Can you believe it? 1/3 of the 2019-2020 school year is in the books. 60 out of 180 days are done.
Wow.
Two small things (which were really a big things to me) happened this morning that marked the day for me.
As I was preparing to welcome my kids into the classroom with fist bumps, high fives, handshakes and hugs, one of my Latina students brought a plastic candy cane filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups from behind her back.
“Here, Mr. Barton, I brought this for you.”
“For me?” I asked.
“Yes!”
I was deeply moved, because her mamí has just been diagnosed with cancer.
What a beautiful, humble thing, that they would think of me with kindness in this tough moment of their lives.
When we settled into our morning work, another of my Latina students raised her hand.
“Ariana, do you want to say something?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered. “I just wanted to say that it’s like you’re a blue whale and we’re your whale children.”
“That means we’re calves,” chimed in Jeremiah, “Because baby whales are called calves, you know.”
I smiled a bright, warm smile and looked with clear, blue eyes at my students.
They know I love Reece’s peanut butter cups.
They know I love whales.
As I have been listening to their lives and learning about them, they have been listening to my life and learning about me.
That is a beautiful, humble thing, too.
Listening and learning, all in a small corner of Greenville, S.C.
A small place with big hearts.
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