A Different Path

I have always been a planner...always. Ask my friends and family and they will tell you, if it wasn't in the plan.... This used to interfere with my spontaneity until I a married a very spontaneous man. He has helped me to enjoy the unknown and the unplanned. As we have journeyed together I have become more flexible and able to be more in the moment. Do I have a way to go? Yes, but I am getting there. This year teaching has also helped to create a more spontaneous person. The students have made me look at flexibility in a whole new way.

During a class about describing words, I took my students on a guided imagery trip. I was focused on getting out new words to describe the beauty around us. I told the children we were going to try something different and go somewhere in our minds to "see" things differently. I had a very clear picture of walking down a path across a field, heading into the forest where there was a creek. I knew the words I was hoping the children would come up with. I knew what I wanted to happen. With our eyes closed and the vision before us I was asking students what they saw, felt, tasted, heard and smelled. I was quickly writing down the words the child were using, exactly the type of words I was looking for, yay! Words like crunched, earthy, tingling, velvet, etc were being used by grade 2's. Success!  We continued mentally down the path in the forest and discussing the things we were experiencing, when one student put his hand up and and said, " Mrs. S I  think I took the wrong path".  I asked him why and he responded "cause I don't see the same things as you". I responded with "whatever path you are on is the right one, now tell me what you see". Still with his eyes closed, this quiet, reluctant, writer provided my students with descriptive words that I had not expected to hear.

I couldn't have planned it better.

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