Happiness being taught

by Marla McLean | May 27, 2013 | 1st Grade, aesthetics, Atelierista, beauty, Brain science, Happiness, imagination, Innovation, Marla McLean, Movement, Perseverance, preK children, process, project work, Reggio, studio learning, Uncategorized

Show some emotion.

If you work with young children, you know there are many opportunities to experience emotions.

Last month I was working on a project with some 1st graders. The provocation was to plan a story without writing the details  or the the ending.

Why? Well, I noticed the 1st graders had figured out how to draw and make graphic representations well enough, to respond quickly to pretty much any  prompt or observation. However, their ideas and drawing were somewhat static. The figures (even though well done) seemed to be a stuck at the same level and their story development was not stretching them.

I wanted to know what would happen if each page, a part of the plan was tackled slowly and thoughtfully through a new process.

First, I asked them to look at their story plan and only draw the setting part. “If you said it was winter what needs to be remembered? If you have a location of Washington DC, how do I know it from the picture? If it is night time, show it.”

I was surprised that I had to teach them to “read” or evaluate what they had drawn, to see if it made sense. Having the plan to refer to , made this facilitation quickly become an independent process. Instead of saying, “I’m done!” and me asking “how do you know?” and them responding “Because I did it,” the responses became more intentional, such as “They all have mittens and coats, and there’s snow and a sidewalk, and rowhouses.”

The next time in the art studio the focus was on facial expressions.

Emma Clare, “It’s when you show how you feel on your face.”

Using mirrors and books as resources and really practicing and noticing, the children checked their plan to see if they needed to represent an expression that was happy, sad, surprising…

Bridget

Emma

Carrington

Carrington for several tries drew a U shaped bottom lip and a parralel line for the top lip. Hmmmm, I would say, I’m not seeing an expression of happiness or laughter. I am seeing the same smile you always draw. I want you to push yourself and solve this. I kept prompting, look closely at your top lip in the mirror. What shape is it making? She became extremely agitated, “I don’t know what to do!”. After several attempts and nearing frustration, she realized the top lip is (unbelievably) shaped like a traditional frown line! Once she figured this out, she was elated. She also began helping her peers to see the same thing.

Xavier, surprise

Xavier developed a technique of puposeful smudging, after he accidently dripped some ink on his page. This became a great resource for all the kids once shared.

Alden, surprise

Charlie, surprise

“Huuuh!?” Patrick

Maya concentrated looking in the mirror longer than many of her peers. All of a sudden she looked up at me, with tears streaming down her face-but smiling!

“Look Ms. McLean, I practiced being sad so hard, tears came out!”

Another time in the art studio, I asked them to pull out their story idea or plan and tell me, where they go to in their story.

I then asked them to try to walk, run, skip to their imagined place based on the 1st drawing figures in the setting page. It was hilarious acting out walking with both arms straight out and legs locked straight as well. Thus became the exploration of joints, viewpoint, and action. How does the body work? What do arms do when one walks? How often are both feet on the ground when one is moving? How does one look when being viewed sideways?

Dylan

Mahki

Eli

Adinath

This process was extremely difficult.While the intention was to help children think about movement, expression and observation, it became about perseverence.

I heard Christine Carter, Phd. speak at the Creativity and Neuroscience conference I attended.

She believes there are some simple steps to boost creativity:

Teach kids how to be happy.

While this might be simple, it is far more complex. Happiness is a set of skills that must be learned. She asks, “How’s that problem solving going when you are angry?”

The first place to start is LETTING KIDS FAIL.  Children must be taught the skills, thinking and coping for when things don;t go as planned.

When children do not learn these skills, they hide mistakes, feel shame, expect others (parents/teachers) to “fix” things for them, and in teen years self-medicate through alcohal and drugs.

“No one is entitled to a life free from pain. ” says Christine Carter.

It is necessary to develop grit and persistance. Mistakes are opportunity.

Before one of the studio sessions, I had a conference with Alysia Scofield (one of the 1st grade teachers.) She expressed that many of her kids were quick to crumple up or dispose of any work  when they experience any mistake, instead of working through the hard parts and transforming mistakes or trying to solve the problem. For this reason, I started the class by saying that if you make a mistake, you would not be able to grab another piece of paper today. Instead, you would need to figure out how to make a mistake into something wonderful.

I gave some examples of accidently dropping a big puddle of ink on my drawing. What could I turn this into? Silence.

What about a flower? A hole? A tree? A rug? In fact, the image became more interesting with the transformed mistake.Soon kids were making innovative suggestions.
“Ask each other for ideas! Artists always do that!”

