once upon a photo

perhaps my favorite photo of all time.

Photos.
They have so many stories to tell.
Not just one.
Not just the story of the frozen moment the photo was taken.

Photos are a memory.

Photos become the narrative of our memory.

Photos become an integral part of the history of who we are and who we explain we "used to be" to others.



Doesn't this sound like all of us when looking at a personal photo:
"Hey, I remember this photo ... I was [insert age], at [insert place], and [insert reference to something that was happening before and/or after the frozen moment in the photo]"

* This posted photo was taken way back before digital cameras were readily available, so actually the shot is even more fabulous because it was my one and only chance to capture this exact stance.

This photo has a story that has been alive for fifteen years.

Cover: Two girls. Age 5. At our school library looking for books.

Page 1: When I got the developed 4x6 photo back from the camera store, I immediately knew it was a favorite. I was captivated by the rich personality and vitality of the shot: the two very different stances of these girls, the chair and the stool, the tall and less tall, the red shoes, the untied shoe, the long braid, the heads tilting "reading" for which book to pull off the shelf and the book shelves filled with books as the background. 

Page 2: I gave this photo, enlarged and framed, to our school librarian who in turn added it to the rotation of framed book posters that she displayed on a wall in the school library.

Page 3: Years later, the framed photo was gifted to the parents of one of the students in the photo. 

Page 4: Years later, at present time, part of the photo was posted on Facebook by "long braid, red shoes" as she had just discovered the framed work being stored at their home. She had a sweet caption that she had added for her friends to read "just looking for my favorite book." I happen to be 'friends' with K on Facebook (she is 20ish now!) and saw her posted photo. 

Page 5: I made a comment to K about the photo and told her I'd love to write about it on my blog. The travels of this particular photo has reconnected me with K in a fun way, has offered her a reflection on when she was 5 to share with her friends, and has circled back to me to now post on an early education blog that absolutely didn't exist fifteen years ago. 

Personally, as the photographer of the photo yet also the teacher of these two girls long ago...I could also say this photo makes me think of K and her amazing positive spirit. I think of K's family with whom I have remained close all these years (her father married my husband and me, K's younger sister was our flower girl). I think about the other girl in the photo, H, whom I have already written about on this blog as she was the writer of Lilly's Umbrella Hat click here to read her story
Professionally, this photo says "CHILDREN LOVE BOOKS. Give children time to LOVE BOOKS." And, for teachers, be deliberate about the photos you share: sure, take a zillion on your digital camera, yet really LOOK at the photos, be SELECTIVE and CHOOSE the story you want to tell.

Photo stories are powerful.
That is the story of this photo as of today. 
And now all of you are part of this photo story...and can retell it, share it, blog about it, tweet about it, and become extended storytellers of this one captured moment from 15 years ago.

scarf catchers

photo of the day.

happiness.

Children of all ages LOVE catching scarves!

Try other floaty items, as well...

or bubbles or streamers or...

anything that makes children
move, laugh, run, & giggle!

I SPY moments

balance, balance, balance.

Do you ever wonder what a child is thinking when they are in their own private world of playing or inventing?

1,2,3...7...numbers, bowls, space on the carpet.

I am amazed when the camera can freeze the experience and help me examine the intensity or quietness of a child's individual work.

how does this apple peeler work...?

watching the water pot fill with blue water...drip, drip, drip.

practice, practice...this cartwheel is tricky!

truck and shovel and wet sand...something might get buried?

the joy of big big shoes...!

a fresh drink for the alligator...pouring so carefully !

maybe a calendar? maybe a countdown? maybe a birthday coming?

starting with two very tall blocks...steady, steady hands.

quiet moment to water paint the outside play surface.

hmm...maybe I will go in here...

I think I would like to sit inside a hula hoop and swirl these twirlers around and around.

pink sparkle dress and straw hat...and a look in the mirror.

ready to have my own theater performance with my newly made puppet.

I hope you can uncover moments at school of children working, inventing, and re-inventing their day...in their own beautiful extraordinary way.

once upon a marble

what if there was just one marble?
what if there was a story about this marble?
what if the children could create a longer story about this one little marble sitting on this one long block?

once upon a time there was a marble who couldn't roll...

Do you think you can guess what these children are about to begin?
Can you guess what might happen with a group of children who are part of a classroom where their ideas are valued, expected and uplifted?
What kind of journey is this marble about to go on??
please offer comments below if YOU have any ideas what might be starting here...


more of this story to follow in the next blog :)

capturing friendship

the little girl on the right hands a pouring cup to her friend at the water table.

Kindness begins so early.

Friendship begins so early.

Sharing.

Patience.

Connecting.

Give and Take.

It can happen in a brief lovely moment, especially when you are living the very young life of a two-year-old. Sometimes, you are just enjoying a sunny day and you need some water...

The friend on the left has received the pouring cup from his friend in the hat.

Hmm...had the boy offered water? OR had the girl started with the motive of getting water?

Educators and cameras cannot always Capture Friendship in the exact moment it is happening.

