Category: The Arts

Sew Easy: Lessons in Perseverance

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There are three rites of passage in the Wonder Studio: using the hot glue gun, working a hack saw, and learning to sew. The joyful expressions on students’ faces as they learn these skills are salve for my weary teacher’s soul.  These small accomplishments remind me of my original purpose when designing the Wonder Studio. Student agency was key.  I want to provide a safe place in which to make mistakes and grow confidence.  Sometimes, I get lulled into the belief that it’s just a messy place where kids spill paint, smear glue, and don’t adequately clean up. And then there are those moments when Susie uses the hacksaw for the first time and loudly proclaims, “I just use the hack saw! It was fun!” Beaming from ear to ear, she lifts up two pieces of wood to show everyone her handiwork. 

Sometimes, success takes a while, sometimes we need to overcome our fears first.  This was the case for Liv, who needed to hot glue small pieces for an intricate wooden spinning fidget that she was constructing.  She was afraid of using the hot glue gun, so I offered to glue the pieces.  Liv was not satisfied with the job I had done: too much glue and not quite in the exact perfect spot.  My big hands couldn’t execute the results she had desired.  Over the course of the next week, Liv got up the courage to use the hot glue gun herself.  She put together her fidget just as she had imagined. 

Then she quietly came up to me and said, “I am so proud of myself.”

“Yes, it is beautiful,” I said.

“Not for making it, Mrs. Emery. I’m proud that I overcame my fear of the glue gun.”

I chuckled and slapped her a high five, “Hooray for you!” I said.

The once hesitant, shy Liv is now master of the glue gun.  This experience of playing and experimenting with materials is essential for building confidence and character.

This week, Allie sat down next to me and expressed her desire to learn to sew. I agreed to show her.  Allie wanted to make a small drawstring pouch in which to collect pom-poms.  Doesn’t everyone?  I first traced a circle on a piece of colorful fabric.  Then Allie cut out the circle.  I outlined in pencil the track in which Lynne should sew.  I threaded a needle and asked her to watch me.  Allie became agitated. She started to recount all the reasons why she couldn’t learn how to sew.  Tears formed in her eyes, and she abruptly stood up ready to flee.  I motioned for her to sit back down. 

“I can’t do it! You have to show me,” she said. 

“Allie, listen.  Take a deep breath.  That’s what I’ve been doing,” I said calmly.

“You have to show me!” she demanded.

“Yes, but you have to look at me. Look at my hands.  Watch what I’m doing,”

She began to relax and concentrate on my hands. 

I began to verbalize my actions, “Up, pull through, down, pull though,” over and over again.

Then I handed the needle to Allie.  She began one stitch, two stitches, then over the edge of the fabric. Oh, no – a mistake.  Allie froze, she stood up, and tears well in her eyes again, “I can’t do it!” she yelled.

I reached out my hand, “It’s okay.  It’s okay.  That’s a very common mistake. I made that mistake a hundred times when I was learning to sew.”

She looked at me skeptically.

“You think that I never make mistakes?” I asked.

“Yes, you are perfect,” she declared seriously.

I laughed,” I make mistakes all the time.  It may look like things are easy for me because I’m old.  But I couldn’t learn anything if I didn’t make mistakes.  Mistakes are opportunities to learn.”

I pulled out the floss, threaded the needle again, and handed it back to Allie.  She sat down and began again.  She sewed all the way around the circle.  I clapped and smiled.  She grinned from ear to ear.  I pulled the drawstring and the circle magically became a pouch.  Allie put in her selected pom-poms.

“Allie, I’m going to help Liv. Make sure that you don’t cut the ends of the floss,” I said and left her for a few minutes.”

When I returned the floss ends were cut short.  I looked at Allie astonished, “Why did you cut the floss ends?”

“Because I didn’t want the long strings hanging,” she explained, adding that another girl told her to cut them.  The other girl loudly denied it.

“I told you not to cut them, Allie.  I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t know why you said that.  I didn’t know what would happened,” she replied looking scared.

“It’s okay,” I said, pulling out the thread and hold up the fabric circle, “Now you have the needle track to guide you. It will be easier this time.”

Allie dried her eyes and took the circle from me.  She began again and made no mistakes.  When she was done, we refilled it with colorful pompoms.  I showed Allie how to carefully put the drawstrings and tie them in a bow so she could easily open and close her precious pouch.

