Unfortunately, I was supposed to be pulled for a meeting on Thursday but luckily I was unable to secure a substitute and was allowed to go on the Symphony Field trip with my students. The concert was just perfect-the main reason being I have about 8 countries represented in my room this year and the theme for the performance was "around the world." Even more intriguing was hearing various members of the symphony play solos based on their home country's ballads, dances and musical genres. My students were so very excited when one of the countries traveled was "China." I have two students who came from China this year and every student in their seat turned to look at me and gave a little "clap" as if to say "Yes! This is going to be great, Mrs. Amoscato." 

Watching the students walk through the city of Pittsburgh from the buses was also such an experience as many have either never entered the city or do so quite rarely. Their reactions to the sirens and the people and restaurants were enough to fill four or five lessons with real-world material. As we approached the school, we were about 15 minutes late for our regular lunch time. The students naturally weren't bothered but they watched as many of the adults became belligerant, poking their fingers at others, blaming eachother for lack of communication and so forth. It was sad to see-to say the least and just emphasized again the importance of being able to accept change (silly changes) and run with them. The solution? Our students couldn't eat in the lunchroom due to the fifth graders coming down shortly after. Thus, we had our third graders grab their lunches and head upstairs for a full class lunch bunch. I have never seen such happiness. We do lunch bunches quite frequently in my classroom but never before had we had the entire third grade sitting in the classroom. The way adults act during a change? Blame. Anger. Lack of Understanding. The way my little students acted? With love. Care. Generosity. Optimism. Excitement. A welcoming attitude. 

Perspective in the world is everything. And how we act as adults always sends a message to our students. So the next time there is a little change-not life threatening-do me a favor...would you look at that change with relentless optimism? Would you look at this change as an adventure? Would you look at this change as something worth embracing and sharing and passing on the overwhelming excitement? Would you do that? Because life is too short to become upset when your lunch is 15 minutes behind where it should be.