By Caroline Carr

As I rang the bell for clean up and snack time, I noticed that Jabir was sitting quietly with his book in his lap. I asked him why he wasn’t putting his Book of Me away. Clutching his moleskine notebook in his arms, he looked up to me and said, “Ma’am, can I take home to my mother and father?”

Back in September, Federico and I outlined the projects for the year discussing our plans and goals for the upcoming months. During that discussion one project stood out in particular: The Book of Me. Initially, Rosenda, our founder, created the project for our oldest students to chronicle their lives in Amer and their dreams for the future. But as Federico and I wrote a guide for the project, it became clear that the Book of Me shouldn’t just be for the oldest students, but for all students to illustrate their journeys with us. This year, we decided to dedicate one month to the Book of Me project and have our youngest Sunflower Class participate. 

At first the project started slowly, but, as each day passed, the students became more and more excited about their books. On one occasion, Rahela turned to me and said, “Look at Sakib, he is staying late.” Sakib, the 5 years old class clown, would typically get distracted in class and struggle with the content; however, when the Book of Me project began, he started to come early to class and stay late–working the whole hour eager to finish his project and show off his final product. Beaming with pride, Sakib would show off his Book of Me pages and say, “Ma’am look! Please check.”

Each Book of Me has a set of questions that the students answer; once they are finished writing their answers they draw pictures corresponding to each question. One question was: What is your favorite place? Some students wrote school, the mosque, or their house, but a majority of the students wrote that their favorite place was the Tushita Foundation and playground. Muskan, a shy 5 year old who wants to be an artist, would sit at the classroom window overlooking the playground and draw what she saw. One day, I came into class and she was there early– sketching the playground full of kids playing and monkeys running. The illustration was beautiful bursting with color and movement.

The students became so engrossed in their work–moving forward with each page on their own accord. When I’d ring the bell for snack time the students would groan–spending every last millisecond coloring a little bit more, finishing their last sentence, and dragging their feet as they put their books away. They didn’t want to stop; they didn’t want it to end. With proud looks on their faces, 3 year olds and 13 year olds alike would read from their books and share their illustrations with the class.

On the final day of the project, we celebrated their work with a party inviting their families to join. We created a display exhibiting each book, one after the other, so that students and parents were able to walk around the classroom and admire the each student’s unique book. For each class, we had two student presenters read their books aloud. Koshik, the oldest student in the class, presented his book in front of his fellow classmates, mother and brother. He began reading, hesitantly at first; then, as he continued, he became more and more confident finishing his sentences with an exclamation point! When he completed his presentation, the students and family members clapped and cheered. With a twinkle in his eye, Koshik sat down and shyly smiled to himself and his mother, who smiled back at him with pride and squeezed her son’s shoulder with subtle approval. It was a day to remember.

The Book of Me project brought the Tushita Foundation into the homes of the families and vice versa. We plan to continue the project every year, so that the children can chronicle each chapter of their time with us. I can’t wait to see what they accomplish next year with the project!