Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits

Teaching with Heart and Creativity

Holiday Identity Crisis.

Many of you know how much I enjoyed teaching all the Christmas related crafts and lessons in December, but when all my bloggy buddies were posting about their Christmas Traditions around the world —and for some, the LACK of ability to even mention the word Christmas in their classrooms, I began to worry that I was not giving my students enough knowledge of other traditions.  As I focused on Santa, reindeer, and all the FUN of a Merry Christmas I avoided my guilt by telling myself that each child in my classroom celebrated Christmas and no one spoke up and told me differently.  So there.  It was ok to teach them using the fun of the holidays to spark interest and keep their attention…  Right? Right…UNTIL…..

 One of my boys (we’ll call him BOY) asked me (probably during one of my fabulous Christmas lessons), when we would be learning about the Star of David.  Then he asked me if I light the candles at my house…SHUT THE FRONT DOOR…I started to panic and asked him  in a slightly higher and more shrill voice than normal, if he was celebrating Hanukkah at his house.  BOY nodded and said when are we going to learn about it?  I started thinking about the fact that the last week before vacation was half over.  I had sent home Christmas themed word work, writing, math, science, and holiday traditions for the last two and a half weeks.  We were seriously seconds from making our last part of our CHRISTMAS gifts…the Christmas Cards.  And now I learn this valuable piece of information?  NOW?  It’s ok…I can handle this. I can handle anything.  I have been doing this for 14 years.  It’s all going to be OK…

So the Poem on the card that the students had to write was:

Roses Are Red
Poinsettias are Too 
Merry Christmas
I love you!
I thought quickly and changed his to read:
Roses are Red
Poinsettias are Too
Happy Hanukkah
I love you!
Brilliant right?  
How do I come up with this stuff?  Must be my liberal studies degree….
Then  I switched up my Christmas lesson the next day for a Hanukkah lesson highlighting BOY’S special family traditions.  BOY was beaming with pride.  I went just a tad overboard (it could have been the teaching guilt) But that boy was celebrated! (at least for one lesson out of 15 days of straight Christmas mayhem)
On Friday when all the students were coming in for our last day and Christmas party, in walked BOY’S mom carrying a platter of cookies and BOY had a gift for me in his hands.  I was amazed at their generosity considering all things and I quickly went up and thanked her and then I said, ” I had NO IDEA until Wednesday that BOY is Jewish” She looked at me and cocked her head sideways.  Then she said, “That’s because Boy isn’t Jewish.” UM…what?  “But he asked me about the Star of David.”  “He said you lit the candles.”  She said, “We are not Jewish.”  “None of that is true.”  Then I blurted out…”Well your Christmas card says Happy Hanukkah!”  Then we just looked at each other, looked at BOY,  and started laughing.  I thanked her again.  Stared down BOY as I shook my head and began my Christmas party.  (at this point BOY will for certain have total holiday identity crisis for HIS ENTIRE LIFE thanks to me)  
Later when school was over I texted BOY’S mom again to thank her for the generous gift and the Christmas cookies.  Then I said Happy Hanukkah!…she texted back that it was all they could talk and laugh about at her office all day.  
S-H-U-D-D-E-R…..I have relived that whole scenario just a few times over the last few days…just.a.few.
On another note!!!  (please, let’s change the subject!)
Here’s what we did at home yesterday.  I made the kids take pictures and then we went down to the Riverwalk for our traditional Christmas picture with the big tree downtown. 

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
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    1. I taught my kids a little bit about Hanukkah… we played dreidel and read a few books. From that moment on, until yesterday at 11:30 when they went home, my entire class was obsessed with saying "Happy Hanukkah" every time they gave another kid something. Let's say I needed a marker and asked a kid to go grab one for me. He'd come back, hand it to me, and say, "Happy Hanukkah!!!!!!!!!"

      I teach in a Catholic school. I hope my kids' parents are down with other religious holidays….. haha!!

      Marvelous Multiagers!

