Some times it works.

Today I had one of those rare but ever pleasing moments in education where everything connected. I have a very shy girl in my class. She does not participate in discussions, calling on her to answer questions is met with silence and when working in groups she is usually very quiet. But today was a different story. She opted to work with a partner for her Rube Goldberg project. He was full of ideas, diagramming and explaining with exuberance. The I hear her voice pipe up, "No that won't work because..." and from there she went on to give a well reasoned and detailed argument as to why it wouldn't work. I sat amazed at this. Then she proceeded to outline and adjust his ideas to make the project stronger explaining her thoughts along the way. The dialogue then went back and forth for a few minutes with both taking and developing ideas. I sat mesmerized watching this development. There was life, there was risk taking, there was discussion and explanation and it felt right. Good for her I thought. A couple of minutes later I talked to her about it. She was just thrilled to be building something. I am glad she feels comfortable enough to take the risk. I am hoping it lasts a long time.