Grand Beginnings in Mesa

Have you ever seen flying fish? I hadn't until this week during my very first meeting introducing me to Zaharis Elementary. Imagine this, it's the first day all of the faculty are back to begin work for the new school year. Student teachers were also in attendance-aka me. Typical meeting right? Okay, Mr. Oliver is more enthusiastic than most, hints of inside jokes (explained of course-some day I will play reindeer games) among faculty definitely kept the meeting from getting long and boring. He showed us a clip similar to what I've posted above. We learned the 4 steps to fish culture, or rather being successful.

1. Play
2. Make their day
3. Be there
4. Choose your attitude

Easy enough right? We discussed how this applies to us as teachers at Zaharis. If you didn't browse the elementary's website or watched the film you probably have no idea that learning at Zaharis is based off of constructivism. The exterior of the building looks just like any other elementary, but step inside and a new world is discovered. You walk through classroom after classroom with rain gutters all over the walls filled with children's literature. The classroom I have the privilege of being in feels like a living room when you first walk in. What meets the eye first? A couch and piano. There are no desks. There are tables with the legs adjusted so they sit about a foot off the ground. The students sit on pillows. There is a bunk bed with pillows to make it a cozy place to read. Even a victorian bathtub.  Can learning really take place here? Believe it or not, all the schools within the district are making the shift over to more constructivism. Back to the meeting though.

Mr. Oliver is standing on the side of the library directing the discussion of the 4 steps. He bends down to a cooler which came out of no where. He opens it up and reaches into it and says to us all. We're all going to throw fish. I want everyone to touch a fish. Then the chaos began. Fish were flying all over the library, smashing into people, sliding across tables and much more. I was laughing the entire time because all the women in the room had begun to scream. It was utter pandemonium. Mr. Oliver will never let one sister from the Bronx live down the fact that she hid beneath a table and scrabbled out of the room on her hands and knees. We all were a mess, not to mention the library and the fish smell that took who knows how long to go away. It was definitely a meeting I will never forget. I can't do the story justice, but I'm currently working on getting a copy of the videos made on cell phones and pictures taken on cameras throughout the process by a fellow student teacher. 

So moral of this blog. If you're having a bad day, remember what a bishop once told me, "Buy yourself a happy meal at MacDonalds and throw rocks at ducks fish." :D