Results from the Thanksgiving Experiment

by betsyoneducation

What better place is there to conduct an experiment than when around a dinner table with someone else’s family? I thought through which of our improv games from class might be a nice icebreaker as we ate, considering especially that most participants probably wouldn’t have any improv experience.

I had everyone tell a story around the table, one word at a time. Several participants–who hadn’t been talking much beforehand–seemed to feel coerced into playing. One played it safe with every word choice, never volunteering anything novel.  The other repeatedly used the same word each time (“surprisingly”);  while it might have been intended as an amusing running gag, it also dodged the issue of creative effort. The most enthusiastic participant was a middle school teacher, though it felt more like she was going along with it rather than actually enjoying the game. Given the resistance and lack of enthusiasm, I judged that one round of the game was enough.

Interestingly, the two who seemed least into the game, and who had been closed off before, later raised some personal subjects with the group.  They were obviously difficult matters they had been struggling with, but they talked about them honestly and directly, and the others were active and attentive listeners. I’d like to think that the exercise helped get the ball rolling on talking together, but it may require further feast days to determine this.

Schooling and Creativity

by betsyoneducation

Sorry for my flakiness on this blog!!! I keep forgetting everything about how to log in. (Is it WordPress or Blogger or something else? What’s my login? How do I reset my password??)

In the reading, it’s amazing how Johnstone points out the many aspects of education that confine, belittle, and standardize students. Luckily I have had an education that seems far more open-ended, though certainly there are default ways through classes that are very rote. That is, in almost every class in every grade, there’s room to be creative, but with the expectation that it’s not the safe way to go.

Probably the biggest contrast in teaching styles I have encountered was between my 2nd year and 3rd year Spanish teachers. My 2nd year Spanish teacher used to teach Latin, and she clearly thought it was a shame that Spanish was a spoken language. She seated us in alphabetical order, had us correct homework together, supplying answers in alphabetical order, and forced us to write all assignments in cursive in black ink. She required us to make vocabulary flash cards for each unit, on pieces of cardstock at least 1 by 3 inches in size. There was never ambiguity about what was going on, and she kept clear control of the class by making sure none of us enjoyed it.

In contrast, my third year Spanish teacher was a little scatterbrained and required the help of a dozen student aides to keep things remotely in order. As a fund for an end-of-the-year party, she forced students to pay a quarter if they swore in class, or if they spoke in English on Spanish Friday. (In contrast, the main person ever talking in the other teacher’s class was the teacher herself.) But the biggest assignment of the year (and the reason I thought of this teacher in particular) was to create a dramita. Either performed in class or filmed, the dramita required each participant to help write a script in Spanish and perform his or her 50 or 100 words from memory. She would show us movies from years past (my favorite was “Arroz Con Sangre”, a martial arts movie students filmed behind a local drugstore) that inspired us to try to make something really cool. And not only did the dramita unlock creativity in students, it also sparked a genuine desire to learn how to express new ideas–to really communicate something–in Spanish.

I’ve been having a blast in this class, even though my posts have been sporadic. I’m definitely keeping in mind what I can apply from this class to other areas of life–including exercises to make people do at Thanksgiving!

Puppies and problem sets

by betsyoneducation

The example in Full Catastrophe Living of being engaged in looking at a sunset really spoke to me. I have been helping friends in San Francisco for the last week and a half by petsitting. Their incorrigible corgi has growled at me, and I have sworn back at her; one morning she literally drive me to tears with her unwillingness to let me catch her to put her in the pen.

But surprisingly the puppy has induced a mindfulness in me. For one thing, I have to put aside other worries (like problem sets) as I deal with her. Even more, she makes me more receptive to the beauty around me; just yesterday, as she tugged me up a hill as I walked her, my mind was clear, and at a switchback I was able to fully appreciate being there and watching the moon rise across the bay.