PASADENA, N.L. — What started as a pastime to break up the boredom of the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a community rock painting project in Pasadena.
And it was all started by a Grade 6 student at Pasadena Elementary, with help from his mom and a friend.
“It wasn’t meant to be a project to start,” said Riley Earle.
The 12-year-old enjoys art. Taking a glue gun and making things out of popsicle sticks is high on his list of favourite things to do.
He also likes to paint, and so his mom, Marcy Earle, went out and bought some paint with the idea that Riley and his friend, Lukas Fenske-Allison, could paint some rocks as a pandemic pastime.
Marcy knew the boys didn’t have much to do during the pandemic and thought they would enjoy painting.
“But it’s kind of like, ‘I painted and then what,’” said Marcy.
Riley and his class are going to miss their Grade 6 graduation, and Marcy thought he should share the rock painting with his class and do something with it as a class initiative.
“Just as a kind of coming together for them to say, ‘Hey, look what we did, look what we started, we’re showing our love for each other, the community, our friends, in the best way we know how,'” said Marcy.
“If they had a goal after it was done and complete and everyone could see it, that was even better.”
Riley said they saw a rock wall of painted rocks while visiting Burgeo last year. So, why not have one in Pasadena?
They found the perfect “giant” rock wall on Main Street by the second light pole just after the entrance to the town, and placed the rocks they’d painted there.
During a recent Google Meet with his class, Riley talked about what they’d done during a session his teacher Terry LaVallee calls Genius Hour Reboot.
Before school closed LaVallee had been engaging students in the classroom through a Genius Hour initiative. It’s basically a business model used for motivating employees by giving them time in their work schedule to work on projects that interest them that is being used in a lot of schools.
After the Google Meet session people started adding their own rocks to the wall. LaVallee has been promoting it through his own and the school’s Twitter accounts and it’s been retweeted by the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District.
About two weeks in, there are now 61 painted rocks on the wall. The idea is to have the wall of art grow, where people leave rocks, but don’t take them.
“Me and my mom were only doing it for fun. We didn’t expect, really, this many people would put them on,” said Riley.
“It’s really fun to have the town contribute to it. … It’s super nice because we can still put rocks there even though we can’t go outside and interact with people because of the pandemic.”
Life during the pandemic is different for a 12-year-old. And while he is having fun hanging out and doing things with his dad, it’s not the same as going to school.
“I feel like I’d rather do the extra month of school and get to see my friends through the summer,” he said.
“I’m just happy that we found something to do and that people in our town are contributing to it.”
LaVallee said he is happy to see something discussed during the Genius Hour Reboot translate into something bigger and something for the whole town.
He’s all too familiar with the fact motivation among students declines as they get older, and with the need to be responsive to their interests. That’s why he introduced Genius Hour in the first place.
“Students are given a certain amount of time in our schedule where I would allow them to drive what they want to learn,” he said.
That has included slideshows, building scooter ramps, building a robot, designing a website, working on science experiments and setting up a hair and nails group.
Once a project is completed, the students have to do something to show it to the rest of the class.
When LaVallee had to adapt to making a connection with his students online, he questioned how to motivate them to come online.
“Trying to find that hook, because once you (interest) them, then you get more with other areas.”
Genius Hour is something the kids always want to do, so he decided to do the Genius Hour Reboot where the kids could come on, communicate and share what they’ve been doing.
The response has been great, as he’s had sessions where he couldn’t get through all the material, and a recent one that went from one hour to two because the kids got so involved.