Allie did learn to sew last Thursday, but she leaned so much more.  She learned to never give up, to always try again, and to persevere even when things got hard, especially when things got hard.  And most of all, always push past your mistakes and push through your fear.

Later that day, I was walking down the hallway past Allie’s class.  And there she was, colorful pom-pom pouch in hand showing it off to her admiring classmates like sewing was easy, like she had known how to sew all along.  And this is why I continue to love teaching.  These moments, these times with students, these small important lessons help them grow and make me proud that I continue to be a teacher.

Inside the Wonder Studio: Life in Miniature

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A brave and brilliant 5th grade Wonder Studio crafter wearing kaleidoscope glasses.

When I was in the 5th grade, I loved making miniature replicas of things that I was learning about in school: prairie houses, covered wagons, log cabins, and so much more.  When I read about ancient history, I would make models of castles, pyramids, and I even made a sugar cube Roman Colosseum. I loved designing and building in miniature. I loved the challenge of finding materials that could be used in my creations. My good friend, Roxane, was an expert at sewing tiny families of mice clothed in wonderful Victorian costumes.  I didn’t know how she crafted them so meticulously. My creations definitely looked child-made.  I was so proud of them.  Taking the time to create them deepened my understanding not only of the crafting process, but also of the time period I was endeavoring to replicate.

This month in the Wonder Studio, the 5th graders have been working on a small scale.  No one mandated that they do so.  They all just started making tiny projects.  It might be due to the fact that they are starting a unit in math in which they are required to make tiny houses for clients. The clients are comprised of willing teachers and school staff.  No matter what the reason, this focus on small is age appropriate and well-suited to their developmental level.  Their fingers are now skillful enough to manufacture tiny things, and they are intellectually curious about how various things work.  By making miniature models, they are able to gain a fuller understanding of how the real things work.

This is the 5th graders’ second round in Wonder Studio this year.  They no longer need an introduction to where materials are stored or how to operate simple machines  the hot glue gun, saddle stapler, saw, drill, cardboard scissors, iron, etc.) As soon as we enter the studio, they rush to work.  They all have ideas and are ready to put them into action.

The hot glue guns are very popular!

A group of three students, then four, now six are constructing a model of their classroom to present to their teachers on Teacher Appreciate Day in April. Four students are creating the classroom with foam core, cardboard, and wood scraps.  Two others have labeled themselves “the carpenters,” and are making a series of tiny wooden desks and chairs for the classroom.  I sit back and marvel at their ingenuity.  I jump in when I’m asked for materials or crating assistance.  But the ideas?  The ideas are all theirs.  In these short set of weeks, I’ve seen their confidence and ideas grow.  They are more willing to take risks.  They problem-solve, collaborate, and call on each other’s best skills.  When I witness this natural buzz of creative process, I become so excited because to me this is the essence of learning.  They are in the zone.  They are in what Csikzentmihalyi called the state of flow.

Students make miniature bulletin boards for their tiny classroom model.

Another pair of students have decided to create bakery products.  They are concocting donuts, coffee cakes, and cupcakes with found objects from the Wonder Studio.  One student found a way to make roasted marshmallows. They find things that I didn’t even know we had!  They cut, paint, glue with happy abandon.

Donuts, coffee cake, pie, cake pops, cupcakes and roasted marshmallows!

Anna has brought a small plastic bag with her to the Wonder Studio.  She takes out a miniature pinball machine that she started at home.  It is incredibly tiny, and she is determined to make it work.  I am in awe of her precision. I keep wondering how we can transfer this kind of agency and enthusiasm to regular classroom experiences.  The students always tell me that Wonder Studio should be a “real subject” like math and English.  They want that challenge of coming up with an idea, their own idea, and seeing it grow into a reality. They need time to do this.

Tiny working pinball machine.

Ida, who is unafraid to try something new, excels in Wonder Studio.  I call her “our engineer.”  She loves making tiny replicas of machines that really work (a humane trap, a windmill, a rolling cart – to name a few).  This week, she saw a “That was Easy” button I had on a counter and decided to make one out of cardboard soup container lids.  Ida’s button says, “OOF!” on the top, and when you press it, it makes a soft whooshing sound.  I am amazed and ask her how she constructed it. Ida looks at me like I have just asked the dumbest question on the face of the planet, shrugs her shoulders, and says confidently, “Compressed air.” I am constantly surprised by Ida’s ingenious designs.

Engineers and crafters at work.

