Transforming the way I Introduce my Poetry Unit to Help Students Keep an Open Mind to what is Possible

This week’s entry will be predominantly written in verse, as I tell the story of how I have transformed the manner in which I kick off my Poetry Unit. If you’re not a fan of poetry, I challenge you to open your mind and give it a try. If you’re a poetic fanatic, I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

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I found, teaching the fine art of

poetry can be formidable,

as if it is a complex

algebraic expression written in

Latin or Roman Numerals because

our students wear their academic pasts

like weighted blankets or capes,

depending on the emotional tags

that litter them.

Some students enter the world

of fifth grade with a fixed mindset

regarding poetry:

They see it as a strange language

or obtuse form of writing

that is so far removed from reality

that they can’t possibly wrap

they minds or hands around it.

To some students, poetry is

a different language that must end in

rhymes and focus on the topics

of love and flowers,

like an episode of the Care Bears cartoon.

While I love Share Bear and all that

the delightfully cuddly Care Bears represent,

Poetry isn’t like some puzzle

that only fits together one way.

Poetry is like a tectonic plate floating

on the molten rock of creativity

and possibilities: Mystic Mountains

of raw emotion could be formed

if words are placed together

just so, but

valleys and rivers of tranquil peace

and harmony could also transpire

if words are sewn together in

a different, unique manner.

Poetry is a form of art and expression

filled with what ifs and whys,

unlike a math equation that has

but one correct answer.

The possibilities and limits transcend

our conscious understanding

of what is and what could be.

Poetry is anything and everything

wrapped up in enigma of

mental scabs and used cotton swabs.

This year, I decided to swim

against the current of my

previous poetry curriculum

and take a risk–

So, I strapped on a shark fin of curiosity

and scuba suit of wonder and fun

to try and change how my students

see poetry.

I kicked off my unit on poetry

without ever uttering that Scarlet Word.

Instead, my students and I

examined the Power of Words,

as if observing the slide of a

paramecium under a microscope.

We confabulated on how some words

possess power in both positive

and negative ways,

like both ends of a battery.

We debated words and how their

etymologies have evolved

over time like viruses and bacterium.

We dug deep into the history and origins

of the English language.

My students learned to see

words as having possibilities and

opportunities.

Our final activity before

I removed the veil

and began to utter that powerful P word,

had students playing with words

as if they were in a sandbox

creating some magical castle

that had never been imagined or seen

before.

The students had various

words or phrases written on magnets

that they attempted to use

in fresh, new ways,

as if they were language

inventors creating new images

or phrases.

They combined these words

in different ways,

challenging the conventions

of English and rules of grammar.

They pushed the line

of what we think we know

and comprehend to craft

some absolutely brilliant

new images and phrases.

They laughed and sat in awe

of their new creations.

My students enjoyed playing

with words as if that is what

speaking and our language

is all about.

They started to think of

words and language like

malleable pieces of tin foil

or clay that could be manipulated

in a multitude of ways

to construct something new,

something different.

They were word artists,

and their canvases were their

laptops as they typed these

new creations.

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Here are some examples of the word creations they built during our Playing with Words activity:

• “You can keep it. (My two cents, not your cake)”
• “Night devils”
• “Monkeys tear porcelain”
• “They drink poison like chicken between life”
• “Lights fire all over time”
• “The bottom line cut out for no winner”
• “Above time almost no life”
• “Global air tried to kill cat”

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After we reveled in the

beauty and magic of their word

creations, we debriefed this

activity and the meaning that

could be gleaned from it,

as if it was some sort of crystal

ball that held the secrets of

the universe and what comes next.

Students realized that words

should and could be played with

when we change the way

we perceive and see the world

and our place in it.

When we accept that anything can

happen, that everything is permitted,

than risks will be taken and

new creations can be crafted.

In that moment, I then used

that once dreaded word;

because now the minds of my students

were plastic and open,

ready to swallow anything

thrown into them.

“Welcome to our new unit on…

Poetry,” I said as shouts of joy

rang out as if I’d just shared

that they had all won some

lovely lottery where candy and recess

were the prizes.

For once, they seemed excited when

I uttered the word Poetry.

They seemed elated to keep

testing the boundaries of possibility

while playing with words in

different and special ways.

