“Making something that other people can enjoy” is what brings a group of students together during their free time to design and create stained glass windows that cover ordinary panes of glass throughout their middle school building.

Enrichment teacher Andrew Lewellen started the project at Hillsdale Middle School in Jeromesville to build students’ confidence in their artistic abilities and to convey that they can beautify a public space. While it takes weeks to design and build, already a large piece, which depicts school-related themes, hangs in front of a window located in a stairwell that looks out onto the school playground. Students pass by it several times a day while moving from class to class, and those who worked on the piece feel a sense of pride each time. A handful of additional works can be found in individual classrooms, and current 8th graders are in the process of creating a 2’x 2’ underwater-themed stained glass they will eventually install in the cafeteria.

“I know things will go wrong, and that’s part of the learning. Stained glass is a fickle medium; but this characteristic is important to the project. At some point, part of the project will fail. This is the time when students are tested.”

Mr. Lewellen has traveled extensively and seen original stained glass in medieval cathedrals. He says he recognizes the effects they can have on the mind and spirit: “One of the reasons I wanted to do this project is to take the mystery out these windows, to show students that these works of art, which are hundreds of years old, didn’t just happen,” he explains. “These are pieces of glass that someone drew on, cut, and soddered together with lead. I want to give students the confidence that with some knowledge, commitment, and effort, they can do that too.”

To embellish their work, Mr. Lewellen received a Grant-to-Educators from the Jennings Foundation to purchase a glass kiln, lightbox, paint brushes, and supplies to fire glass pieces that will add complexity and depth to the windows. This additional step, he explains, will move their artwork from “simple sun catchers to the sophisticated art found in cathedrals and galleries.”

Because this project is not part of the regular curriculum, Mr. Lewellen hand selects students who have the interest, ability, and dedication to bring to this work. As individuals they each add different strengths to the venture. It is not just for gifted artists, he says. In fact, several of the students claim they aren’t artistic at all. “You need the imaginative person – the dreamer or the visionary - to come up with a design,” he explains. But then those with more precise engineering-type skills are needed for the technical tasks: cutting and grinding the glass and making sure every piece fits exactly right.

On top of nurturing individual talents, Mr. Lewellen says the project teaches a host of intangible skills. When starting a new design, students have to build consensus to choose one idea from each of their individual sketches; they rely on teamwork to accomplish the different tasks required to complete a piece; and along the way they have to problem solve when things don’t go as planned.

“I know things will go wrong, and that’s part of the learning,” he remarks. “Stained glass is a fickle medium; but this characteristic is important to the project. At some point, part of the project will fail. This is the time when students are tested. For instance, pieces break or fall apart and the students have to go back and fix them. If they keep at it long enough, however, it’s going to come out the way they want it. Working through those challenges is an important part of the process.”

“I’ve noticed that if you just get out of their way, kids will astound you with what they can do.”

Explaining how the experience fosters deep learning, Mr. Lewellen restates a proverb: I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand. “It’s one thing to see a stained glass window in a textbook; it’s another to say it’s made by cutting glass,” he says. “But once they put the cutter on the glass using the right pressure and at the right angle so they don’t get a splinter in their hand, that’s how they really understand it. You don’t learn that from somebody telling you about it or from a Google slideshow.”

Mr. Lewellen believes this type of project is doable in any school setting. Teachers should “just try it,” he remarks. “Students can accomplish a great deal if given the opportunity. I’ve noticed that if you just get out of their way, kids will astound you with what they can do.”