Chapter 3 digging for gold
During the playground rotation at PALS, some of the second graders would dig holes in the dirt with bottle caps, broken plastic utensils and their handsâ I thought to myself why donât I purchase some shovels. After a few days, I bought three spoons from the local grocery store but because I did not consider other kids getting involved in the activity, disputes over who will use the spoons first had been generated. To solve this problem, I simply bought three more spoons to accommodate the growing number of kids getting involved in this activity. One day, I saw one of the kids pour water on top of this rocky dirt surface so he could dig through the hard surface I looked at that and said to myself how did this child think of such an ingenious idea?! I think the hard rocky dirt surface forced the kids to reconsider their approach, but honestly, I think the kids just tried something and it worked and continued to dig using this approach; all I did was encourage it. As the holes became deeper and deeper, the kids had begun to find little pieces of plastic, glass, nails and other interesting items under the earth surface this spark some ideas of my own that I really wanted to try. At the end of the school day, I went shopping for some beads and a few tools which would let out the dirt but would leave all of the heavy material behind to find âtreasuresâ I could not wait to see the kids dig up the jewels and see their reaction. The next morning was the day, the day I get to see the faces of the children while digging up their surprise from the dirt; also the children got to use a new tool which aided in finding amazing surprises later. Before I attended my group in the morning, I went to the playground to hide the beads I bought from the store in the holes the kids dug up the previous day. I could not wait to get to this rotation thinking to myself âman, I canât wait to see there faces! After my lunch break, it was time for the playground rotation, The kids would ask me âMr do you have the shovelsâ I was eager to give them the tools I wanted them to find the beads badly, so I ran to the cafeteria, grabbed the tools and ran back to the playground as fast as I could and of course, I did not hesitate to relinquish the shovels to them soon after. Once the kids started digging they immediately found the beads I heed under the ground, I quickly grabbed a container and told them to hold the treasures inside the bowl so one day all the children could make fancy necklaces and bracelets. I added another feature to the activity I call the image or the character all I needed was a straw-hat to put on there heads, once this was established, I would tell the children ânow you guys look like real explorersâ while holding their magnifying glasses and shovels at the same time; to me the child looked like real archaeologist, searching under the earth to uncover some unknown period in history which needed to be told. I am not attempting to convert the children into an archaeologist, but what Iâm trying to do is stimulate the urge to want to know about the world around them nothing more (e.g., what is this?, what is that? How does this happen? EtcâŚ) forcing myself to answer their questions without GoogleâI stopped answering questions and I started having discussions and telling storiesâthis allowed me to learn more about the children and my own limitations; I realized I need to learn a lot to even begin to talk about the world around meâ Watch out, There is the myth that teachers are suppose to know all the âanswersâ obviously this is not true- if only kids knew how teacher prepared there lesson and how the teacher create the illusion they âknowâI dont know or Im not sure as helped me to understand what I didnât know, and what I do; realizing the enormity of this, I looked at it as a tool to review how much I needed to learn vs. what I already knew at the time and updating myself on the current information of the time was vital.
I would experiment, read books and search on the internet for the information I didnât understand and increasing the children knowledge and my knowledge on a particular subjects.
Activities are capable of evolving or undergoing constant change, making them more exciting and engaging. Also other activities can be created using the tools that are not being used so much by other children, hereâs how the children used small containers I bought from the store which was purchased for purpose of collecting items dig up from the ground, but after a few days, some of the kids used it to test the buoyancy of different objects in water, a new activity can be created, all I have to do is encourage it by giving them access to products which can aide in transcending the activity by, ask question, and identify limitation I and the kids have which would aid the childâs understanding of why some things float and why some materials do not float, increasing my knowledge on this particular subject and the childâs. The number of materials needed for each project and how many kids can be in one group at a time is essential in avoiding fights, envy, and stress among the children.
Instruments used in the digging activity
Digging wasnât the only activity available, flying paper airplanes outside inspired me to print out different way to make paper planes with the kids, i wanted to learn more about flight because of this activity. I wanted to buy measuring tape for the kids to see how far the planes would go and understand why some planes did not fly farther then others. other activities included reading various magazines about nature and the physical world around them and magazines on the human condition, there were also books which gave instructions on how to draw numerous creatures such as dolphins, cats, dogs, horses, etc. Later this became a problem because I only had one book, but we all come up with a solution. The solution was to pick something you wanted to draw and rip out the page you wish to use, the kids agreed. I would always tell them out loud âif you guys have any questions, please askâ and when I gave an answer I told the children to never take my word as fact because I knew I lacked knowledge in some areas, at best I was giving my best guess with most answers; I wanted to encourage the kids to do a little research for themselves to help me increase my knowledge on many subjects and vice-versa; this was difficult because most kids did not have access to computers, cell phones, libraries, and the parents would discourage asking questions sometimes. I also set up a âchallengeâ the challenge was to untie a knot without becoming irritated I timed this challenge, the thought here is since the child know itâs a challenge, he would control his behavior better. I would keep a record of the time, so if the child tried again he or she would try to beat their record it took her eight minutes to discuss other ways to untie the knot after ten minutes, he untied the knot with excitement, seeing that, it brought me back to my workshop days in the bushesâthe excitement of achieving almost impossible goal after hours of hard work on a project; no prizes were involved in the challenge, but acknowledging the fact that it became harder for irritation to occur. I would know when the child became irritated when he or she would say âthis is hardâ or âthatâs it, I canât do itâ if it is hot, usually the kids would move out of the sun to find shade sense the environmental pressures would generate irritation much quicker; I would not recommend talking to the child under these conditions because it creates anger much faster as well; I worked for a rental car company, the same thing happens if someone is trying to guide 4 children and walk their luggage to the rental company while all in the heat of Maui is bearing down on you, while your trying to convey information to a person under intense stress usually frustration occurs very rapidly or it becomes worse, and sometimes you get the sharp end of the stick. There were issues with children climbing the trees to pick flowers, the counselors told us to make sure the kids did not pick the flowers from the tree, but this wasnât an easy task. Most of the time yelling was involved this got old real quick and it created plenty of headaches for volunteers and workers, so something had to be done. I would approach the head counselors for help, they advised me to keep yelling at them basically, I could not except this I was actually more frustrated by them telling to keep scolding them. I set up challenge one day, I told the kids they could not climb the tree, so if canât climb the tree how would you get the flower, one the kids thought about it for a little bit, he took off his shoe and tossed it at the tree instead of climbing it, but it did not work. I adjust the the rules a little this time the children could not throw there shoe at the tree, I did this so the kids wouldnât make the same mistake as the first child, the child couldnât hang on to the tree either; how would you take the flower from the tree, without hanging, throwing, and climbing? The challenge was fun I really had to think outside the box on this one the best part about the whole thing I did not get a headache from it.
