My Kindergarten artists’ journals are finished and fantabulous. One, however, tugged on my heart and begged to be shared.
I love the art. But what took my breath away were her words:
Brave
(her name)
Love
Once my breath returned, I texted a friend the photo and this message ” Oh my gosh! My day is made. My work is done. My heart is full.”
Of course, my work continues, but wow, for today it is done. This young one knows and loves herself as brave. Simply fantabulous.
Awhile back I participated in the UC Berkeley’s MOOC The Science of Happiness. It was a great course — a ton of work — but a great course. One of the interesting things they suggested is that children have innate altruistic tendencies. Their research and information was compelling and hopeful!
The other day, my Kindergartners and I watched Joyful Rebellion by Brad Montague (Kid President’s brother-in-law).
It’s a great little video with encouragement and challenge. He invited us to to acknowledge our greatness and power, to dream big, and fill the world with more hope, more love, and more beauty.
After we watched the video, and talked about it a bit, I shared the idea of Mirror Messages with them. I asked them what they thought about them. Could we do that for others at our school? They were intrigued, and asked many questions.
I told them our messages might not look exactly like the mirror messages. We might use index cards, or regular paper. Perhaps we’d place them on desks, or lockers, instead of mirrors. Maybe we’d pick a particular grade to gift. They were remarkably excited at the idea that we might encourage first graders, or *gasp* 12th graders! They responded with an enthusiastic “YES, we can do this!” But, their questions continued.
Them: “What about each other? Can we make them for each other?!?”
Me: “Sure! That’d be great.”
Them: “What about you? Can we make them for you?!?”
Me: “Absolutely! I’d love it.”
I got these that day …
And these in an envelope the next day.
If my experience is any example, the Science of Happiness people are right. Children are fantastic, altruistic beings, who find joy in encouraging others. All they need is the opportunity. Let’s provide them with many!
I’m excited to see how this plays out for my girls — and those we gift with our messages.
My friend Jojo gifted me with, among other things, a lovely pair of socks. The artist, Kelly Rae Roberts, whose work is on the socks has a tag line that reads artist – author – possibilitarian.
When I read that, I thought, “POSSIBILITARIAN?!?!?! Is there actually a word — possibilitarian — and I don’t know about it?!?! Oh my gosh!”
I laughed out loud, and grabbed my laptop to do a bit of searching.
Yup, possibilitarian is a word. It hasn’t yet made it to dictionary.com, but it can be found on UrbanDictionary.com, and google returned about 77,400 results to my search.
As far as I can tell, the word originated with Norman Vincent Peale.
“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities – always see them, for they’re always there.”
Raising our sights, seeing possibility — being a possibilitarian — has the potential to increase our ideas, exploration, discoveries, inventions, innovation, collaboration, creativity, life, and joy.
Really, how fantabulous is that? Super duper wicked amazing fantabulous? Yes, I think so, too.
Now, how super duper wicked amazing fantabulous would it be to help our students become possibilitarians?! Even better, right?! Right!
Let’s get on it!
As an added note: I wanted a photo to add to the post. I remembered this cool little piece of art my mom bought me for my classroom. PERFECT! After I took the photo I turned it over and guess what I saw. The artist is Kelly Rae Roberts. Rock on with your possibility loving self, Kelly!
We frequently visit our school art gallery. We go armed with sketch books and pencils — ready to sketch anything we can see from within the gallery. Sometimes this is art, sometimes each other, and sometimes things we notice through the windows.
Most days our conversation goes like this:
Them: “Miss James, can we take off our shoes?”
Me: “You may — as long as you understand if we have a fire drill you are going outside without your shoes.”
They always agree, and I always cross my fingers that we don’t have a fire drill! Typically, once their shoes are off, they stow them under a shelf in the gallery and happily get to work sketching.
On this particular visit, the removal of their socks and shoes fueled their imagination and provided a unique medium for their creativity.
As I walked about the gallery. I came upon this …
Returning a few moments later, I found this …
And, finally, a bit later, this …
I love their creativity, collaboration and inclusion. Did you notice the number of shoes and socks increased in each photo? Each time someone asked to join, the original artists expanded their work to include their friends.
In the last photo, they are working together to collect the signatures of all the artists who contributed to their “double-flower art.”
I love that the freedom I gave them — to take off their shoes and wander the gallery in bare feet — resulted in such beautiful, examples of their powerful and joy-filled agency and creativity! I never cease to be amazed how such simple things — though profound when you think about it — as time, space, freedom, trust, resources (bare feet, socks and shoes, pencils and sketch books) and agency, allow these young creatives to do their thing.
They are fantabulous.
I was inspired by a colleague to truly make my word wall interactional – student driven and written. It’s a whiteboard, so it’s easy to revise. I erased everything I had on it, and moved it a bit closer to the floor. They would still need a chair to write at the top, but they could do it!
During guided reading, I rolled out the plan. Everyone was to write 3 words. They could be words they really liked, or words they used a lot in their writing, or words they wanted to use in their writing. They could be any words, BUT, they had to be written the way they are in library books. (Usually, when we write, the words need to be encoded so that the authors, and I, can read them.)
They got papers and set to work with enthusiastic determination. As each finished, they shared their list with me. We worked to spell each word the way it was in a library book. Sometimes we worked harder at hearing sounds and encoding them. Other times we recalled spelling rules and combinations. Still others times I asked permission to show them how it would be spelled in a library book.
Finally, they joined me at the wall and added their words. It took us a few days to get all the words written, but it was worth it! It was such a joy to watch them work, and to work with them.
