about the content. I'm really awesome at adjectives and my rendition of the alphabet is on point. I can properly punctuate a sentence with the best of them. But I am in charge of shaping young minds. Young minds that are going to grow into doctors, teachers, lawyers, professionals.

And they've been given to ME.

The content lessons are easy. Pinterest has lots of activities to make learning blends memorable or games to aide in letter sound acquisition. The character building, the tending to their precious hearts, is the hard part.

We've tackled bullying, we've fought against tattling, we've explored how to express our anger in a positive way. These past few weeks we've been working through something I had never expected-- how to express our emotions when we don't possess the language nor do we completely understand what is happening.

I leave this country in 34 short days. But our last day of school is on FRIDAY. Friday. As in, three days from now. In three days, I have to say good-bye to the 45 smiling faces who have weaseled their way into my hearts and refuse to let go.

This is challenging enough for me as a 23 year old adult who can grasp what is happening and who made this decision. It's exponentially harder for those 45 smiling faces.

They understand that something is happening. They understand that Miss Caitlin is going back to the United States.

But that's about where their understanding stops.And that's about all they can express. They don't have the language to delve deeper into their feelings nor can they really even comprehend why they're feeling the way that they do.

But they're hurting. I'm hurting. And I'm hurting even more when I watch them hurting. My heart breaks to know that they're feeling this way and that I'm the one who has caused it. We've been doing devotionals throughout the year and this time of hurting has provided us with many opportunities to talk about how sometimes God calls people to do things that they don't want to do and hurts their hearts, but God always knows what is best for them. Jonah was called to Ninevah, Miss Caitlin is called out of Honduras.

Grade Two and I have been together since day one. Together we've been to hell and back. I'm not kidding. They're tough and I'm stubborn. We've seen the worst of each other and we've seen the best of each other. There's 23 kids in that class and each one of them has an incredibly vibrant personality. Each one of them craves personal attention ALL THE TIME. The boys in Grade Two are ALL boy. 100% boy. They live and breathe sports and interact with each other using violence. It's not uncommon to have at least two boys fist fighting on the floor. And that's normal.

Out of all the things that Grade Two and I have done together, we have NEVER taken a good class picture. Someone is always moving, someone is always pouting, someone is always missing, someone is always blocking someone else's face. For whatever reason, taking pictures with Grade Two is like pulling teeth.

But today Grade Two and I took a class picture and I was almost moved to tears. Sarah came in to take a picture with the students and then Tony and I stepped in to take a class picture. In Sarah's picture the kids were in one long line with a couple jolly students sitting in front-- more like what you would expect a typical class picture to look like. The second Tony and I stepped in, they climbed on top of us. Every single kid wanted to be by Miss Caitlin and Mr. Tony. Some of them didn't surprise me. The fact that they girls wanted to hug us was no shocker. But two of my BOYS wanted to be next to me. Two of the boys who haven't shown much interest in Miss Caitlin. Ever. And then after taking our picture, they each gave me a hug. Before they realized that they were boys and hugging the teacher isn't cool and went right back to punching each other.

Their precious, tender hearts. After all this time together and I'm still surprised at the things they say and do.

Being a teacher is hard. Character building has been hard-- on all of us. But it's been worth it. Getting glimpses into their precious, tender hearts is so worth it. They've grown, I've grown, we've grown together.

In the same way we've gone through hell and back together, we'll get through this difficult season of good-byes and transitions together. We'll all come out stronger on the other side.

And just to lighten up a pretty heavy post, here are all the class pictures that Grade Two and I have taken together over the past two years. Crazy, hectic photos. Precious, wonderful memories.

While they were in Grade 1-- ice cream party

While they were in Grade 1-- with Mr. Carl

While they were in Grade 1-- the Science Fair

While they were in Grade 1-- One Day Without Shoes

Now that they're in Grade 2-- supporting La H

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Cultural Day

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Thanksgiving

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Christmas

Now that they're in Grade 2-- with Mr. Carl

Now that they're in Grade 2-- February 27th

Now that they're in Grade 2-- the 100th Day of School

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Language Coffeehouse

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Mini-Olympics

Now that they're in Grade 2-- Mini-Olympics

Now that they're in Grade 2-- One Day Without Shoes

Now that they're in Grade 2-- their official school picture

Now that they're in Grade 2-- the picture that nearly broke my heart

Being a teacher is hard. Hard. Difficult. Difícil. Being a teacher is worth it. Worth it. Vale la pena.

One Day Without Shoes-- 2014 Edition

If I had to rank my favorite holidays, TOMS One Day Without Shoes would fall somewhere between my birthday and Thanksgiving. Probably right around the 4th of July, truthfully.

Every year TOMS hosts One Day Without Shoes to help raise awareness of the hardships faced by others throughout the world. What started as a campaign to fight against the lack of shoes has grown into a company that aides in providing shoes, glasses, and water to many people throughout the world. Their website, One for One, shows how help is distributed and in what capacities.

