Category Archives: Uncategorized

Let me reintroduce myself. It’s a new year, and it’s good to remember who one is. Bending Tree Education is myself, Irene Lyla Lee. I am a writer of stories, environmental, and art articles, and book reviews (find out more about my writing practice here). I love bookmaking, and, lately, puppetry. I have an expertiseContinue reading “Spring 2023 Workshops”

I was on the train from my teaching job, in the short passage between tunnels we could see the sun quitting us at the cruel hour of 4pm. My afternoon had been spent with a child on too much sugar. In the waning hours of the school day, I asked why it had been soContinue reading “Ekphrasis and the Art of Writing about the World”

So here we are. The young reader has established an understanding of letters and words, they have solved the initial written puzzle. They are at a point where they are reading longer books, perhaps beginning the stage (which could happily last a lifetime) of reading graphic novels and comics. I have a couple of studentsContinue reading “Symbolism: Another Literacy”

There is something about a box, something tempting and intimate, something performative and, well, contained. A box is a perfect implement for teaching, whether it be a final presentation for a student or as you begin to literally unpack the concepts in a lesson. A box has its own rules, as you speak around itContinue reading “Diorama as Teacher”

Editing can be the most satisfying part of the writing process. Unlike the alchemy of writing itself: the nothing that was once in your head, into the something of congregated letters.  Editing is like irrigation, learning how to guide a river of thought: a source that was always there, will always be there. It isContinue reading “The Art of Editing”

One of the things that gets at me most as a teacher and as a writer, is when a student feels that they can’t write. It’s just too hard. They see writing as a struggle to complete a word count or spit out whatever the teacher wants to see. I know that feeling. I wasContinue reading “Solutions for the Reluctant Writer”

One of my favorite teaching (and learning) tools comes from paying attention to the details. If you get small enough, specific enough, anything and everything has a deep, interesting, and fulfilling lesson to teach. One of the most important aspects of learning is learning how to ask questions about those small things, because in themContinue reading “Lessons with Natural Dyes”

Teen Reading Group In October we read.  Join the Teen Reading Group for ages 13-15 as we read and discuss a book together. The students will choose between three books to read, then we will meet on Wednesday & Friday evenings to discuss the chapters that we read, complete writing assignments, and connect the bookContinue reading “The Seeds: Workshops”

The fog comes out quickly over the Pacific Northwest coast. We’re in the heart of a month-long trip planned nearly a year ago: Twenty-eight days away from the precious cat, from Prospect Park, the small apartment my partner and I share, and our wonderful community now taking care of said cat.  For the moment weContinue reading “Devils Churn and the Stories of Place”

I used to think I wasn’t good at math, that I didn’t like math because I was embarrassed. I felt like I didn’t know it and I became a cliche. Math was not my thing: an excuse to put in half the effort.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that I was a solidlyContinue reading “The Beauty of Math”