Mr. McCue and his Melon Drama

I don’t usually get orders for The Napkin, the Melon & The Monkey from a school so I thought it was interesting when an elementary school and a middle school in the same town in Florida placed orders last March.
So, I called up Rob McCue, principal of Cypress Ridge Elementary School, to find out more. Rob told me that Aurelia Cole, the Assistant Superintendent of Administration,heard about the book from her friend, Audray Lewis-Adams the call center manager at Progress Energy’s Bayside Center in Tampa. Aurelia introduced the book at a recent principals’ meeting. During our conversation Rob told me that his school , like the others in his district, had experienced severe budget cuts. His dedicated staff was facing a possible lay off and feeling the stress of having to do more with less. He believed he could use the ideas in the book  to help his employees connect and support each other during these tough times.
When I heard that he had a large staff but could only afford to buy 10 books, I sent him a box of 54 books with my compliments. The only thing I wanted in return, I told Rob, was to that he keep me posted on how he and his staff was using the book.
I completely forgot about it. That was  until I got a note from Rob two weeks ago. His staff loved reading the book, he said, and decided that once school started in August each team of 10 (a mix of instructional and non-instructional staff) would pick one of the 22 Aha!s from the book and present it at the monthly staff meeting.
To start things off, Rob planned to do a dramatic reenactment of his favorite, Aha! #15 Remember we all share the same vine. This is the story of a farmer who was shocked when he heard the melons in his melon patch screaming and yelling at each other. Growing conditions had been so good that season that his melons grew to enormous size and were bumping up against each other, fighting for space in his small garden. He came up with a creative solution. Once he got the melons to quiet down he instructed them to feel what was on top of their head and then trace the vine until they reached the end. Suddenly the melons stopped fighting and started to accommodate each other. The melons understood that they were all growing on the same vine
The day after the meeting I was delighted to receive Rob’s email along with some photos. He said he gave his team various parts to play in his “Melon Drama” and that the story sparked even more ideas. “It was wonderful!  I have had teachers ask if they can borrow the vines to do class meeting circles with their students using the drama.”

Feel the vine. Tell a story.