We discussed the nucleus of poetry

without confining it to

a stranglehold of rules and rhymes,

before I handed out their

Poetic Licenses,

which gave them the ability and

permission to break the rules of

English grammar, spelling, and

punctuation in pursuit of the unknown,

the new and innovative.

My students seemed thrilled,

like they were strapped into

some epic roller coaster

that was about to blast off on some

amazing trip. They couldn’t wait

to test out their licenses and

try new things. They were excited to

write lines and stanzas of poetry.

They didn’t feel restricted or

fixed in how they viewed this

art form of writing;

instead, they seemed energized

and empowered to be the next

Shel Silverstein or Emily Dickinson.

I rode this wave of positivity and

possibility into the sunrise as we

then learned about the numerous

ways we can explore language figuratively:

We played with alliteration, hyperbole,

metaphors, similes, idioms, and personification

as they viewed the world through the lens

of what could be and what never was.

They gave clouds legs and frogs fancy

clothing as they explored the realm of

poetry and verse.

I felt like a magnificent wizard

waving my lyrical wand

as the students made words dance upon

the page and screen.

They were so excited to share

their Free Verse poems with me

last week because they

pushed themselves beyond

the limits of what they used

to see as possible and

discovered a whole world of

new words, phrases, and emotions.

I could not, would not

be more proud of my

fifth grade poets than

I was in the moment we

started crafting unique

poems. They no longer see

poetry in the way they may have

been introduced to this form

of writing in years gone by.

They now look at poetry

as a portal to the unknown

that is filled with giggles,

sadness, and beauty.

They see themselves as

crafters of advice, inspiration,

and stories that do more

than simply tell tales.

They became poets on the first

day of our poetry unit

because they weren’t

limited by the chains of their

poetic pasts. They utilized

a new, poetic mindset

to see what is possible

when you play with words

in fun, new, and innovative ways.

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Here are some lines from the Free Verse poems my students crafted in class this past week:

Example 1

“When I look back

what I see hasn’t walked

the sun more than twice.”

Example 2

“The yolk of the egg was

like ashes of heat and scars

that hurt like bullet holes

on their own wind.”

Example 3

“The wind hammered at the window

it ran away with the leaves

it ripped the power lines.”

Example 4

“When the rain starts falling

you can hear the old dog calling.”

Example 5

“The writing that you don’t know

opens up your mind

and lets it go.”

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Because I changed the way that I introduced my Poetry Unit without ever talking about poetry for the first several lessons, I do believe that I was able to help my students keep their minds open to the possibility and wonder of poetry. They seemed excited when writing their first poems, unlike in previous years when it felt as if they were simply going through the motions and writing poems because that was the assignment. This year feels different. This year my students seem to view poetry as some sort of special prize they’ve won. We even crafted a class poem during Thursday’s Morning Meeting activity. They are liking that they can break rules and try new things when writing poems. They seem to view poetry as playing with words.

Although our Poetry Unit has just begun, I am already seeing a difference in the mindset of my students and what they are crafting during our writing periods. They seem happy to write lines and stanzas full of imagery and emotion. One student even crafted a poem about how her family’s pet goat had passed away a few days prior. She poured her emotion and feelings into the piece. It was both heartbreaking and beautiful all at once.

My goal was to allow my students to see poetry as possibility, and I do now feel that they do. They no longer see poetry as some foreign language or restrictive type of writing. They see poetry as fun and magical. I can’t wait to see what amazing poetry my students create next as they flex their poetic and creative muscles.

The Fifth Grade Class Olympics: An Example of How Refusing to Be Bound by Expectations Helped to Create an Awesome Student Activity

Expectations, SMEC-pectations. Expectations are boundaries and limits placed upon humans by society. We are supposed to live within these stringent limitations because it is what is expected of us. These walls of expectations keep us safe, is what the world wants us to believe. The truth of the matter is that expectations keep us trapped inside invisible cages. Expectations prevent the impossible or possible from happening. If we attempt to live within the confines of expectations, then we’ll never truly know of what we are capable. If women remained true to the expectations of the 1950s, then we’d never have females in the workplace, as they’d all be home cooking and cleaning for their families. We’d never have known Karen Lynch, the current CEO of CVS Health or Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to be named to NASA’s Astronaut Program. We need to shatter this system of exceptions that holds us all back. It’s time to forgo expectations and simply live life to the fullest. Goodbye expectations and hello good vibrations.

