Well Saturday was fun and ...interesting. Was it something in the water? I find on any particular Saturday at 2:00 I can have a room full of students - at this point the total count is 11 - and it can feel like a solid unit. One mind, as it were. Amazing when that happens in a group with an age range of 6-11. Then there are days where I can have 8 kids and it feels like 20. How is this possible? Maybe they feel the need to make up for the absent energy. And they did. Bouncing with energy....bouncing and bouncing and bouncing....
One of the ideas we touch on in class is that you are always focusing on something. You are never distracted. You've just made your choice for the moment. It's a different way to think about where our attention is. So I just ask, quietly, "What has your attention right now?" or "Where is your focus?" There's usually a short pause - and a funny stare at me - but then suddenly the focus is back on the group. For the most part. (OK, sometimes not. It's a work in progress.) But it does encourage awareness of the moment at hand. I like to think about how that might be taken home or to school or into an art or writing project. It might stick. Who knows.
It takes many components to build a human machine but the kids took on the challenge winningly. If I could listen to every single idea they come up with in one hour we would have no time to play. They are bursting with them. Did you know that to make a human Bubble Gum Machine you have to have: A bubble gum blower/tester, a stamper, a boxer, a passer, a DRILLER (I know, but you do!), and the person that shapes to gum into little perfect square before it's sent out to the world. And in order for this to take place you have to have 8 kids working with each other systematically watching and listening, giving and taking evenly. Oh yeah. They did and they do.
Finally, a Sitlyboo is a magic apple that is thought to bring immortality and is a coveted treasure that can only be found by following an ancient map. But Alas, the joke is on you because the apple is evil and if you eat it you are a dead man.
So don't be fooled.
Until next week,
Fleur
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