Shortly after, Maya made some type of “mistake” and asked for another paper. I reminded her that this was the challenge, to turn the mistake into something else.  She was not happy. She proceeded to ask, then beg for another piece of paper. I encouraged her to ask friends for suggestions. I told her she could ask me for suggestions if she wanted some. Friends began to chime in with innovative solutions. No.

In that moment, she became so angry, she began to cry, and ask and then return to begging for another piece of paper.

These are moments when you have to make a split second decision. I took a risk, “Maya, I know you can solve this problem. Everyone here is willing to make suggestions. I am so sorry you are feeling frustrated, however, I will not be giving you another piece of paper today. You are welcome to go get a drink of water or take a break if that helps too.”

Katie went over to give her a hug as she returned to drawing silently. She skipped free time and continued drawing, for a long time. Then she looked up at me. “I’m done.”

“Can I see?”

I looked.

“What do you think?” I asked

“It’s the best drawing I have ever done.” replied Maya, with a huge grin.

“I am really proud of you, you didn’t give up, you worked through the hard part, and now you feel really good.”

Big smile.

“It’s my best drawing ever.”

Hard. But not hard for hard-sake.

Another step in teaching kids these skills of developing the abilty to persevere is: Reducing Stress through Compassion.

Instead of focusing on the child/self (What did you do? Did you do your best? Were you line leader? Did you know the answer? Let me see yours) broaden kids capacity and vocabulary for compassion or the “other” with simple daily rituals.

Here’s two questions to ask your children everynight at the dinner table (and the rest of your family members and self too!)

“What’s one thing you did for someone today?”

“What’s one kind thing someone did for you today?”

The brain has a funny way of returning to neural passages ways again and again and again in times of stress or failure. This determines response. When kids (and adults) default to the ways in which they are supported and helped on a constant basis, they are able to frame or perceive problems differently.

Instead of  defaulting to “Well he did it first!, or I couldn’t do it because the teacher wouldn’t give me more paper”, the child defaults to “Oh, I made a mistake, how can I fix it or make it better, who can help me solve this?”

Last week, I made a mistake. Somehow I completely skipped a studio group in Mr. Jere’s room the previous week. When I saw the skipped group, I said, “Ms. McLean made a horrible mistake. I had to change some groups around last week, and I completely skipped you! I feel terrible, because now you have double the work to do. In the future, please say something to me if you think you were skipped. I feel really bad. Grown-ups make mistakes too. I am so sorry.”

“That’s ok Ms. McLean.” replied Harvey, “Now you know what to do!”

The PreK’s have been working on the very long process of creating Soundsuits, inspired by artists Nick Cave.

Watch this video to experience the inspiration for this project: http://video.pbs.org/video/2226846036/ (your children can too, even if they are not in PreK they are aware of this project)

Once again, this is a project that takes tremendous perseverance.

Because I noticed the lure of the tools in the studio, the project started with an ankle piece.

I use real tools with students, and they needed to flatten the bottle caps and then use an awl to put a hole in it.

Dominc: “This is hard work. I’m gonna sweat!”

While some children were energized by the heavy work, others were fatigued. The amount of sensory inout and output varies from child to child. It is my job to notice who is awakened by this work, and remember to use this as an adaptation. At the same time, for those who fatigue early with heavy work, I notate who needs support  to develop their core strength.

When Samuel found his name on a bottlecap he was thrilled. Suddenly, everyone was looking closely at what was printed on the bottlecaps. Soon anchors, elephants and “this is almost my name ” were seen. This act encouraged not only literacy and observation skills, but an understanding and acknowledgment of the extraordinary found in the ordinary.

The work on this project vacillated between focused heavy big work and small focused actions.

Attaching the bottle caps and beads so they create percussion, was once again difficult.

While this  proved frustrating to many, Lucinda seemed to respond to the sequencing and constant twisting and connecting. Her Sound Suit ankle was overflowing with sound. She also was able to help others. Everyone in each group has a strength. Everyone has many challenges. By remembering that Lucinda can help peers in this part of the project, she is also able to receive help at other times. This is the culture  that must be nurtured and taught in order for kids to be able to handle mistakes.

In every part of this project, every time someone completed a part, and tested it out- the perseverance quotient heightened.

Next it was time to revisit the artist Nick Cave’s work.

I started by asking “What is a suit?”

First I got blank stares and silence. Then slowly ideas emerged. This is the power of a group. It promotes formulating  remembering, and responding in a social and conversational construct. It gives each participant a wider breath of looking at topics.,

“A bathing suit! ” Tate

“Superman wears a suit!” Liam

“A costume is like a suit.” Dylan

“My Dad wears a suit!” Audrey and Maddie expressed this in separate groups

“A coat you wear. Something you put on your whole body so people will notice you.” Gabriel (In Jere’s class)

Next, I showed them some videos of Nick Cave’s creations in action and still.