Despite trying to live in the present moment, unbound by some predisposed expectation, I do find myself afraid of the unexpected from time to time. What if the new lesson I planned isn’t long enough? Should I go back to the lesson I used in previous years because I know that it meets the expectation of time? What if this new recipe I discovered doesn’t come out the way I hope it does? Although I know that I should be more open to trying new things and taking risks, I sometimes find myself walking hand-in-hand with that evil enemy expectation. When I allow fear, doubt, and insecurity to permeate my thinking, all hope is lost. I need to let go and just be. I need to live life knowing that failure and mistakes are all a crucial part of the learning process. I can’t grow and mature without messing up occasionally. I need to push myself outside of my comfort zone to be able to fully grasp and know what is possible. If I allowed expectations to control me, I never would have tried to tackle creating a Class Olympics.

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In Late January, as the world anxiously awaited the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, I wondered how I might recognize and celebrate the Olympics in my fifth grade classroom. Would we watch the Opening Ceremonies during our Current Events period that week? Would I have the students note and keep track of the medals each country earns in order to graph some statistics in Math class? It was then that I realized my thinking was chained to expectations and fear. I was only thinking of activities that had some sort of predicted outcome. What about activities that I have never tried in the past that could be fun and engaging or a horrible disaster? I allowed myself to think freely and openly as I brainstormed ideas about how I could invite the Winter Olympics into my classroom; and that’s when I came up with the idea of the Fifth Grade Olympics.

My original idea was sparse. I didn’t know how it would all work out, but I knew that I wanted to give it a go. All I knew in the moment was that I wanted our Class Olympics to coincide with the actual Winter Olympics. We would begin on the day of Opening Ceremonies and end on the school day prior to Closing Ceremonies in China. That’s all I knew when I came up with my idea. I didn’t have anything else fleshed out, just that bare bones skeleton of start and end dates.

The week the Winter Olympics were slated to begin, I started to freak out a bit. What was I going to do? How would it work? I had already gotten the students excited about our Class Olympics, and so I needed a plan. I decided to start with the students choosing the countries they would represent in our Fifth Grade Olympics. We looked at the 91 nations participating in this year’s Olympics to get an idea of possibilities. I then chose popsicle sticks to determine the choosing order. The students were excited about picking their countries. Our Olympics included seven nations: The United States of America, China, New Zealand, Canada, Italy, France, and Japan.

I then decided that we would have a different event during every school day for the duration of our Class Olympics. While this seemed like a good idea in the moment, it proved to be a daunting task at times. I had our first event slated to coincide with the Opening Ceremonies, but then we had a Snow Day. So, our first event took place on Monday, February 7. It was a quiz on the terms and concepts we had covered in our Math unit on the Stock Market. Students who correctly completed the worksheet earned points for their country. The following day, we had our first rankings posted. Excitement was in the air. I believe Canada or Japan was in the top spot after our first event.

While we had successfully kicked off our Class Olympics, we did not yet have a mascot. So, the second event had the students create a possible mascot. I had students in the other grades judge the submissions created by my fifth graders and they decided on “The Fifth Best Class Beaver” as the winner. At that point, we then had our countries, mascot, and first events in the books. Our Class Olympics was off to a great start and controversy free, unlike the actual Winter Olympics.

During the final week and a half of our Class Olympics, the students participated in a menagerie of daily events. Some highlights included…

