This is what my amazing son-in-law Bruce Nayowith wrote, his words are indeed a true gift to me: My wife and I had the privilege to attend the recent National Association of Bilingual Educators conference in San Diego last week where Alma Flor (her mother) gave the opening keynote speech, and then was awarded this year’s Ohtli medal by the government of Mexico. I have always known her as a warm and kind person; this was the first time I had seen her in a professional context. The list of Alma Flor’s accomplishments during the award ceremony was moving in its own right. Yet, what touched me the most was the exchange of love and well wishes that went on from the beginning to end of the conference. Those who introduced her spoke of how much inspiration they had received from her. Others came up afterwards to talk to her and offer appreciation for how she had touched their lives. I was able to capture much of the audio on my cell phone camera – apologies for the video quality and losing some of her talk: First 25 minutes of keynote youtu.be/MNzMslL8sTc Then the very end of it (lost some in between) youtu.be/LZb5cyuvHKM Lovely introduction and presentation of NABE lifelong member award youtu.be/4FACVx8U5dU Ohtli award presentation by ambassador of Mexico, and list of some of Alma Flor’s achievements that merited this honor youtu.be/mlPDPV4Oamw Her talk included a strong emphasis on social justice. She also spoke about ways that teachers can empower students in the classroom, reminding teachers that they can make huge differences regardless of any particular curriculum. The ways that a teacher looks at a child, speaks the child’s name, invites students’ own thinking (rather than limiting conversation to only what is in the book….) – any of these can help students come more alive, appreciate themselves and what they have to offer more… Even more moving to me was watching what happened afterwards - how she continued to offer this throughout the rest of the conference, when not on the podium. Immediately after her talk, she spent 5 or more hours signing books and offering blessings to a continuous line of conference attendees who came to talk to her. (She also did the same the next day for most of the day, stopping at about 3pm to give someone else’s presentation because the original presenter was snowed in and couldn’t make the conference.) It struck me that Alma Flor was doing was exactly what she had spoken about during her presentation. She was offering appreciation, enjoyment, generosity, and kind welcome of each person who came to meet with her, blessing them in their lives and work as educators – just as she encourages educators to offer to their students. Near the end of her talk, she relates how some of her students from 40 years ago appreciated how “…. what you taught us, was not just words… that you have been still living these same things that you taught us…”
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 01:42:39 +0000
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