They reached as high as they could to add their words.
And the words they chose were …
I cannot think of an adequate descriptor …
…. amazing, fantabulous, wonderful, overwhelming.
Take a look at two of the word lists.
Yes, there are sight words on the wall such as — we, and, of — and other words they know and enjoy like — candy, cup.
But the wall is filled with things I have said, written and encouraged!
One student wrote “I’m possible!” as an Ii word. It’s a reference to the statement “Impossible just says ‘I’m possible.”
Are they listening? Yes, they are!
Note:
You might be wondering about the word fantabulous. You may not find it in a dictionary, but it is a word in our classroom. I made it up a few years ago. It’s a combination of fantastic and fantabulous — two words I say with some regularity. One day, while chatting with the kids I said it’d be great if there were a word that was both fantastic and fabulous … like … FANTABULOUS!
It has joined the lexicon of our classroom, and appears to be moving on with the students and their families. Soon, perhaps, it will be found in the dictionary!
Our supermarket build is in full swing, and it is spectacular!
In this build, perhaps even more than in our other builds, communication and collaboration are key! (So too is breathing, lol, but that is for another blog post!)
As we prepped for the build, my builders, engineers and architects had tons of ideas, but they directed them only to me – the teacher – even though their peers were sitting with us. So many awesome ideas, and so much potential for collaboration and elaboration, were being wasted!
I couldn’t take it anymore! I said “Eee gads. May I say something!”
They looked at me. The looks on their faces said “Eee gads? Did you just say, Eee gads!?” but no one spoke, they just waited.
I continued, “You have so many fantabulous ideas. But, when I call on you, and you look at me, and tell ME, instead of telling EVERYONE, no one else realizes you want THEM to listen, too! But they should! Everyone needs to hear your ideas. That way we can talk about them, or change them, or use them just like you said them!!!”
I paused, just for a moment, to let that sink in. Then I said, “So, can we try something?”
“Yeah.” “Yes.” “Sure.”
“Ok, so, if you have something to say, and you want only me to listen, say Hey Miss James! But, if you want everyone to listen, say Hey, Kindergarten!”
They seemed excited by the plan. They asked, “So we say Hey, Kindergarten! if we have an idea of how to do something, or if we something we want to tell everyone?”
“Yup,” I responded. “And when we hear it, we’ll stop what we’re doing, look at you and say Hey (your name)! Then you can tell us your idea. OK?”
“Ok!”
We had at least 8 announcements of “Hey Kindergarten!” in that 30 minute building period. It was a bit overwhelming (at least for me, lol). I thought I might have to figure out something to say to rein them in. But, as the days went by, they began using it more judiciously all on their own.
Sometimes I forget and just say “Kindergarten” or some other attention getting rhyme we have established, and get no response. Then one of them says “You should try saying ‘Hey, Kindergarten,’ Miss James!”
The first time they said that I laughed out loud and said “You’re right! I should!!!” So, I did, and they responded immediately – “Hey, Miss James!” It was awesome.
There are so many things I like about “Hey, Kindergarten!”
But, i think what I love most is how it empowers them. Their ideas are being told, heard, respected and valued. And, THEY are calling their friends — and teacher — to listen. We are partners in this learning journey. I’m glad to give them a way to experience and express the partnership.
The things they have shared after saying “Hey, Kindergarten!” have been remarkable. I don’t think it is coincidental. I think they feel the value, power, liberty, and awesomeness of “Hey Kindergarten!” and it opens them.
Driving to a late day meeting, I unzip my lovely new cooler bag, and fish around for this …
Before I even see it, I imagine peeling it, and think of where I might leave the peelings. In my mind’s eye (or is it nose? lol) I can already smell the beautiful, citrus fragrance. I can’t wait to experience it as it fills my car with lusciousness!
At that moment my mind returned to this fabulous little hand …
This hand belongs to one of my kindergarteners from last year. I loved the exchange we had, so I asked if I could photograph her hand with the peel in it. She looked quizzically at me when I asked, but agreed.
“I love your idea,” I explained, “and I want to write about it on my blog! I never thought of it as a possibility, and I want to share it with others.” She smiled a soft, small smile, and agreed.
Finally, I am sharing.
When she came to me her eyes were bright.
She said “Look, Miss James!”
I looked at her hand, and then back to her face for an explanation.
She responded, “I’m going to use it in our supermarket build!”
(We visit a supermarket, create field guides, and then re-create the market in our classroom with blocks and various other items.)
I reply, “You are? What will you do with it?”
She said, “I’m going to use it to add an orange smell to my paper oranges. You know, like a scratch and sniff!”
I burst out laughing, and with a huge smile say “WOW! That is fantabulous!!! What a great, creative idea! I never thought of that! Thanks for sharing your idea with me!”
Amazing, right? I wondered why she was showing me a clementine peel. It didn’t immediately come to mind that the small piece of peel could be used so creatively.
Often, my students ideas are large, sometimes even bigger than mine. I enjoy their exuberance, and their big ideas. And, I trust that my support, my openness and positivity, and my joy in their awesomeness, encourages them to adopt, trust and live their big ideas!
I recently did a workshop for 4th, 5th and 6th grade students. I encouraged them to be willing to embrace the “mess” inherent in creativity, thinking, and great work.
My queen-size bed isn’t big enough to hold the “mess” of my presentation preparations. Fantabulous isn’t it?
Clearly, I embody my teaching.
Life lived with relentless creativity 