• Indoor Curling: I taped paper plates together for the rocks and offered the students actual brooms as sweepers. They launched the “rocks” down our “icy” floor and towards the points area. Unfortunately, paper plates don’t slide too well on linoleum and so we only had one person make it into the points part of our course. Regardless, the students had a blast playing Indoor Curling.
• Broom Ball: Because of the cold temperatures that plagued NH in early February, all of the snow-covered surfaces on our school’s campus became ice rinks. So, I set up goals and provided the students with brooms and a ball. They broke themselves into two teams and played a heck of a competitive game of Broom Ball. It was scoreless going into the final five seconds of the game when one team did finally score. We then had a fun round of penalty shots for both teams to try their hand at scoring one final time. The students loved this outdoor adventure game.
• Sled Challenge: The students designed sleds using materials available in the classroom, constructed their sleds, and then raced them down our sledding hill. This was probably the most favorite event of the entire Class Olympics. They drew blueprints to design their sleds and then had 30 minutes in class to build their sleds. They worked together well to accomplish this task. Each group presented their finished sled to the class by introducing their process and sled name. We had The Glider, The Bobcat, and the Snow Crusher. What epic names! The students then raced down the hill on their sleds in various heats. We had the single races so that each student had a chance to sled down on their creation first. We finished out the competition with the Group and Stunt Races. It was hilarious watching them all race down on their tiny sleds together.
• Winter Olympics Blooket Quiz: The students competed against each other while answering various trivia questions about the Winter Olympics. They love playing Blooket and so this event was also a huge hit.
• Jeopardy: The final event was a class game of everybody’s favorite gameshow. I threw in questions from all of our current units. The students competed in team and liked answering various questions about what we’d been learning in all of our classes.

As we will be on our Long Weekend break during the Closing Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics, we held our Closing Ceremonies on Thursday, our final class day before our break and the actual Closing Ceremonies. It was a special occasion that was completed in place of our Closing Circle. The final Class Olympics standings were revealed and our winners received their medals. We played the Canadian National Anthem when the student who won Gold was crowned the victor of our Class Olympics. However, I did remind all of my fifth grade superheroes that they are all champions in my mind. We ended our Closing Ceremonies with some tasty treats to celebrate the big moment. The four winners, as we had a tie for third place, were so proud of their accomplishments that they wore their medals as they departed school on Thursday. What a special event!

Although the students loved our Class Olympics, they did provide me with some feedback, if I were to tackle this again in the future: “Do less academic events and more fun or sports events like Broom Ball.” That was their only piece of sage advice. I’ll take their lack of future suggestions to mean that they mostly loved and enjoyed our Class Olympics.

While I will not have the chance to hold another Class Olympics during the actual Winter Olympics, for four years, I could do something like this every year. It felt like a great way to brighten up the cold and often dark winter month of February. I may try something like this next year too; however, I would definitely switch-up some of the events that were duds with ones the students might prefer.

Despite some hiccups with some of the events throughout the class Olympics, this risk turned out to be an amazing winner of an activity, and to think I almost went with just a discussion to celebrate the Winter Olympics in my class. I’m glad I threw expectations out the door and tried something new, as it was an awesome experience. So, to all of you out there reading this, don’t allow fear to stop you from living your life to the fullest. If you want to try and train to be an Olympic athlete, then go for it. Or, if you want to go to an all-day music festival on the hottest day of May where they charge $10 for a bottle of water, then you should go and enjoy the music, because City and Colour’s set was totally worth it. Don’t allow expectations to restrict how you live your life.

Process Over Product: The Journey is how Magic and Growth Happen

The countdown has begun. The Super Bowl is hours away and excitement is in the air. Even non-football fans are energized about the big event because it’s more than just about football. The halftime show is sure to be amazing, and don’t even get me started on the commercials. I can’t wait to see what companies and organizations have put together this year. The night promises a little bit of something for everyone. Are you ready for some football?

One of the many things I love about the Super Bowl is the build up to the big game. While we’ve known the teams that would be participating in this epic battle for two weeks, the anticipation is exhilarating. Which team will hold up the trophy at the end of the evening? Which players will shine brightest on the field tonight? How awesome will the Halftime Show be, and will there be another wardrobe malfunction? All of this waiting and wondering also provides us with some pensive reflection time.

The two teams taking the field tonight do not have the best records in their respective divisions. Very few people predicted that these two teams would make it as far as they did. The Bengals began the season with several losses and the Rams lost all of their preseason games. Analyzing the statistics for these two teams, it seems almost improbable that they should be playing in tonight’s Super Bowl. But, the Rams and the Bengals defied the odds against them by persevering through their struggles and challenges and valiantly fighting their way to victory. While both teams faced adversity at various points in the season, they overcame it and rose above the negative white noise coming from announcers and critics. They worked together as teams, as families, to play the best football possible during the playoffs. Both the Rams and the Bengals defeated teams that were predicted to beat them. They climbed their mountains that stood before them and never looked back. Tonight’s game isn’t about four quarters of football, it’s about a season-long journey. It’s about the growth that these two teams have experienced since August. Regardless of the outcome this evening, we should all revel in the journeys that these two groups of individuals had to take to get where they are today: Process over product every time.