When I stated, “It will take a long time to make your own sound suit.”

Levi shouted out, “Its like the fish!”

He was able to connect the persistance needed to complete the wire project to the ideas of this new project. Hard. But not hard for hard-sake.

This is Eric using his Sound Suit idea plan to figure out what color he needs to select. He is shown using the tape on the table to measure the strips.

The concept that designing an object means more then one view is one leap these learners must learn or “read.” When I first proposed the template for designing the Sound Suits with a two-figure graphic, Mira was the first to figure it out. “Is that the front and the back of the shirt?”

This new way of thinking about a two-sided design using a one-sided paper was also hard.

Aksel was thrilled by the opportunity to alter the design. “Mine will have wings, look!” And he drew the colors so they looped like wings. So many adults do not realize that young children have strong ideas. It is when they have the time, facilitation and the culture to create original ideas that they come to fruition and visibility.

Next, the fabricating of the Sound Suits.

I broke down this part of the project into small bits. First, just weaving the flagging tape through the front and back collar. (Myself and a cadre of parent volunteers snipped two parallel snips for each strip to go through.)

Once again, this was difficult. many kids put the strips in backwards, or had trouble using two hands to manipulate threading the strips through the front and back of the shirt.

Using intentional language and uploading,

When I heard, “This is hard, I can’t do it!”

I said,

“Can’t is a bad word in the art studio-it stops you. What can you say instead?”

and

“This will be difficult. That’s ok. You can take a skipping break down the hall and return, you can stand, you can sit, you can shake your hands, you can jump. Everytime you come it will get a little less hard. The practice will make it easier for you to do. And when you do something hard, and complete it, you feel soooo good because your brain has grown, and you know you can do the hard parts.”

“I’m not very good at this.”

I replied, “That’s because you’ve never done it before. Stick with it, you’ll see, it will start making sense.”

“What are some things you can do when you are stuck?” (Ask for suggestions from other kids and adults, express that it is tricky and I need help, express it is frustrating because you are not alone, it is for hard for someone else in the group too.)

After two to three studio times of adding the collar and sleeves, I told the kids they could try the Sound Suits on.

When the first group tried to attach the flagging tape to the mid section of the shirt, it was too hard. The oversized shirts become just a mess of fabric when trying to find the inside. In this case, hard was just too hard. At this point I came up with a solution that I had a hunch might work.

Embroidery hoops! You can see this allowed for many opportunities to try techniques, and allowed the children to maneuver the strips through successfully.

I am intentionally changing the culture, wheras asking for suggestions is applauded as opposed to a sign of weakness. Wheras it is exciting when someone figures out a way that works for them, and it is shared as a resource for all.

Gabriel (in Ms. Hannah’s class) was having a hard time persevering. He complained and procrastinated. Maybe this felt too big or overwhelming so I helped him break it down further.

“Gabriel, why don’t you put  four strips through the sound suit and then take skip all the way down the hall and back. You can do this each time.”

This helped. Then he started slowing down again.

“Hey Gabriel, how about you count out the strips you are using before you start, just four!”

“I’m gonna do a pattern!”

He returned to the work with energy.

All of a sudden I noticed he was talking as he worked, “In the lava, out the lava, in the water, out the water …”

His flagging tape became a metaphor and a mantra, and he worked to completion.

In the lava out the lava, in the water out the water. Hard, but not hard for hard-sake.

Working in collaboration with Movement Teacher, Shannon Dunne the kids are developing a new conversation with movement and patterns, their selves not as their selves but these “rainbow beings.”

(A flash mob in Eastern Market is being planned in a few weeks, an opportunity to bring these rainbow beings into the unsuspecting daily lives of the public.)

Here’s a peek at Shannon with Mr. Jere’s class taking turns watching two classmates have a conversation using their body and ankle Sound Suit piece  “Remember and think about how one person talks while one person listens, and then you respond and say something. In this conversation you are doing the same thing, but you are using your body and no words to talk.”

See how attentive the rest of the class is.

This idea of choreography surfaced in the studio.

“Look Ms. McLean! ” said Aurora, “Look how to move.

Full Moon

and Half Moon!”

Now that so much progress is being made, they can’t wait to try out the Sound Suits in progress for anyone who will look, teachers, kids in the halls, and especially their classroom teachers and their peers.

Hard isn’t good for hard-sake. But hard is good within the context of a project that encourages not only personal growth but the development of a culture of shared community struggle and JOY!

The Sound Suits are not so interesting on their own, it is within the group that the emotions and purpose soar. It is the development of a community  creating an identity as a group of rainbow beings that make this powerful.

It is hard. But not hard for hard-sakes.

It is fraught with mistakes. But what do you see?

I see happiness being taught.