These small creations, this work in miniature, garner big results.  The students now own the Wonder Studio.  It is their space.  They know how to use it.  They are no longer hesitant but dive head-long into projects – trying ideas, sometimes abandoning them, but mostly following through and sharing their creations proudly.

Celebration in the Wonder Studio: Lunar New Year

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A dozen girls gather at recess time to work in the Wonder Studio.  They are in the midst of painting, decorating, and constructing projects of their choice.  This week, I added a box in the shape of a dragon’s head to celebrate Lunar New year.  I quickly cut the box to look like a dragon with a wide pointed-tooth grin.  The girls collected some found objects to make the dragon’s eyes, nostrils, and teeth.  Then we all took turns collaging bright colored tissue paper all over the head in layers upon layers.  Once completed, the dragon would be hung right outside their classrooms to celebrate Lunar New Year.

I have done this dragon project with countless students over several decades.  I love this tradition because it always sparks children’s imaginations and makes the classroom atmosphere festive.  I think the best way for young children to learn about other cultures is through celebrations (food, storytelling, and art). These are powerful ways in which to hold memories.  When I was a classroom teacher, this art project would be the anchor for deep research into the holiday and the Asian culture.  We read widely and began to understand these cultures and traditions more organically.

These days, I’ve noticed that with more and more emphasis on curricular initiatives there seems to be less and less time to celebrate, less and less time for conversations, and less time for connection. The classrooms are a rush of activity, one lesson after the next – go, go, go.  Don’t stop. Don’t think.  Don’t feel the struggle and joy in learning.

I’m glad I can eke out some time for kids to converse and create; some time to experiment and play; some time to celebrate the small things.  They need to know the joy of taking a risk – of taking a cardboard box and transforming into something whimsical.  There is magic held within that simple box, and I want children to experience that creative power.

As they worked, they began asking questions about Lunar New Year.  They began talking to each other naturally.  Some of them knew quite a bit about the holiday and supplied lots of information with facts and personal experiences. Questions grew and so did the students’ understanding.  They wanted to know more.  They wanted to become part of the celebration.

Books About Lunar New Year

Inspiration and Handiwork

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Over the years, bloggers have blessed me with new ideas, book suggestions, encouragement, beautiful artwork and photographs, and myriad moments of inspiration.  I have learned so much from strangers, and I am so grateful for their knowledge and generosity.

My latest spark of inspiration comes from Adam Zucker who blogs at Artfully Learning. Last week, Adam wrote about Black Mountain College in North Carolina and its founders, teachers, and alumni.  He wrote about the life and art of Ruth Asawa. I had never heard of her, but I had read and studied the work of her teacher, Josef Albers.  As I looked at the work of Ruth Asawa, I had a tingling “Aha” moment. I had such a strong visceral reaction to her sculptures. They were curved and intricate biomorphic shapes. Her organic wire sculptures reminded me of some macramé sculpture I created in graduate school as part of my Master’s thesis in Creative Arts Education forty-three years ago. I carried those sculptures around for years and gave a few away to friends.  I had forgotten about them until I saw Ruth’s sculptures.  I said aloud to myself, “Oh! I wish I had known about Ruth Asawa forty-three years ago.  Her work would have greatly influenced my art and pushed me forward.”  I never thought of weaving with wire and stayed with more common materials such as paper, fabric, yarn, jute, and hemp.

I made twelve sculptures with accompanying poems. Two sculptures I remember very well.  My work was centered around the women who influenced my life.  The first sculpture was a rectangular wall hanging in a natural jute tied onto wooden branches on the top and bottom.  The knots were predominantly Josephine knots in honor of my maternal grandmother, Josephine, who I never met.  She died at the age of forty-six from a cerebral hemorrhage.  Family members always told me that I looked like her.  I never believed them until I came across a photo of her at the age of sixteen.  My heart skipped a beat when I looked at her eyes and smile. Yes, indeed, I look a lot like my grandmother.  I wanted to create a sculpture that would reflect my connection to her.

Another sculpture was a replica of a head of long chestnut hair.  My childhood friend, Roxanne, had the most gorgeous long, straight, thick hair. My hair was short, fine, dark brown, and curly.  I coveted Roxanne’s hair.  I craved long thick tresses that I could toss, braid, and put in in an elegant bun.  I found a wire-framed oval, and I tied long strands of wool year in multi-shades of brown.  Then I created different kinds of intricate braids down the length of the sculpture.  To add interest, I woven in some gold engraved barrel beads.  This is the hair I would have wanted.  This is the hair of my amazing dear friend.  After the exhibition,  I packed Roxanne’s hair in a box and sent it to her in Boston with a note expressing how much her friendship meant to me.