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Like the teams in tonight’s big game, my fifth grade class has undergone amazing growth and changes this year. Back in September, I wondered if we would make it to June completely intact. Based on the actions and choices of some of my students, I wondered if they would survive the year without being expelled or asked to leave the school. Students cursed at each other when I wasn’t around and seemed to show the other teachers at our school that they didn’t care about doing the right thing. My class in September was very much like the Rams during their preseason games — a group of unrefined individuals selfishly running amok. We were the rough and tumble bunch that everyone thought would crash and burn. Although we had our turbulent moments during the first few months of the school year, like the Bengals and the Rams, we came together as a team, a family working together towards a common goal: To grow and learn as students and people.

We weathered the storms we faced as a class during the first half of the school year. My students learned how to be kind and compassionate towards each other while also pushing themselves to grow as thinkers and learners. We persevered through the struggles because I believed that we could. I had faith that each and every one of my students would be able to work through their inner challenges in order to blossom into something amazing and special. When things were tough, we stopped and talked about it. When students were unkind towards one another, we took time to figure out why and then worked to repair the damage. I focused on the Social and Emotional aspects of learning and teaching during the first three months of the school year so that we could get to a place where we all feel safe, cared for, respected, and trusted. Genuine learning can’t happen unless students are engaged and feel like a part of a community.

While everything we’ve done to get to the point where we currently are as a family of fifth graders working together and taking care of each other has made a difference, there are two pieces of this puzzle that I believe helped to steer our ship through the troubled waters of the beginning of the school year.

• Daily Effort Grades and Feedback: Following each school day, I would enter grades and specific feedback into Google Classroom for each student. I would highlight the positive things that they did that day while also specifically naming the challenges they need to work on in order to grow as students and community members. During the first month of the academic year, I provided students time in class to read and review their feedback if they didn’t have a chance to do it prior to the start of the next school day. I also contacted the families of my students to be sure they reminded their children to check their daily feedback and review it with them. Having a strong support system helps to promote meaningful growth and change that sticks. As a class, we talked a lot during September and October about the importance of feedback and why I provide them with it on a daily basis. They used this feedback to know what they needed to work on and change during the next school day. While their growth and change during the start of the school year was more like a roller coaster than a mountain climb, they did work to apply the feedback with which I provided them. They began learning from their mistakes. However, this daily written feedback was only one part of my two-pronged approach to bringing about real change within my students.
• Weekly One-on-One Student Conferences: Each Friday afternoon, while my class is quietly reading, I meet with each of my students individually to review their daily feedback and discuss their goals. I review challenges they faced during the week and highlight positive areas of growth. My students ask me questions and can talk about anything that may be on their minds during these conferences. Sometimes these conferences are transformed into therapy sessions because that’s what that student needs in that moment. These talk sessions allow me to make their daily effort feedback tangible for them. I highlight specific examples that allow the students to make sense of their challenges and then, together, we make a plan to grow and change. At the start of the year, these conferences tend to be much longer as there is more to discuss; however, at this point in the year, they are much shorter because they are all on an upward and positive trajectory of growth.

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Daily Effort Feedback Examples

