Innovation and Success

The beginning of the Fall 2017 semester was tough on the University of South Florida students and teachers. During week three, just when we were becoming familiar with each other and developing a rhythm, Hurricane Irma threatened our homes and our lives. Many of our students who are from other states and countries did not know what to expect, how to respond, and had nowhere to go. Even those of us who have lived here for decades found ourselves facing the unknown, wondering if we'd survive the choice to hunker down, and worried about what we'd come home to if we packed up and headed north. Irma hit and headed north herself, forging a path of destruction to where many of us had evacuated.

Week five, we trickled back to our classes. Students arrived wide-eyed, with blank stares, and were visibly shaken. I knew immediately I needed to find a way to help students not only re-acclimate to the classroom but also validate all they had experienced emotionally, mentally, and physically.

I started each class with a check-in, asking students to talk about who they were with, what they did to prepare, how they felt over the last two weeks, if they remained in place or traveled to escape, and how they felt now. They told stories of homes that were destroyed, loved ones in other countries panicking, break-ups, road trips, too many pets in small spaces, and being alone and terrified. We learned about each other's coping skills, family dynamics, temperaments, and living situations.

Then, using a method attributed to Hemingway, I asked students to pull out a piece of paper and without putting their names at the top, write a Six-word Story* about having survived Hurricane Irma. I allotted ten to fifteen minutes for the activity. After collecting the anonymous stories, I read them aloud to the class. There were gasps, sighs, tears shed, and laughter. There was a palpable feeling of relief that filled the rooms.

Had I continued with the scheduled day's lessons and activities, I feel the atmosphere of care and community I work to create would have suffered and may have never developed. Somehow, the connection we could have missed out on by having been separated from each other and displaced so early in the semester was regained through this activity. I compiled their stories and included my own and gave each student a copy the next time we met.

Here is what we created together last semester:

*Six-word Stories. According to Smollar (2016), “In the 1920s Ernest Hemingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in just six words. They paid up. He wrote: For sale: baby shoes, never used. Hemingway is said to have considered it his best work.” (p. 41)

Smollar, S. (2016). STUDENT STORYTELLERS. Knowledge Quest, 44(3), 36-45.