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!!

By:  Mrs. Roper

By Molly

By Jayden

By Parker

By Colten

By Rilee Grace

By Payton

By Ashton

 

By Abby

 

 

By April

By Brooks

By Christian

By Jakoby

By Alliyah

By Lily

By Ian

By Mattew

By Trey

Why Do Ducks Have Feathers?

Have you ever wondered why ducks have feathers? Our curious kindergarteners wanted to find the answer to the question!

 

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-birds-wear-feathers-instead-of-fur/ 

 

Willing to try anything...

Mrs. Roper is letting Hope listen to Make Way for Ducklings. We are willing to try anything! 

Never Give Up 'Hope'

This morning I got a text from Mrs. Roper saying "this could be hatch day!".

I had to see to believe and my goodness I am excited! 

It's hard to see, but there is a small peck. It takes a little while for them to hatch, but we will most certainly keep you updated! 

This sweet duckling has taught us a life lesson that you should never give up on what you believe in. We could have given up hope last week, but we knew that sometimes we have to wait a little longer for great things to happen. Never give up hope and that is exactly this duck's name, 'Hope'! 

Good News and Bad News

So.... our eggs have still not hatched! I came to the school on Saturday and Sunday, they were still sitting quietly. Just when I was about to give up hope, the nice lady from West Knoll Farm told me that she believes they are still growing and should hatch in 3 days. Our Project Based Learning has turned into PROBLEM Based. We believe that the incubator was not hot enough for the eggs to grow at their normal rate. They are developing slower, but hopefully we will have a successful hatch soon!

 

 

I saw these three precious ducklings while I was visiting the farm yesterday and Mrs. Amy from West Knoll Farm let me borrow them for a week! The students were so happy to see our ducklings in our back yard. Minnie is the little one, Donald is the biggest with a bright orange bill, and Elvis is starting to grow a 'crest'.

 

 

Check back with us soon to see our feathered friends growing and be sure to think of our quiet eggs. We hope they hatch!

Still waiting...

Today is hatch day and we are still waiting...

Come on little ducklings... We are ready to meet you!!! 

An Egg is Quiet, but not for long...

This morning Rilee Grace posed the question, "How do the ducks begin to hatch from the eggs?". We were discussing the exciting news from Room 201 when she asked the question. Ms. Garner's ducks hatched a few days early this weekend. Here is a link to her blog- http://5kallstars.blogspot.com/.

During our research, we learned that the duck first has to pop the air pocket. Then he/she will begin to peep and peck at the shell. We wonder if the ducklings can hear each other peeping, which causes them to all begin to hatch at the same time. We will research this and let you know!

Here is a few selections of our journal entry this morning answering the question, "How do duck hatch from the egg?".

 

 

Still quiet.... but hopefully not for long. Hatch day is tomorrow!!!

How do ducks know how to swim?... WONDEROPOLIS Visits!!!

Something very exciting happened this morning! Representatives from Wonderopolis.org visited our classroom! We use this website every week for our Wonder of the Week and we refer to it often throughout our integrated units.

They 'got word' of how much we utilize their site that they wanted to see it used in action! They came all the way from Kentucky to visit our school! THANK YOU SO MUCH, WONDEROPOLIS for all the WONDERful resources you offer to busy classroom teachers and curious young hearts!

Mrs. Garner and I created a video (similar to what Wonderopolis provides) responding to the question, "How do ducks know how to swim?".

Students listened and watched to recall facts learned from the video.

We shared facts as a group.

While the students recorded their facts in their journals, I shared how we utilize Wonderopolis.org in our classroom and how we have found it to be one of our core resources in our units.

Representatives from our District Office joined us.

What a great way to end Teacher Appreciation Week! Our students did a fabulous job on their MAP tests, and although these tests are important to show their growth, it is opportunities like these that make me so proud to be their teacher. It is not possible to be a successful teacher without curious, sweet, ambitious students and supportive parents. So, THANK YOU!