• Excellent work participating in our Social Studies discussion on Digital Citizenship today. Well done! You took great notes and got involved in our chat effectively. Amazing job in Math working on your assigned task. Way to work hard on your fraction pretest. Awesome job in Language Arts during our read aloud and silent reading period. Great focus and effort. Love it! You do need to work on being prepared and ready to go on time for each and every class. You were not ready with your pencil for Math this morning. Please work on this for tomorrow.
• Today seemed like a difficult day for you. You were rude and disrespectful to a teacher at Community this morning. That is not okay. You know how to behave for adults. Why did you choose to be unkind to her? We’ll be talking more about this in the morning. You also struggled to stay focused and on task in Math, Social Studies, and Language Arts. You were very distracted by and to a peer. You need to find a way to focus on the task at hand and not allow yourself to get distracted by or to distract your peers. You are a very intelligent, creative, and wonderful young man who is capable of great things when you focus on YOU. I challenge you to bring more focus and effort to your work and day tomorrow.
• Great work this morning in Math reviewing your basic computational facts. Nice effort and focus! Although your partner had your Partner Knowledge Quest worksheet, you tried to do some work in Social Studies to fill in the gaps you thought you had in your worksheet. Nice work trying to accomplish the task at hand. Love the dedication! You need to keep working on doing your homework on time, as you did not have your Dialogue Journal entry finished by the start of class today. Please work on this for tomorrow. You also need to keep working on staying focused and mindful during Meditation, as you were cracking your knuckles and not focused today. Please put more effort into this area for tomorrow.
• What a phenomenal way to end the school week! You rocked the classroom today. Stellar effort in Math making your graph and calculating the Central Tendencies for your data points. You took your time and worked in a very focused manner. Well done! Excellent work in Science trying to create a working Marble Coaster. While you weren’t successful in completing the challenge, you never gave up and kept working hard. Nice work! Amazing work in Language Arts during the read aloud and practicing the extra credit for the Big Word. Well done! Have an awesome long weekend!

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Together, these two puzzle pieces have helped to foster real and lasting change within my students, and the class as a whole, because they now know and understand what they need to do to foster that change. Growth isn’t something that happens overnight; it takes time for people to change and grow together as a team or community. However, when people of any age are provided with daily, specific feedback on their successes and challenges, then a plan to move forward can be made and enacted. If we don’t know what we don’t know, then how can we be expected to grow and change. Students, athletes, and all people need to be provided with feedback on their progress in order to know what they need to do to improve.

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So, as you enjoy tonight’s big game, don’t forget to stop and realize the amazing growth journeys these two teams have been on throughout the entire season. The Bengals and Rams did not get where they are today by being awesome from day one; they grew and changed over time due to their hard work, constant feedback, and great coaching. Go Bengals!

Can Creativity Be Taught or Fostered or Is it a Fixed, Innate Trait?

“To be or not to be, that is the question.” Although I’m no fan of Billy Shakespeare, perhaps he was onto something when he penned that iconic line. Is creativity an innate trait that people are born with or without or is it something that can be learned and taught? Can all people be creative if taught how to do so or is it only a select few that have the special talent of being creative? Is creativity something that is fixed within us or can it be tended to and nurtured?

This discussion on the nature of creativity has been ongoing for years. There are a few different schools of thought on the topic as well. There are those who believe that creativity is something you are either born with or not. They view creativity and talent as something that must be nurtured and practiced, but it has to be there to begin with. Then, there’s the other side of the creativity coin. Many people believe that creativity and ability is something that can be learned. People can be taught to be creative.

As a teacher, I see creativity as something that can be taught and fostered under the proper circumstances. Students have to feel safe and unafraid to take risks when trying new things. The most creative work comes out of something new and different. Students need to feel supported and cared for in order for creativity to happen. Students need to know that they won’t be made fun of if they try something completely different. One of my main goals each and every year as an educator is to create a safe and caring environment for my students. I want my students to feel cared for, supported, and as though they are part of a special family. Once the foundation of safety and care has been laid in my classroom, then I can work to help my students learn to take creative risks and try new things in their writing, art, science experiments, and much more. It is my perception that creativity is something that can “be” for all people.

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While it took a few months, my fifth grade class finally came together as a family of learners prior to the Holiday Break in December. Once school resumed in January, I knew that I could then begin the process of nurturing the seeds of creativity within my students. As they all felt more comfortable and trusting of one another, I knew that I could push them all outside of their comfort zones a bit more. I drizzled creativity-building activities throughout all of the subjects in January to help my students stretch themselves, take risks, and learn that being creative is fun and exciting.

In Science, I had my students create Marble Coasters, Car Tracks, and Rube Goldberg Machines with very few parameters. My goal was to inspire them to think big and creatively, which they totally did. They constructed some very unique creations to test and demonstrate various Physics concepts being covered. In Math, my students generated a project that would allow them to gather data for which they could calculate the Mean, Median, Mode, and Range. Some of the students really challenged themselves to think outside of the realm of possibility when completing this project. They allowed the juices of creativity to flow within them. In Language Arts class, the students had many opportunities to practice being creative. They brainstormed and tried new and engaging ways to memorize a 45-letter word. Some of the students sang or rapped the word in order to learn it. Talk about being creative. Now that my students aren’t afraid of failure and see it more as a part of the learning process, they are able and willing to try new things, take risks, and allow the seeds of creativity to blossom into magnificent flowers and orchids within themselves.