      Reply

    6. That's funny!!!!! It's kind of like the time I told a girl she needed to ask her mom if she was African American. We were studying MLK, Jr and she asked me if she was. Um, not for me to say.
      LOVE THE PICS OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!!
      A Teeny Tiny Teacher

      Reply

    7. This could only happen to you! Thanks for sharing this. We discuss Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadaan, and Diwali. Our school is very multi-cultural but a lot of families celebrate Christmas along with their own holiday.
      Forty some years ago, my immigrant parents from India did the same thing. My late father pretended to be Santa as he left presents at the foot of my bed until we could afford a tree. Funny thing is, over the years, we got so into it that we decorated, cooked, gifted, sang, and celebrated Christmas more than a lot of my Christian friends did! We are in America so we should celebrate and honor our differences and similarities.
      Have a wonderful HannuKwanzaRamaDiwaChristmas season!

      Reply

    9. Oh Reagan:
      It's past midnight, and only you could have me laughing and then muffling laughter because hubs is sleeping and then squeaking more laughter as I tried to finish reading the post and then the comments.

      Heeheehee.
      Still laughing!
      You really ought to publish this.

      Hey!
      I think TBA was collecting funny stories.
      This is a great one!!!!!

      Marry Christmas, sweet and funny BlogFriend!

      Kim
      Finding JOY in 6th Grade

      Reply

    10. Oh good golly! I just played that all out in my head as I was reading it!!! Too funny! That's one for the memory book! At least your students are well rounded now with the second lesson;) hee hee! Too funny! Love your pics!! I did pics of the kids, torture for my 15 yr old I might add, but we need to do a family one. ( I just don't like the idea of being the fatty in the pic:(( ) oh well…..

      4th Grade Frolics

      Reply

    12. Although most of our school celebrates Christmas, as a 1st grade, we focus on family traditions (this is how I get in my theme-ish stuff). Our school isn't very diverse 🙁 We learned about Diwali, Las Posadas, Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza. I actually learned a lot about my families by keeping the focus on learning about others in order to be a good friend. Not that it didn't have a few crazy moments! I blogged about not reading about Diwali BEFORE teaching it 🙂

      http://newadventuresinfirstgrade.blogspot.com/2011/12/pay-attention-to-book-before-you-read.html

      Have a Merry Christmas!

      Reply

    13. Funny!!!!! Same thing happens to me each year. While we don't "celebrate" the holidays at my school {which I'm happy to report we plan on "revisiting" as a staff next year} we do make a simple holday gift. We do a calendar and have the kids either stand in front of a Hanukkah poster or a Christms poster and still others in front of colorful paper who celebrate Ramadan. {We've got a HUGE mix of culures in my school – it's awesome} Every single year I put a kid in front of the wrong paper because they tell me they are Jewish {rarely do my Jewish friends claim to be Christian but my Christian friends *really* wish they could celebrate Hanukkah}. What a hoot…

      Your family is gorgeous! 🙂

      Holly
      Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade

      Reply

    15. ahhhh!!! hahahaha! That's so funny!! And I can totally envision myself looking back at that moment and cringing constantly…
      And I do the Christmas around the world, because I have a lot of personal friends who are Jewish, I think I've only really had one Jewish student in my 9 years of teaching. And I love learning about the world (we've traveled A LOT), so I love to share that too….plus our students are title I students that really don't have a background in much – I mean we live 15 minutes from the beach and 99% of them have NEVER been there!!! say what?!?! So. that's a lot of why I teach it.
      P.S. – I LOVE the christmas pix of the Riverwalk – we may need to take a trip one year over there 🙂
      Jen Ross
      The Teachers’ Cauldron

      Reply

    19. I really enjoyed your story. At our school, we used to have about 4 weeks to do Christmas Around the World, so we would study Mexico (b/c a lot of our families are Hispanic and we're fairly close to the border), Germany (New Braunfels and the Wurst Fest just down the road), Hanukkah (to be well-rounded. I'm Catholic and didn't know much about Hanukkah before I started teaching. My kids always love to play the Dreidel game, and we even decorated our door with Dreidels this year), and then we would pick another country. One year we did Christmas in Australia (Santa on a surfboard), and another year we did a Cajun Christmas. But now (for some reason, but I'm not sure what) we only have 3 weeks, so we only do the first three. It seems so rushed too. Where did all of that time go?

      I also loved the River Walk pics! I am a fellow San Antonian, and your newest follower! I would love for you to visit my blog and take a Christmas tour of my house. I'm a little crazy when it comes to decorating for Christmas, so I figured I'd share my craziness and hopefully spread some Christmas cheer. 🙂

      Happy Holidays,

      Patti

      aseriesof3rdgradeevents.blogspot.com

      Reply

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