TOADTalk: Potential, Instincts, Free-Falling, and Being OK

In the first TOADTalk of the year, science teacher Heather Grant, spoke about some of the lessons she learned this summer at The Island School, and how they apply to life at Thacher. 
Once a week, the All-School Assembly launches with the Teacher On Active Duty (TOAD) sharing something of interest—a reflection, a story or song, a demonstration of some sort, or a simple poem. In this way, the community gets to know one of our own a little better. Heather Grant, whose TOADTalk is featured below, is the interim chair of the science department, teaches biology, chemistry, the new Citizen Science course, and advises senior girls. In her talk, Ms. Grant talked about the meaning of a song and dance she learned this summer. Then she performed it.

This summer I was able to attend two great conferences. One was at The Island School in the Bahamas where I saw and did all sorts of amazing things like SCUBA diving for the first time and snorkeling with green sea turtles, stingrays, and a particularly charismatic octopus. 

And I could tell you more about all of that, but because of the timing of this talk, I feel compelled to share something that I learned during an Island School morning workout called the run/swim. Led by one of The Island School’s founders, Chris Maxey, at the midpoint of our 6 am workout he stopped us and we circled up to do something called “the egg dance,” which made me think of all of you and the start of the year.

Because it might be hard to focus on the deeper meaning once you’ve seen/heard the song/dance, here’s my interpretation of the significance of each part of the dance. 

The lyrics of the song go like this: “I’m an egg, I’m cracking, I’m going to try to fly, I’m falling, I’m okay.”

I’m an egg (x 4)
I couldn’t help but sneak a little science in here, but I think we need to recognize that there is an impressive amount of caloric and genetic potential in an egg. The thing I find most fascinating about eggs is a group of molecules loosely known as cytoplasmic determinants—they allow a roughly spherical egg to have special zones that determine, in the eventual embryonic development, the top/bottom/front/back/left/right sides of the embryo. So as the single called egg divides, those molecules get unequally distributed as more and more cell divisions occur—leading to specialized cell types in different regions. I saw this directly during my other workshop this summer on gene editing. I used CRISPR to knock out a pigmentation gene in a frog embryo at the two-cell stage, so I injected CRISPR into only one of the two cells, which lead to a frog embryo that only expressed pigmentation genes on one side of its body. That eggs have within them the molecular controls for embryonic development is really impressive to me. And aside from all of that science, just like eggs—we are all filled with so much potential at the start of the year—just think of what you could become!

I’m cracking (x4)
This one is about instinctual change. Some big changes happen based purely on instinct, which can kind of feel automatic.

For example, sea turtle hatchlings orient towards the ocean—reaching up to breathe. This is instinctual based on a response to the feeling of floating. Scientists have studied this by putting turtle hatchlings in little harnesses and when they think they’re in the water they start swimming and they reach up for a breath even though they’re surrounded by air.

So some of your big life changes will feel instinctual in that way. Suddenly you’re a senior—how did that happen!

I’m going to try to fly (x4)
I’m not going to say much here, but there is excitement in working hard and trying new things. 

I’m falling (x4)
This section of the song reminds me of two things: barnacle goose chicks—goslings jumping, for the first time, from their nests high up on cliffs.

But more importantly, there is an application to life at Thacher. Who is your person on campus to check in with when you feel yourself in that free fall? What do you do for others who have that wide-eyed look in their eyes? Something as simple as finding a seat in the dining hall or making the first Thacher dance a little less scary can make all the difference in someone’s day.
 
I’m okay (x4)
The two new things I did this summer were getting on a horse in the faculty meetings at the start of the year and going SCUBA diving—I felt wholly unprepared for both, yet I put my trust in the experts who shepherded me through these experiences, knowing that even though they had my life in their hands, I was going to “be okay.”

When you’re stuck in one phase or another it can feel like your whole life is that—you’ll never get out of that moment—that you’re stuck in the free fall or that you’ll just keep trying to fly forever. Sometimes thinking about the big picture of the cycle can be helpful.

So the dance: I’ve asked one of my former science students and now a faculty member, Mr. Soto, to come down and demonstrate it with me here (and if you saw him in the video or when Fergulicious came on during Sunday night’s dance on the Pergola, you know why I asked for his help) and then we can get up and do it all together.

[Editor’s note: You really had to be there to see Heather and Raul Soto demonstrate the dance and then to see the whole school join in, but here’s a short clip of the dance to give you an idea.]
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