One of the projects that really allowed my students to push themselves beyond what they thought were their creative limits was wrapped up this week. The final phase of our Etymology Unit in Language Arts class concluded this week, as the students turned in their final products on Thursday. Each student chose five words that they liked or found intriguing that also had very engaging and unique etymologies. No student could choose the same word as another. The students then created a page for our class Etymology Dictionary for each of their words.

Instead of simply retelling the Etymology of each word they chose, I challenged the students to craft the origin of the word as an engaging and creative story, something that would pull readers in and make them want to learn and know more about that particular word. While this was difficult for many of the students, they rose to the occasion and each student created some very unique and amazing Etymology Stories for their chosen words. I was blown away by their creativity. They took risks, chose words that had a risqué etymology, and then found fun and interesting ways to convey what they learned. I learned so much from my students throughout this project. I did not know that the musical genre we think of rap used to mean something completely different in a Scandinavian language. So cool! My students, once again this year, became the teachers as I slipped into the role of student, and I loved every moment of it.

The Etymology Story was not the only opportunity for creativity in this project. The students also needed to create a relevant and appropriate image or picture for each of the pages they created. For some who said, “I am not artistic,” earlier in the school year, this was the most difficult portion of the project. They had to think and take them time to create something that showcased the origin of each word they chose and their effort as creators. Some students needed to look at pictures online for inspiration while others drew from their imagination. It was wonderful for me to watch the different journey that each of my students endured to complete their five images. A few of the students were amazed by what they had created. I don’t think they knew what they were capable of until they had to complete this epic challenge. One student drew a dog so realistically that it blew his classmates away. “That’s amazing!” many of his peers said when they saw his picture.

When I was a student in school, drawing or artistic activities always frightened me because I was afraid to try new things or take risks. I didn’t want to be made fun of, and so I stuck with what I knew when I drew people and pictures. I played it safe because I didn’t want to mess up or fail. I never felt like my teachers taught me to see the power and magnitude of failure and risk-taking. Due to the large classes of which I was a part in my local public school, it was difficult for my teachers to foster a sense of family and trust within the students. I never felt safe enough to really be true to my creative talents as an artist. As a teacher, I want to prevent that feeling of hopelessness from ever happening to my students. I want my students to try, fail, take risks, try new things, and see what is possible.

The drawing part of this Etymology Project was one of my favorites for my students because it allowed so many of them to challenge themselves and try new things that they never thought possible. Some of them were so amazed with their final products because they sowed the seeds of creativity within themselves. During this project, when one student stayed after school to work on his illustrations, he asked, “Did you add the drawing part to make this project more fun?” My response was, “I added the drawing piece to challenge those who needed to be pushed and to allow those who like to showcase what they know in a visual manner, to shine.”

While I have been teaching this unit on Etymology for a few years, this was the first year I decided to mix things up and add in this final project. I’ve just always felt that something was missing from this unit. Although we talk about the history of the English language and dig into the etymology of that big word I love so much, I have never allowed the students to learn the etymology of words they choose. This project came out of my desire to help engage all of my students in the search for a love of words and language. I could not have been happier with how this project turned out. The students loved it and it truly challenged them to tap into the creativity they all have deep inside of them. It was fun to watch them struggle to transform boring etymology into exciting origin stories. I loved watching the students share what they had written or drawn with me or their peers because they were amazed and proud of themselves. I will definitely be using this project for years to come.

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The moral of this very convoluted story is that like many of the words my students researched for this project, the meaning of Willy Shakes’ words has evolved over time. In my eyes, “To be or not to be, that is the question,” is no longer a question with only one possible outcome. To be creative takes time, effort, and support. That iconic line is no longer about negative failure, but instead focuses on when and how one will be creative. All people are born with the seeds of creativity within them; it’s up to them and their environment what happens next. We can all be creative and inventive in our own ways. “To be, is the only way.”