Today my 8 year old student was NOT in the mood for our Skype writing lesson. While it was only 8:30 in my California morning, at 5:30 in Ireland she had already gone to school for 8 hours, and had an hour long Chinese lesson. Every question I posed met with an abbreviated response and there was no way I could entice her to communicate enough to actually write. So I changed tac and we each stood up in front of our Skype screens to stretch and dance. Eventually she perched on a chair, “Look, I am FLOATING!” She announced. “No, REALLY floating.” She insisted. And so began our photographic session. She was the fairy, perched on clouds, or floating through the air, leaping across the screen, designing the set with chairs, pillows and blankets as she went. The flowered blanket served as a cloak, the pink pillow a cloud, and the chair and ottoman sky! And all of the grumpy 8 year old I had encountered at the start of the hour also floated away. She took direction, she engaged in the dialogue, she ENJOYED LEARNING!!! And as we ended our session I expressed my appreciation for our play, for the disappearance of the grumpy mood, and for the best fairy I have ever had the pleasure of meeting!