Reciprocal

When you live happy, you are happy.  ~Layann

Reciprocal

The Sparkly Unicorn Award is given when

you notice someone being amazing. You

get as much joy giving it as receiving it. The sculpture will live

on the recipient’s desk for the rest of the day, making them happy

every time they look at it. You made their day, so you

are

also happy.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Late last fall, we spent a morning messing around with plaster of paris. We made discs and ornaments and pendants and other assorted creations, which we decorated with glitter, ribbon, sequins, shells, etc. One of the creations was given to me -- a disc with edges dripping glitter and a Unicorn Horn Shell jutting up out of its center. Weeks later, on a day when someone did something totally awesome that needed a spotlight, I dubbed the disc+shell The Sparkly Unicorn Award, and I bestowed the award upon the awesome child. I allowed them to keep the award on their desk for the rest of the day (getting glitter all over someone else's work for once). Since then, students have begun bestowing the award upon each other, and one girl especially (the one who dances and draws through "Luminosity") has become our Lead Noticer of Other People's Awesomeness. She has given the award more times in the last few weeks than I have since last fall. It's one thing to BE awesome, but it's another kind of awesome to shine a light on others.

This class. I think I'm already starting to miss them.

Tabatha has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at her blog, The Opposite of Indifference, which is what I would say my poem and post is all about this week!

Positivity

At least I tried.  ~Hugh MacLeod

Positivity

A smile is at

the heart of all that is good, and it is the least

I can do. Every single day I am a success because I can say, “I

came, I smiled, I tried.”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Persevere

This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.  ~The Holstee Manifesto

Persevere

Hard work. This

is

how you make your

dreams come true. Your life

is yours to mold like clay. Do

not wait for someone else to decide what

you

will be. Find what you love

most in life and

make it happen. Do

not be afraid to follow your dream as far as it

takes you. Just don’t forget to return home often.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Keen Observer

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keen Observer

Unless

you

bother to watch for hawks, unless you try

to

find a preying mantis hiding in the garden, you do

not know that there is something

beyond

what

is obvious and easy. You

have

to stop assuming that you have already

seen it all, mastered

it all. You

must become a keen observer or you will

never

grow.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Cookies

We measure minds by their stature. It would be better to estimate them by their beauty.  ~Joseph Joubert 

Cookies

Remember the time we

decorated cookies? There was no unit of measure

for our joy that day. Who minds

learning by

mixing icing and food coloring to make their

cookie’s stature

more massive (and of course, more beautiful)? It

was about way more than just the cookies, though. Who would

believe that such a diverse group could be

unified at Christmas? No better

way than to

share a 34-year cookie decorating tradition. Don’t under-estimate

the power of cookies to overcome differences. Let them

heal the world by

their sweetness and by their

beauty.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Growth Mindset

Super heroes are made, but heroes are born.  ~Antonio (in 365 Days of Wonder)

Growth Mindset

Think of seeds: what will someday be super

starts small. Those who will someday become heroes

often have no inkling that their tiny lives are

about to be made

into something not just big, but

mighty enough for them to become heroes.

You cannot know the good you will do. It is enough that you are

born.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Endeavor

Do or do not. There is no try.  ~Yoda (Star Wars)

Endeavor

Whatever I do

with my life or

my life’s work, I will do

it not

because I want praise, but because there

is

a problem that needs to be solved. There is no

way of knowing if I’ll completely fix it, but I’ll roll up my sleeves and try.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

That Feeling You Get When You Solve a Hard Math Problem

Have you had a kindness? Pass it on.  ~Henry Burton

That Feeling You Get When You Solve a Hard Math Problem

The numbers click in place like a combination lock. You have

cracked the code, you

have mastered the challenge! The problem had

you cornered, but it was decimals that gave you a

way out. A mathematical kindness

was bestowed by the universe: a “Pass

Go Collect $100” card, and it

gives you the joy and energy to carry on.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

A couple of my students had a great day in math this past week. (One was the future astronomer from Day Two's poem.) We were working on irregular volume and they got to the challenge problem -- making an irregular figure with a total target volume of 325 cubic units...with the additional self-imposed challenge of not using a 1 in their answer. So, for example, they didn't allow themselves this solution: 10x(3x10) + 5x(5x1). They were stumped at the end of math class, but later, at the end of the day, grabbed their papers out of the pile and kept working while we waited for the buses to be called. The student who gave me this quote asked, "Can we use decimals?" I answered, "Why not?!" and he promptly found a solution: 10x(3x10) + .25x(10x10).

So there's that amazing feeling you get when you solve a hard math problem, but there's also that amazing feeling you get when you have a birthday and the entire Poetry Friday community sends out best wishes! Add mine to the cascade:

Happy Birthday to the Grand Master of Children's Poetry, 

Lee Bennett Hopkins!!

Robyn has the Poetry Friday roundup and the birthday party this week at Life on the Deckle Edge.

Tenacity

You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.  ~ André Gide

Tenacity

You are the one who gets the job done. You

don’t wait to be told what to do, you can

find the work and you can do it. This is also true: you are never

the kind to sit on the shore. You cross

to the other side even if you have to paddle across what feels like the

ocean.

You paddle until

you know where you are going. You paddle until you

see the sun coming up to light your way, until you have

a clear view, until you have the

courage

to

lose

all the burdens you carry and set your sight

on the new path that starts at the distant edge of

the

barely visible shore.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Confidence

Always do what you are afraid to do.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Confidence

You will not always

be sure, but don’t let that stop you. Do

the brave thing. Do the right thing. Do what

will make the world a better place and you

will be one of the ones who are

not afraid

of what the world asks you to

do.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018