Authored by Jessica Parker-Farris
Let me paint my own end-of-the-year classroom experience: eight children interrupting me all at once; children arguing over markers, personal space, or fidgets; children staring into nothingness or, better yet, rolling their eyes; children seeing just how far they can stretch one piece of bubble gum (Where did they get gum???); children putting boogers on each other; emotionally charged and sensory over-stimulated children; exhausted, grouchy, snappy children.
The end of the year always brings its own set of challenges. Kids are just checked out, burned out, D-O-N-E! And I think I will be the first one to confess that I’m right there with them! I’m not one to give up easily, but my usual go-to is push harder, work harder, maybe get frustrated and a little resentful. Striving to lean into joy this year, I’ve been reflecting on how to approach things in a new light. Typically when things aren’t going according to plan, I’d ask myself what soft skills my students are missing, but this year I was in David Kelly’s Improv PLC, and he talked about changing something about the way I show up to class and seeing if I get a different response from my students. I had done this at a small scale a few years ago noticed good results – I had a certain student that had more “bad” days than “good” days in art class but had noticed that if I talked in a slightly silly voice and cracked a few jokes, this kid immediately smiled and became excited to work on their project. This discussion in improv, to actively experiment showing up to class in different ways, freed me this year to try this more consciously and without guilt.
It began in November when I was teaching clay techniques to my students. Clay can only be manipulated so fast, and as we all know, students these days can quickly get bored and lose interest. In second grade we were learning slab method, and as a way to regain their attention, I showed them slip-and-scoring by adding a face onto my slab piece of clay. Once the character was finished, I make-believed it could talk. It began taking over my lesson and telling kiddos what to do next. Their eyes quickly widened and smiles came across their faces. They were hooked into what it was saying. I acted like it “talked too much” and was “taking over my lesson” and therefore decided the best solution was to squish it at the end of the demo. As I squished it, it squealed a muffled “Nooooo!!!!” sound. The kids all laughed hysterically. This made them all eager to go to the tables and try to make their own clay projects. Later that week, other students had gotten word and wanted to know if the clay would be coming to life in their classes as well.
In March of this school year, I was having a similar experience. Students weren’t listening, and I was feeling frustrated and burned out. Between classes, I immediately grabbed the closest thing to me, my dry-board eraser, and quickly sketched a face on it. And POOF! That is the moment my eraser instantaneously came to life. I hadn’t expected things to progress as quickly as they did or I would have put some forethought into her design.
As I began teaching with this character, students were both fascinated and curious. I hadn’t planned on so many questions about her. At a certain point, I would tell them, “I don’t know what she thinks about “X.” You’ll just have to ask her yourself.” Students eventually started helping me make-believe the character to life, and we created her own profile. While the first graders quickly dubbed her Queen Bee (Her colors mostly being black and yellow, I can only assume this choice of name was a direct result of their homeroom studies – they were in the middle of a unit on bees) students from every grade were excited and intrigued by her!
Queen Bee’s personality is over the top. With a groggily and high-pitched voice, she talks incredibly fast, c-o-n-t-i-n-u-o-u-s-l-y, and without prior thought, which means she doesn’t always make the right decisions. She often helps me model what the kiddos shouldn’t do before anyone else has had the opportunity to actually “mess up.” This gives them a few laughs, keeps things exciting, but still helps me control the level and duration of said “drama.” So sometimes she models how to apologize for interrupting the teacher or for being slightly inconsiderate or selfish. But as much as Queen Bee isn’t perfect, she notices what others do well and is quick to share her kind and constructive thoughts. Many students feel so close to her that they tell her things they won’t tell me. She’s super curious and confident but a simple eraser, which means, while she asks the kiddos lots of questions or makes suggestions, she doesn’t do things for them.
A few weeks ago Queen Bee took a two week vacation to Hawaii since she was burned out (My voice needed a rest! ha!). Students were eager to learn how she was able to travel so far while only being a two month old eraser. Kids wrote her fan mail, made her works of art and birthday cards (It’s March 28th in case you wanted to know!), suggested I create Queen Bee her own web page – the list goes on! And now that she’s back, her popularity and adventures only continue to grow. Students have been making works of art inspired by her – one moment she’s surfing and the next she’s hanging out with Taylor Swift! The kids were so glad they had a few more weeks with her before school let out, and they’re already asking if she’ll be back next school year!
I’ve had fun making-believing along with the children, and presenting from this other voice has proved a fun and helpful teaching strategy in the classroom. Check out a few of the ways Queen Bee has assisted me in the classroom so far:
- Engages kids in the lesson just by being present (She’s cute and fun – what can I say!)
- Observes and asks students thought-provoking questions
- Models healthy friendships
- Demonstrates how to envision a W.O.W. (wonderful, original work of art)
- Creates a safe space for risk-taking (makes mistakes and tries again)
- Models forgiveness and kindness
- Creates an engaging space through excitement and curiosity
- Helps with lessons and skill-builders through personal examples
(Ex. Helped third graders with shading, story-telling, and comics; perfectly modeled my anthropomorphism lesson with first graders)
- Challenges and encourages students to imagine and problem-solve
Luckily, we’ve finally made it to the end of the year. Hopefully we can all take some very needed time for rest and restoration. But if next year you find yourself feeling burned out or frustrated – or better yet, playful and creative – I highly recommend allowing yourself the freedom to explore communicating with your students from a different perspective, voice, or character and see what possibilities it creates!