Let There be Glitter (and Paint and Other Messy Stuff)

First of all, I would like to apologize in advance to the fine custodial staff at my school who tolerates my creative whims where the aftermath results in a mess. The floor of my classroom has looked like Tinker Bell threw up pixie dust at times. Now for you awesome elementary teachers, you're looking at this and saying, "Tell me something new." This article really isn't for you guys. You are the gods and goddesses of some craftiness.

I'm talking to my middle and high school colleagues. The people whose cabinets may be filled with paper, binders, pencils, and other very practical stuff. I had the advantage of first working in the elementary school system, and then being a middle school teacher.  When I moved from elementary school to the middle school, I donated lots of craft stuff to my elementary teacher friends, such as chenille stems (growing up we called them pipe cleaners), glitter, stickers, felt, colorful beads, etc. Why? Because I would no longer need those crafty things. Why? Because middle school kids don't do all that stuff.

So, I wrote plans for the first day of school that didn't involve making anything. We went over the student handbook (painful), and I tried to do some "mature" ice breaking activities. I was enthusiastic, funny, and I felt that I was losing them immediately.

I came home after teaching my first day of middle school deflated.  I told my husband (a veteran middle school teacher), "I don't think they like school very much." He looked at me and replied, "No, you don't say?" This was an eye opener for me. In elementary school, for the most part, kids love coming to school. They love their teachers; they love books; they love reading, and they love learning.

Something happens between 5th grade and 6th grade. I think there's a secret society out there that gathers up all hopeful, happy eager learners, and like Will Smith in Men in Black, zaps their brains, and "Poof!" All good thoughts of school have disappeared. Therefore it was up to me to try and reach them. I tried to find literature they could relate to, and this helped. If something bored me, I didn't dare expect them to read it. I researched activities that would help them understand what we had read. After completing a novel, I even let them paint a setting from the story using the author's description. There were teachers who thought I was insane. And they might not be wrong, but my kids loved it. It was messy, and I do know if they mastered a specific language arts standard from it. Maybe not, but they looked forward to it.  We even made ornaments at Christmas with (my favorite) glitter. One time I got a wild idea after reading a non-fiction book about the Civil Rights Movement. Students researched protest signs used during the civil rights marches, and I let my students paint their own protest sign. To be honest, most of the signs were not beautiful, but they got the idea of the purpose of the activity.

Now I'm no Martha Stewart, and we don't paint every day. But that first year of working with these little angels made me realize something...they were fifth graders with a summer added on. They still loved to learn (okay not all of them); they still loved teachers (okay not most of them); they love reading (something they can relate to), and believe it or not, they love to learn (but it's not cool to say so). They especially enjoy learning if after all that learning is done, they get to use glitter, glue, and paint. Sometimes I even like to sprinkle glitter on their desks and tell them it's magic learning dust.

So I challenge my middle school and high school teachers who feel their crafting days are behind them...see if you can incorporate a fun activity into a unit every so often. Use it as an incentive even for good behavior. You can use that magic educational buzz word "DIFFERENTIATE" and show this by offering those who have turned in all assignments the opportunity to be a Picasso. Just please make sure you make nice with your custodial staff first.