Stories

Hi everyone and Sue, 

 

I can't find your last poem, so I started a 'new' topic!

 

I loved your poem, and I hope you have a great night sharing your poetry. As I wrote to you before, I still can't believe that I wrote some poems, opened my thoughts to the world, and then sharing them of EnableMe and other sites on the Internet. That is amazing.

 

One point for the stroke.

 

And I love stories.

 

I relish telling them in my classes, from when I was teaching elementary school in Hobart to university in Japan, as they are a way to involve students to me and the outside world. Since all my health trials, I have built up a collection of stories that push students to reflect on health, disabilities, and just life.

 

At the last term, I confronted myself to share some of the most influential stories I have used in the previous 30 plus years. Before the stroke, telling these stories were enjoyable, but the stroke took them away, leaving me a small vocabulary and phrases to try to engage and inform the students. I know it was going to be hard, but if I prepare, practice, and remember these keywords, I could do it.

 

And I did it.

 

The students engaged throughout the class, and at the end, asked me to tell more of these accounts. It was hard, and I made some mistakes, missed words, and had to invite one or two excellent students to say the correct pronunciation rather than waiting for my brain to reconnect. It is still hard, probably it will always be hard, but opening my soul, concerns, and struggles to my classes will allow my mental strength grow.

 

Again, I have a lot way to go, but little by little I am getting closer to my unknown future and road.