I have had a colourful week. If this week was a colour, it would be all the colours of the rainbow, in their brightest and most beautiful shades (kind of; that's a tad generous but I'm trying to be positive....!). This, my friends, means my week has been sensational compared to Week 6. If Week 6 was a colour it would be the most awful shade of grey imaginable, with a side of baby poo yellow. In this post, find out why my week was full of rainbows and sunshine, what colourfulness is happening in my classes and what rainbow related phrase I heard from an 11 year that has been stuck in my head all week and really has helped me look at life just that little more positively.
Sometimes a child tells you something that resonates with you longer than just the lesson in which they tell you. That happened to me this week. I had the privilege of attending an anti-bullying workshop with one of my Year 7 classes, as this week is Say No to Bullying Week. The students were doing an activity where the facilitator said a statement to them and they had to get on one side of the room if they agree with the statement, and another side of the room if they disagree, and stand in the middle if they are neutral. Whatever part of the room they chose to stand in, they had to justify their response if called upon.
The statement was “Getting bullied promotes character building”. The boy chosen, let’s call him Indigo to keep with the colour theme, was standing in the middle. He bravely shared this statement: “I think that in a way getting bullied does promote character building to some extent. It makes you realise that life isn’t actually all sunshine and rainbows and beautiful things. It makes you realise that not everything in life is handed to you on a platter full of rainbow cupcakes. Sometimes everything will be grey, and black, and a little white. You have to overcome hurdles to get the colour back in your life”. This stuck in my head all day; actually I've been thinking about it all week. It gave me little goosebumps all up my arms listening to his response. Why?! Partly because his little colour analogy was super cute, but also because he is 100% accurate. What a wise young man and so brave to share such beautiful words with his classmates. What he said really resonated with how I was feeling. After the week I had last week, I was feeling like my life was some ugly shades of grey and black with a side of baby poo yellow, and I needed to overcome some hurdles to get the colour back. I thought that was going to be very difficult; but Indigo's quote really helped me try and be a little more positive and consequently I did get some colour back in my life this week.
So, Indigo’s wise words indubitably set me up on a positive note for the week ahead. Not only did I try and feel more colourful, I tried to act more colourful, look more colourful and make my classes more colourful (literally and metaphorically).
Here are some examples of how I literally made my classes more colourful.
Exhibit A: Students in my Year 8 Religion class had to illustrate a biblical story.
Exhibit B: Students in my Year 8 Italian class had to draw an Italian Ice-Cream shop.
Exhibit C: We celebrated Pi Day in Maths with a collaborative colouring-in on the board with pretty whiteboard markers.
Exhibit D: Students in my Year 7 History class had to create a timeline of Confucius and complete a map of Ancient China and its Natural Barriers.
Exhibit E: Students in my Year 7 Religion class had to create a Brochure about one of the Sacraments.
Exhibit F: Marking work with colourful stickers. Please note: I have a rainbow keyboard cover!
Exhibit G: Look how fun the piece of material I use to cover the crap under my desk is?! On a side note, this is a rare photo of me actually sitting down this week.
I needed this colour in my life this week. I'm slowly realising that it's really important to do things for yourself to brighten your own day. I did just that on the way to work on Wednesday and stopped to snap the photo below. Nothing like a bit of sunshine and some cows. Sometimes in life you have to create your own sunshine.
It was a busy, busy week. By the last lesson on Friday afternoon I was exhausted, as were my students. We played a few games and just to end my colourful week, the students were colouring in an image of the Great Wall of China. It was a fun lesson and I could hear a lot of giggling (almost too much giggling!) and it sounded like the kids were enjoying themselves (a little too much!). I went over to investigate why so much fun was being had, and it turns out that all of the boys in the back row had coloured their fingernails in with highlighters. Each was a different colour. Bright, colourful, cheeky and fun. It made me smile. My week ended just how it started; full of rainbows. One of the boys with his newly painted rainbow nails said to me on the way out, "Thanks for letting me have a mani-pedi in class Miss. Now I'm ready to go out and buy some high heeled pink Crocs with diamonds and a new crocodile skin handbag. Have a great weekend!" Kids. Hilarious. I have the best job in the world!
Happy Weekend! 3 weeks until a well needed break!