Layout:
Home > Putting It Back Out Into The Universe...

Putting It Back Out Into The Universe...

January 11th, 2007 at 05:12 am

...either that or I'm plain crazy. Smile I received a call from the director of a program I attended in the summer. Seems they're trying to give me $500 for my participation. It just didn't feel right to take the money from them. Let me explain a bit more about the program.

It was a 6 day training in the Arts up at a wonderful camp in the California Redwoods. The gave us (us being teachers that attended) a cabin, feed us 3 meals a day plus snacks, and we had hands on training in the "Art" of our choice (music, dance, theater, or visual arts). It was all FREE, well free to me. I had been given a scholarship of sorts to go. My district had money through a grant that was used to pay for everything.

I picked dance...I'm not a real dancer, but that was the whole point, to get training in a discipline that you have minimal experience in. The days were long, 8am-10pm, with the training being about 2/3 of the time. The rest of the time was more book work, learning how to write up lesson plans that would coordinate with the state standards. My "PAUD" (pronounced pod) was taught by 2 instructors and only had about 14 people in it. Great way to learn with those numbers. Wish the classes I taught had numbers like that!

Anyway, it was a fantastic experience. There were probably 160 teachers from all over northern California there. Some very amazing people, I do have to say.

I've taken back some of the dances to my classroom. My 4th grade students LUV doing some of the Call and Response type dances/chants. They're always asking if we can do another one. Now, part of it may be that they don't have to do "schoolwork" during that time and that it makes the day go by faster, but I like to think it's because they truly get something else out of it. *smile*

Now you see why when I got the call from the director of the entire program trying to pay me that $500 stipend for attending, I just couldn't take it. I asked her to put it back in the program "coffers" and offer it as a scholarship to someone else. She seemed actually shocked!

She then said that, if I wanted, I could find my own scholarship recipient from other teachers in my district. I told her I'd put the word out, but if she found someone deserving of the funding, that she should feel fine about giving it to them.

Here I am, trying to manage my money, start a new retirement program, and fix my house up, and I'm giving $$ away. Sounds a bit crazy, I know, but I have to believe that it all will come back around. Smile

Hey, anyone need a scholarship? *smile*

2 Responses to “Putting It Back Out Into The Universe...”

  1. mariejensen2007 Says:
    1168492999

    What a wonderful thing you did!

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1168494043

    I think you did the right thing according to your conscience. And now maybe another teacher can go to something like this and pass on what they learned to their students, too.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]