Having Hope

 

Having Hope

         What’s in a name? I thought for years about my little girls’ names when they were just a dream. I wanted the most perfect, significant, and strong name that would carry them through their lives. As a teacher, I see the names of my students before I meet their precious faces and I wonder what they look like, their sweet personalities, and how their name signifies them.

        There are 23 smiling, bright-eyed faces in my classroom this year. Each one has taught me so much. As teachers, we believe that we are “Changing the World”, but in all reality, it is our students whom greet us each morning, eager to learn, that are changing us.

         I have a 24^th bright-eyed beauty in Room 202 now. Her name is Hope. We gingerly placed her fragile egg in the incubator 38 days ago. On the 28^th day, we anxiously waited for her and her fellow eggs to hatch. Nothing. We felt disappointed and sad. How could they not hatch?  We invested so much time and research into these warm and cozy eggs. We cared for them each day, turning them twice a day, adding water and insuring the temperature was just right. For the first time in six years, we did not have a hatch.

        Although we had almost given up hope, we did not throw out the eggs. If only one would hatch, our project could be a success. Yesterday, Thursday, May 22, 2014, we saw a peck in an egg. We were shocked, astonished, and in total disbelief! As I shared the miraculous news with the students, I continued to repeat ‘hope’. I knew that this would be the name of our survivor, fighter, and little feathered friend that would teach us more than she will ever know.

      Hope cannot be found in a text book or a scripted curriculum. At first sight, you will not see how she has taught us to read, write, research, count the days on a calendar, or even how to compassionately love just a dream, but she has.

    Hope has forever changed my life and renewed my love for teaching. The days are long, the work does not end at 2:15, and at times I feel I give more to the 23 students in my classroom than my own children. My prayer is that each teacher can experience Hope and teach children to read, write, research, and love compassionately, not from a text book, but from the heart. We all need a little Hope in our lives.

By Mrs. Daniel

Having Hope

 

WOW!!  Where do I start?  Over the past 37 days, room 202 has waited patiently.  Our little duck parents have watched and turned the quiet little eggs ever so carefully every day with the excitement of day 28 arriving.  Day 28 was a special day for our class.  Everyone couldn’t wait to get to school to see our little quiet friends hatch.  Sadly to say, day 28 came and went, but that was ok because we knew that when we came in on day 29….we would have baby ducklings.  The faces of room 202 kids and teachers were sad again but that was still ok.  We just knew they would hatch on day 30, but still no ducklings.
Day 37……I was so excited when I came in early for morning duty and found as I looked into the incubator.  There before my wondering eyes was one egg with one tiny little hole in the shell where the duckling had been pecking.  I immediately sent Mrs. Daniel a text.  I knew she would be so excited.  Well we waited all day yesterday waiting on this special little duckling to hatch out of its shell.  As the hole only got just a tiny bit larger by the end of the school day, Mrs. Daniel and I wondered if we should help the duckling out just a little. Now remember……we have already waited 9 days past our hatch day which has never happened over all these years that I have experienced hacking eggs. 
After room 202 kids had left for the day, Mrs. Daniel and I made the decision to go ahead and help the duckling, we had already named “Hope”, out of her shell.  This was a chance we took to give Hope the chance of life.  We were hoping nothing would go wrong.  Before I go on, I’d like to say my dream as a child was to grow up and be a veterinarian.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but I am an animal lover.  

Ok, here we go.  Around 2:15 yesterday I gently took Hope’s shell in the palm of my hand.  I gently cracked the shell ever so gently a tiny bit at a time, and then I would wait to see if she would push herself out.  She pushed and pushed, but she still couldn’t make it out.  I cracked the shell a little more.  Hope tried and tried but she was having difficulty being able to crack the egg herself.  After 40 minutes, I had cracked the egg just enough so she could free herself from the shell.  She was so tired but she was peeping and moving about ever so slowly.  She was such a little trooper!  As I left for the day and got into my car to go home, I was praying she would be strong enough to make it over the next 24 hours.
I did not know, until later last night, when Mrs. Daniel sent me a picture while I sat at my daughters graduation, that Mrs. Daniel had taken her home in the incubator to watch over her and give her the care she need to pull through.  I was so excited!!  I could not wait to see her this morning when I came to school.  Hope is the most beautiful and healthy little duckling I have ever seen.  She has great color, great lungs and is walking around with no problems at all.
WE DID IT!!  All the boys and girls were very excited this morning when they came to school.  They had no idea what had happened after they left school yesterday.  Everyone had patience, love and hope that she would be able to hatch.  Way to go HOPE!  You did it! 

As Hope has shown Mrs. Daniel, myself, and the room 202 kids…..Never give up hope!!

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