As years went by,  I turned to watercolor and collage for artistic expression.  And my time was spent more and more teaching children.  In my teaching, I always shared the connection of art to literature, and exposed my young students to various artists, genres, and materials.  I knew it was important for children to explore the world of art and use their imaginations to create their own work. This free expression is crucial for building identity, self-esteem, and for nurturing creative minds.

With a little research, I found a picture book – A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa by Andrea D’Aquino.  She recounts Ruth’s childhood on a California farm, her interest in nature, and her studies in art.  She was influenced by choreographer, Merce Cunningham, the visionary designer, Buckminster Fuller, and the abstract artist, Josef Albers.  As Ruth developed as an artist, a trip to Mexico introduced her to write weaving.  When she returned home to San Francisco, she began to tach art and create beautiful nature-inspired wire sculptures.

I cannot wait to try my hand at wire sculptures.  After all, I have been waiting for forty-three years!  Maybe I can combine wire and fiber.  I am looking forward to playing and creating with this new-found idea. 

Josephine Knots in Copper Wire

Flowery Thoughts

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These past three weeks, I have had to put my life on pause a bit to deal with pulled muscles in my lower back.  Needless to say, I am trying to develop a better relationship with pain.  My first reaction is panic, which only tightens the muscles more.  So, I breathe deeply, think of beautiful places, and try to compose poetry out of the pain.

I have needed to talk short, slow walks throughout the day to keep the muscles happy.  The more I walked, the better I felt.  Of course, I had to recognize my own limitations and not walk too long, otherwise I would be back in the pain place, and panic would set in once again.

Nature is always good medicine, and I seek to be among trees and flowers as much as I can. Nature makes me more mindful of the short time we have to enjoy this miraculous earth.  It makes me grateful to be among the flowers.  It makes me feel like I am part of something much bigger than myself.

I have what I call the “Emily Dickinson Syndrome.”  I have a habit of writing lines, stanzas, or whole poems on scraps of paper, napkins, old journal pages, or whatever is at hand. Then I forget about them and find them at a later date, often surprised by my own thinking.  I found a stanza today in a 2018 calendar in the June 25th space.  It was like my previous self was sending me a message she did not want me to forget.

The pale ,yellow tulips

On your bedside table

Bow their buttery heads,

Delicate and fragile,

Their blooms fleeting.

My thoughts turn to flowers.  They help me recover and create a more positive approach to pain.  Poetry allows me to recall times when flowers have given me momentary joy.  This settling of spirit is welcome and necessary.

Be the Flower

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This has been a heartbreaking week, a gut-wrenching month: senseless violence in Buffalo and Uvalde.  Teenage gunmen destroyed lives while people shopped at a grocery store and children and teachers were busy in their classrooms teaching and learning. The rage in the minds of these individuals is unfathomable to me.  And though this blog is about literature, art, and education, I cannot let this week go by without addressing the terrible loss and helplessness I feel due to this horrific tragedy.  There must be solutions: stiffer gun control regulations, better mental health care, and stronger protection for our school and public spaces.  This saddens me deeply. What is happening to humanity?  Are we all to live locked away in our private residences with limited social contact?  What will happen to us then? As these thoughts buzzed around my mind this week, I turned to nature, as I always do, for solace – for an answer.

Connection to nature, I believe, is a source for hope, well-being and mental health.  This spring has been filled with flowers.  There are flowers blooming around our school campus,  flowering trees in my yard, and a plethora of flowers casting their spell over many local gardens.  I pass by wild irises on the roadside, their purple tongues dotted with raindrops.  I concentrate on their color and form. I wonder at such beauty, such grace, such an exquisite being, and I want to transform myself into that flower.  I want to grow where I’m planted, feel the soil beneath my feet, spread roots, shoot up tall, and blossom. 

When I began my teaching career, I worked with preschool children.  We spent much of our time outdoors in both good and inclement weather.  The children dug in the garden and were surprised when they pulled up carrots and radishes, believing there was magic in the soil.  They loved to weed, water, and harvest.  They felt control and accomplishment.  Flowers served as a respite for us, a signal to stop and take in beauty, to breathe.  The children would gather small bouquets for me of dandelions, clover, and buttercups. They would string flowers in each other’s hair and make magic potions from the bits of vegetation they collected.  Life outside was a necessary part of their growth and development.