In my short career as I teacher, I have now facilitated One Day Without Shoes three times. I would like to say that each time has gotten better and better. This year my students and I spent exponentially more time taking about social injustices and how they can help than we have in the past. I also showed them a One Day Without Shoes promotional video and they begged me to watch it at least 10 times. Slowly but surely, thdse kiddos are learning.

As well as going without shoes for a day, the students were encouraged to bring in gently used shoes and/ or school supplies to donate to one of the local schools in town. I'm a firm believer in the notion that even the smallest person can make a difference in the life of someone else and I am desperately trying to help my kids learn this as well.

Grade Two takes their shoes off.

Grade One takes their shoes off.

 CEE takes their shoes off.

Next year will you join us? The premise is simple, the effects are profound.

One Day Without Shoes: 2013 Edition and One Day Without Shoes: 2012 Edition

"Meesss, It's The Day Of Loooooooove!"

That was their words, not mine. Just to clear things up. 

I like to see my boys squirm and nothing makes them squirm more than hugs, hearts, and the color pink. So I made sure that February was chock full of all things Valentine's Day. Including, but not limited to, our bulletin board...

...our Spelling activities...

...and our Reading Buddies crafts. 

The big day finally arrived and since I'm a heartless teacher, I made my kids take a Spelling test before diving into the Valentine's Day activities. I regret nothing.

In Grade Two, the kids traced their hands on some construction paper, accordion folded a strip in between, and wrote "I love you this much!" on a pretty pink heart. Nailed it. Way to go, love bugs.

I also busted them sharing the love at snack time. They pooled their snacks together to create an entirely new snack-- chocolate pudding and cheese whiz on a tortilla chip. I taste tested, it wasn't great.

Grade One voted on Thursday what they wanted to do during their party. They were able to choose from making a tree out of their hands and then using hearts for the leaves, making a monkey with accordion arms and legs, or making animals out of hearts. The animals out of hearts won and I spent all of Thursday evening designing heart animals, printing hearts, sorting hearts, and making examples. Phew.

They did great! It's hard for me to give up control because I want their things to look perfect, but I also have to remember that they're 6 and not always able to cut on a perfect line. It's okay, the world will not end. We do have a good system of cutting, gluing, and throwing away that we've been working on all year. They're old pros at it now and it definitely make things run so much smoother. Which is one less worry for their poor, control freak of a teacher.

And then I spent some time after school with my brown eyed girls. 

I had 48 Valentines this year, and then some. How did I ever get this lucky?

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

We made it to the 100th Day!

But really, the fact that we made it to the 100th Day of School is actually a miracle. We took our Spelling tests and then spent the rest of the time celebrating our 100 days together.

Grade Two and I only had one class together, so they completed a writing activity and then made 100th day of school crowns. In their writing activity, the kids had to draw themselves as the face on the $100 then write about what they would buy if they had $100 to spend on someone else. I made out like a bandit that day-- I think I received three cats and some baseball tickets.

Their crowns were super easy and cheap. Which are two of my favorite adjectives when it comes to teaching. I printed off a boy option and a girl option that the kids colored, then just stapled the crowns to a sentence strip that had been cut in half to make the headband part. Like I said, easy and cheap.

The kids were so stinkin' cute walking around in their crowns alllllllll day long. 

Grade One and I had more time together, so I set up five stations and gave the kids about seven minutes at each station. It worked out perfectly! I definitely couldn't have done these stations with Grade Two, so it's a nice change of pace to be able to break from routine with Grade One.

Station #1: 100th Day of School Glasses
I found these on Pinterest last year and the kids loved them! They also look adorably nerdy, so I love them as well. Color, cut, paste on the part that goes over your ear. Done. Next station. Except I have some very particular color-ers and some kind of helpless cutters, so these glasses caused a few meltdowns.

Station #2: Counting By 10's
I made a web-like thing with ten different spaces. The kids had to put ten dots of each color of paint in each space. Which, for the mathematically un-inclined, adds up to 100. I started out with them drawing ten little pictures in each box, but painting is just so much more fun.

Station #3: 100th Day of School Certificate
Again, Pinterest from the rescue. I found a certificate that said that so and so made it to their 100th day of school. 25 copies, write your name and the date, color away. Definitely the least intensive of the stations.

Station #4: 100 Creations
This station was a little too difficult for my kids to grasp, despite the fact that we talked about what they could do and I provided examples. Maybe next year when they are a little older? Anyways, they got the number 100 on a piece of paper and had to cut it out. Then they were supposed to use the numbers to make something. A car, a flower, a clown, anything. They were great at providing examples, not so great at their execution.

Station #5: Object Sorting
Another easy one. We have just finished up a Spelling unit on color words, so this was perfect. Color, count, add.

100 days. Wow. At times it's gone so slowly and other times I blink and it's Friday. My kids have taught me so much over the past 100 days-- how to love, how to stay calm, how to be a better teacher and a better person. I can only hope that I have taught them as much.