This was a moment that really struck me because these two children only came to school a couple days a week, and this was taken early on in the school year. Perhaps they had a previous connection, yet I don't know that for certain.

The cognitive process for both children to engage in this exchange was quite lovely to witness: The girl intentionally gave the boy the measuring/pouring cup.

In the first photo, it was difficult to see that the girl was holding a watering can, so we could have thought the giving of the pouring cup was a sweet gesture.

The second photo, we see the boy holding the pouring cup and perhaps seeing that the girl had a watering can.

The third photo, could be read as the girl having had motive to have the watering can filled OR the boy having seen that the girl had a watering can and he decided to offer water to her.

The whole exchange had no words to document.

Between the two children, there must have been something else they were understanding together, only between them, in the language of two-year-olds that usually relies a lot on eyes and hands.

In YOUR classroom or outside at your school...

if you look close, daily, you will SEE friendship happening in many forms. It might SOUND like friendship, it might FEEL like friendship, it might MOVE like friendship. Get your camera ready, have it with you always. You never know where friendship will show up, yet when you are around children you can't help but to discover it.

Look for it. Capture it. Share it.

"I know all about infinity"

eliza tells me all about infinity while balancing on one foot.

Children come up to teachers every day to tell us information, perhaps to share about a vacation, a play-date, their favorite shoes or what they have in their snack bag.

Children need to be able to express themselves, to have a sense of being an expert, and to offer unique knowledge about something.

Eliza had told me she had a big discussion with her father and really needed to pass on this news about INFINITY.

Teacher Jeanne: Eliza, were you just telling me about the biggest number?

What was it called again?

Eliza: Infinity...

TJ: Infinity? And how did you learn about that number?

Eliza: From daddy...

TJ: From dad. So, how big do you think infinity is?

Eliza: Well, if you add a bigger number it gets bigger!

TJ: It gets bigger! So, that's kind of surprise, huh?

Eliza: So, no one can ever count up to it...

TJ: Oh, my gosh...

Eliza: You can think you can count up to it but you can't...

TJ: Eliza, do you want to give me an example? What's a number that's pretty big like infinity but then there is a number bigger than it?

Eliza: A Hundred.

TJ: A hundred? And then, is there a number bigger than a hundred?

Eliza: Infinity.

TJ: Infinity is right after that?...

Eliza: Yes, Infinity is right after 100!

Eliza's new information about INFINITY was something she was compelled to share. It seems clear that some of her facts were answers to questions she had posed to her father and was now passing on her findings to me...

"If you add a bigger number it gets bigger!"

"No one can ever count up to it."

"You think you can count up to it but you can't."

This simple, short exchange with Eliza is an example of how children are empowered with language and build trusted relationships as exhibited by listening with her father at home and speaking with me at school.

Everything Eliza told me was true and she had absolute confidence in her facts. It didn't seem to matter to Eliza if I might have already known about infinity - she believed she was giving me new, valuable information.

Eliza was the expert on infinity.Period.

trapeze girl

Getting into costume to be trapeze girl.

A short story only my four-year-old friend Charlotte could have invented and one which makes me SEE her flying in a blue wig on a trapeze...

 

 "When I grow up - when I am sixteen and a half and 17 inches - I am going to be in the circus! Not the ice skating part but really inside where the trapeze is.

I am going to climb up the ladder and when the trapeze swings back I will catch the trapeze with my hands!

Then I will put my knees down on the trapeze part and flip off and go around and around with the pink jump rope sticking out so people know it is me up there!

 Also, I need a blue wig - that will make me trapeze girl!  When I take off my wig people will say 'hey, that's not a circus star trapeze girl - that's a little girl!'"

-charlotte, 4yo.-

Ready to be trapeze girl.

Charlotte always had a lot to say.

Usually, it involved HER in the middle

of some sort of adventure.

She would incorporate bits of true life

and many bits of

some other life she dreamed of living,

even at the age of four.

pencil cowboy

Delivery #1 of pencil art cowboy from Holly.

One of my very first and most significant memories of a young child using art to communicate and connect with me.

I was sitting at an indoor work table in the three-year-olds classroom. Children were engaged with various materials, experimenting with pipe cleaners, glue, markers, paint.

All of a sudden, Holly dashes over from another table with a scrap piece of paper with pencil scribble on it.

"Here, this is for you. It is a cowboy."

 

Immediate delivery #2 - gotta have the cow

Then Holly skips back to her chair.

I write down Holly's description on the art piece and keep it next to me on the table.

Moments later, Holly returns with a companion piece for her original art work.

 "Oh, I forgot," says Holly.

"This is the cow."

I was captivated by Holly's quick yet intentional pencil scribble on paper, the description of her first piece which seemed to make her rethink the word 'cowboy', and her wish to follow through on her rethinking by delivering the 'cow' that should, apparently, accompany any cowboy. Holly's use of art to connect with me - to trust that I would value her work and her words - was the start of my passion to listen to children within the process of their own important work. I still have the original pieces of scrap paper of cowboy and cow, priceless art by a priceless three-year-old.