I remember a time, when one girl brought me a lovely red tulip.  She had dissected it, separating its stem, leaves, petals and stamen.  There were tears in her eyes as she held out her hands to me, “Put it back together,” she commanded.  I looked at the flower and wondered, at first, how I could reassemble it for her.  I took the pieces from her hands and placed them on the ground making a tulip mosaic.  I knew this was not what my student had in mind.  She thought I could mend it completely and make it whole again. When I explained to her that it couldn’t be brought back to life, she cried, and I consoled her. She learned that the flower was a delicate and fragile thing, something to care for, something to admire and cherish.  And maybe flowers are part of the answer.  They have been powerfully and wonderfully made. They are a gift from God to humanity to give us strength and make us resilient.

As often happens, a book popped out a me from our school library shelf wanting to be read.  It was a new Caldecott Honor medalist, Have You Ever Seen a Flower?  by Shawn Harris.  It is brilliantly illustrated using simple tools: pencil and colored pencil. It is childlike and surprisingly powerful in its simplicity.  The girl in the story asks the reader to really think about flowers: look deeply, take in their smells, watch them with a microscopic wonder.  Watch them so closely that you can imagine what it feels like to be a flower: to grow roots, take in water, and bloom. The book reminds us to use the flower like a resource – to grow, thrive, and blossom.  Flowers help us reflect, turn inward, and respect life.

I went searching for solace this week.  I went hunting for answers.  I found them in the form of flowers and poetry. Once destroyed, lives cannot be put back together.  Some things cannot be made whole again. But I believe that the solution for violence must be in a turn towards nature, towards beauty, towards the preciousness of life.  Consider the flower.

Embracing the Process

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During the last two weeks, I have had the good fortune to get back into the Wonder Studio with students.  The Wonder Studio is a little swathe of space formerly the lobby of an old Victorian building that houses some of my school’s classrooms and offices.  I created the space to give children a place to craft and have agency over their own imaginations.  I gather junk, art and craft materials, and recyclables, and then stand back to see what the girls do with them.  Wonder Studio is not a class, though the girls have begged it to be.  Studio time is granted two days a week during recess on the days that I don’t have meetings at lunchtime.

This spring, I invited the 5th graders to come back into the Wonder Studio.  They love to make messes. Today, they sang the “Clean-up Song” to me that they learned in Pre-K. They sang so sweetly and earnestly,  however they didn’t quite clean everything up.  Some of them tried to skip out without cleaning brushes or throwing away paper scraps.  I get it.  I was twelve once.  I was, I assure you – and I too loved to make messes, create, build, and imagine. And I still do.

Last week, while Laila was working on yet another new project, I observed aloud that she often created things and then abandoned them.  She looked up at me grinning.

“I know,” she said, “I love the process.” 

I laughed and agreed.  Then I asked her if I could dismantle her massive seashell sculpture so others could use the shells. She gave me her permission.  As I worked ungluing the shells, Laila started looking around the room at my materials.  She often finds things I didn’t know I had.  Soon, Laila held up a small pink plastic bowl, which was serving as a container for someone else’s small project.  I looked at her skeptically. 

“They won’t mind.  It’s not part of the project.” Laila promised. “Here,” she said as she held up a small box, “They can use this.”  And off Laila went with bowl in hand to create her next project. 

The other girls in the group spend time making bracelets, sewing patchwork pillows, decorating small boxes, or making little rooms decorated with paint, glue, and cotton balls.  Everyone is quiet and very intentional in their constructing.  I do not offer advice unless asked, and I help with construction only when the student needs assistance.  I keep my distance and my humor. Wonder Studio time is actually my time to relax and let joy come to me.  It always does, and it’s worth the mess and the cajoling to clean up.

Laila got out her favorite tool, the hot glue gun and began to adhere things to the small plastic bowl.  She found that the plastic forks did not stay on properly and then peeled them off. Next, Laila took some fat pink yarn and began to wind it onto the bottom of the bowl. She wanted to use counting bears from the math lab closet, but I told her that we couldn’t use math materials.  She frowned and began hunting for a replacement.  She found small wooden objects: an alligator, a bear, a snail, a leaf, and a heart.  As I watched this process, I was fascinated by how quick she worked and how undaunted she was when she encountered failure.  In fact, Laila didn’t think of it as failure, she was enjoying the challenge. Laila would just try something new if the first thing she thought of didn’t work.  At one point, I asked her what she was making.

