It feels like I’ve spent the past few weeks making up for missed Mondays. Bad behavior patterns are rearing their heads again and I think we’re all a little tired of the wind, the darkness and the cold. I’m the broken record at the front of the room: sit down, please remember to raise your hand, think about it before you say it, and my new personal favorite: leave your rubber ax at home next time. We need some fun, some life, some way to break out of our winter doldrums. We need a little wonder.

A fantastic colleague of mine reminded me today that I often struggle with this time of the year. She’s intuitive, and usually dead on with her observations. She challenged me to remember something amazing and to conjure a little bit of spring to help me get through this darkest and coldest part of the year.

Today, while talking to her, I remembered a summer of three years ago. A summer I visited a botanical garden and found on the ground a peony seed pod. Shaped like an overstuffed sea star, it lay just below a blooming peony bush. I love nature. I love touching nature and holding it in my hand, so of course I picked it up and turned it around examining the lines and folds. The heft and potential of this natural wonder struck me, and I quietly pocketed it. A few days later, back at home, I opened the pod and discovered row upon row of tiny black seeds inside. Peony seeds aplenty. I was busy at the time, so I placed the seeds into an envelope, sealed it, and placed it on the window ledge in my kitchen. Those seeds have been there ever since; until tonight. Tonight they mingle with my school supplies and teacher planner. They are going to school this week. They are going to be planted. If you’ve never planted with a child, it is a rare gift to behold. The smell of the dirt is intoxicating and impressive, but it’s really the thrill in their eyes that holds the true magic. Voices alight with excitement and tales of past plantings. Of course there are some who have no stories of the kind to tell. They’re the really fun ones. Getting their fingers dirty for the first time is a rite of passage not to be missed.

Educationally speaking, this is the stuff of science. The science GLEs (grade level expectations) and objectives that are met with our little foray into gardening are many, but tonight my favorite is “Organisms Change the Environment.” You bet they do. We need their change during this time of year. If only to remind us that winter doesn’t last forever, and that spring is in fact coming.

Maybe in six to eight weeks our little seeds will have bloomed and we will be set with a new list of challenges. Namely, we’ll have 50+ plants to care for. But by then we’ll be a slightly different class. My students will have grown into “almost middle schoolers,” and spring will have officially begun. Our little plants may take a back seat to the excitement of the season and the bustle of the end of the school year. By then we may not really remember the wind, the cold, the struggles with manners and school rules. We may well have forgotten again that we need to raise our hands, and think before speaking. But, we will have also nurtured something special, and we will have created some wonder.

Vanessa Powell is a National Board Certified fifth grade teacher at Snowshoe Elementary School. Her Chalk Talk column appears every five weeks.