Most of us here in the Midwest are fighting the dreariness of a long winter transitioning at G-L-A-C-I-A-L pace with lots of gray days into spring. My tulips are finally starting to bloom, but not without the signs of a hard-fought battle. Many of them have leaves that look like old boxer’s ears.
This is the time of year that teachers are often reaching into their energy savings accounts: we have survived the long winter, we are wrapping up state testing, we are fighting the cabin fever that comes from rainy indoor recess days. It is so hard to stay true to our beliefs, to be joyful and patient, to find the reserves for creativity and innovation in our classroom.
Last Saturday, I heard a lovely interview with Laura Viers, a musician with a new album. You can listen to the story from Weekend Edition here.
She speaks to the tension between everyday busy-ness and the need for imagination and freedom in an inspiring way:
It’s almost about that mystical feeling you can have spending time with children who are seeing the bright side of things and the almost surrealistic side of things – the turquoise beams, like, someone’s blue eyes are looking at the gutter leaves, which are so boring. But through a child’s eyes, there could be worms. There could be exciting things lighting up the gutter leaves. So it’s – yeah, it’s about the conflict a lot of us feel being parents trying to balance and juggle everything and also artists trying to straddle the line between holding down jobs and raising children and also needing space and time to dream and be imaginative and free in our thinking.
She speaks of the longing to remember to see through a child’s eyes, to imagine, to wonder, to create. She then goes on to talk about the wondering work she does:
I worked very hard on these songs. I worked four hours a day, four days a week for about a year because I was really determined to just keep writing so many songs. I made these songwriting cards for myself where there was a lyric prompt, and then there was a music prompt, and then there was a mood prompt, and I would grab them at random. So one lyric prompt might say, stop making sense. And then the music prompt might say, write in 5/4, like, a different time signature than you’re used to. And then the mood prompt would be like, make it dark. And so I’d have to stick within those parameters and just do, like, little projects, homework projects throughout the weeks.
This interview stuck in my mind for a few reasons.
First, because her songwriting exercise is excellent and easily re-created as a writing exercise for the classroom. I’m going to make a mix & match inspiration book for the classroom with story starters, genre suggestions, and mood & tone prompts. A little notebook with three categories of suggestions to push budding authors to build the discipline of a professional songwriter is simple to create and has the potential for great power.
Second, because it is an important reminder that the joy and fun of creativity and innovation have the necessary correlative of work. Everything we do that is of value requires some level of effort and discipline. It’s fair to infer the level of value we place on an endeavor by the effort and time we dedicate to it.
If the last two sentences are true, then how do our classrooms reflect what we treasure, what we believe is important? How do our professional and personal lives reflect what we treasure and believe? If we believe that creativity, innovation, and curiosity are important for our students and for ourselves, we must do the work of it. We must carve out time and energy, we must practice creativity and innovation in our classrooms and in our lives.
And finally, this story stuck with me because it reminded me that it’s worth it: the work is worth it; the effort is worth it. To open one’s mind to learning or thinking something new always brings reward. Simply turning on NPR on the way home from swim practice on a rainy Saturday morning, led me to beautiful music and lots of thinking. Keep doing the work of wondering and thinking and imagining–it’s worth every minute!
The Integrated Curriculum Classroom 