With a smile, she turned and said, “A centerpiece for your desk!”

I laughed and said, “Laila – when I’m old and in the retirement home I hope you will stop by and show me photos of all the sculptures you have on exhibit all over the world.”

“I will,” Laila said cheerfully and got back to work. When it was time to clean up, she was reluctant.  I put the bowl in my office and told her that it would be waiting for her when she returned to the Wonder Studio.

Today, Laila finished her project.  She put a wooden pedestal in the center of the bowl and turned it over.  Then she glued the pedestal to a jar lid and turned it upside down.  She came over and handed it to me.

“The centerpiece for my desk?” I asked, taking it carefully into my hands.

“A lamp for your desk,” Lalia replied.

I laughed, “Of course, a lamp.  It looks just like a lamp. I am going to put it by pink teapot. Thank you.”

And with that, Laila turned back into the Wonder Studio and started another project, this time with beads.  She took hot glue and put it at the end of some string.  “This way, I don’t have to make a knot,” she said.

Human imagination continues to surprise me. After forty-two years of teaching. I’m still not sure how to teach this kind of ingenuity. The only thing I do know is to make space and step out of the way.  I know that I have to be quiet and listen.  My students always show me the way.  They know what they need.  They know when they are stuck. They know how to change their circumstances and make something new. The process is the learning, and they are totally engaged and in the flow of creating. The key is to embrace the process.

Doors and Windows

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When my husband and I take photo trips, whether near or far, I am often attracted to doors and windows. I like exploring small quaint towns that have been revived by artisans and documenting what I see. Maybe I am drawn to doors because they signify possibility to me: “one door closes, another opens…” I am curious by nature and enjoy imagining what might be behind each door. Who”s inside? What stories do they bold? If the door is painted, why did the owner choose that particular color? How does that color reflect the mood and personality of the inhabitants? The door is like a dressed up package. Untie the bow, knock at the door, and find out what’s in store for you. There are so many choices – all is possible. Hope is at hand.

In the same way, I am also intrigued by windows. Where doors are solid and impenetrable, windows are translucent and reflective. I can see through, into the building and also see a collage of images in the reflection. To me, windows represent both the past and the future. I can look both back and forwards in time. What is created in the photograph is a connection been the past and future – what I left behind and what still awaits me. Photographing windows gives me the opportunity to play with color and light. I am able to compose and create a unique collage. Below are some examples of the photographic play I did on a recent trip to South Carolina.

Nurturing Creativity: Sing-a-Song

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I was sitting in the hallway of my school trying to get myself organized for the day.  I posted my first Slice of Life entry and was wondering how I was going to write every day in the month of March.  That’s when our art teacher came and sat down beside me.  “I have a story to tell you,” she said.  At first, I was thinking, “I have no time for stories.  I wish I didn’t sit in the hallway. I have so much work to do!”  But here I was, and I knew the art teacher always has such funny stories, so I took a deep breath and made myself present. I turned to the eager art teacher and listened.

Yesterday was the worst day! Everything I had planned had to be changed.  The classes I thought were cancelled, actually came without warning.  I was so disorganized and distracted that I didn’t know how I was going to get through the day.  Then the 2nd grade class came into the room at the end of the day.  They all started to paint, but then someone was singing in a very high voice “la… la… la… LA… la…” over and over again. I didn’t know who was singing, and I thought that high pitch was going to send me over the edge.  However, I didn’t want to stop the singing because it seemed to me that someone was using the tune to help them work.  Later on, I realized it was Madison.  She came up to me after class and said that she had written a song while she painted and proceeded to sing it to me. It was quite a long song and had the same cadence that she had been singing.  I am so glad that I hadn’t stop her singing process.  What started as irritation became a joyful occasion.

We laughed together for a moment, and I vowed to find Madison a have her sing her song to me.  This small moment made it again so clear to me how important it is to honor student’s imagination, to be present to these moments which nurture student growth.  Later that day, Madison sang her song high and sweet and clear.  I held back tears.  She handed me a colorful picture and on the back was part of her song. 

The simple breeze flies through my hair,

The wind is soft like a wind,

Itself the flowers are like a beautiful bloom,

The river flows carrying water.

The trees will swing through the wind.

La… La… La… La… La…

I must add that Madison is an EAL student, and it is even more important to me that we celebrate her use of English.  I wonder what this song would sound like in Mandarin.  I think I will ask her tomorrow.