I noticed that the kids attention can be diverted elsewhere very quickly and the teachers, parents, and counselors verbal and physical methods to gain control of the child attention all the time is called âattention-gettersâ, an attention-getter can be associated with the following: clapping, yelling(Listen!!), Simon said type approaches, repeat after me, I say!(coordinator) you say!(students). There could be a butterfly flying in a classroom of twenty-five students, most of the time all it takes is one to shout out, butterfly! And all the kids attention in the class is diverted away from what the instructor is talking about, of course the instructor of the 2nd grade class will use one of the âattention-gettersâ Mentioned; the instructor has a given lesson which the kids must learn in order to pass some state exam or a test for next week.
Just Imagine a room used by options of interest where kids get to walk around freely, exploring the sciences, music, art, and people that look different from them and themselves.
Here is a scenario, one of the kids had been painting for a half-hour, while painting he or she looked up to see a butterfly fluttering around in a room, above the childâs head, pointed and said look a butterfly! The child caught the attention of the instructor, the instructor looks up and utters, âwow! Look at thatâ the child ask the instructor how does a butterfly fly? If the instructor has no knowledge of the creature, then he or she would say to the child âwell I do not knowâ if there is a library around, and the child is familiar with this library he may say âwell there is a library with lots of books and computers which may helpâ the instructor might say âwell when you find anything on the subject, would you like to tell me a little about what you learned?â the student âsure!â The instructor intrigued by the child interest in butterflies begins designs a co-ditorium on butterflies and other insects of interest for all children.
Chapter 4 The emergence of innerconnectics
I went from having a Co-ditoriums in the lunchrooms with elementary school children, and playgrounds to downsizing into a travel bag. I was forced to do this because of the new expectation I was required to follow in a school I work, I was required to move to different classrooms assisting teachers with class assignments and behavioral issues. On occasions, I would be assigned one kid most of the day, what I realized while assisting the teachers, I noticed the kids had plenty of free time, so I would take it upon myself to give the kids something extra to do until class ends; the traveling co-ditorium was born. It was perfect because of the constant movement to different classes, I was able to roll it or carry it I never wanted to miss the possibility of a child just sitting around bored after carrying out his/her assignment. I purchased something called Snap Circuits from Walmart, before I let the kids use it, me and my ex-girlfriend would test it out to see how well this project performed. My ex-girlfriend fell in love with thing instantly I told myself if she likes it well what about the kids, so the next day, I introduced Snap Circuits to the kids, the kids had some degree of difficulty with it, this were the manuals came in handy. After a handful a few trial and errors, the group began to understand how the snap circuits worked. The snap circuits did more than teach kids about circuits, electricity and symbols this project taught them to work together innerconnecting ideas to create new ways to use the activity then instructed in the manual; before that, some of the children wanted to be alone, but that all changed when a 7th grader in class saw the project and said âMr. I have the same thing at my houseâ I asked him if he could bring it in, and he agreed. Now I had two snap circuits projects which allowed more kids to participate at one time this minimize disputes over who had what first and what piece belong to who, or the issue of scarce materials which maximized participation. facilitating this group was important because of the arguments about the kids taking something while another child was still using a unit this does occur sometimes, I attempted to stimulate problem-solving by asking for any piece of equipment first before I grabbed, I waited for a response, if the person said âyes you canâ only then would I use the unit needed to complete a task, and the kids followed suit; Sometimes this became difficult because of other children outside the group who were unfamiliar with the values of the group and would reintroduce intrusive behavior with the other groups already trying to practice different style of communication and behaviors. If I sustained the language and facilitated cooperative behavior, outsiders would catch quickly and this created an environment of predictability, less stress, and anxiety; this also enabled the equipment to be passed around without a whole lot of issuesâin all of this I wanted the children to continue to develop the values of the group so the would all respect each other. The word âbrokenâ would get said loosely , so I would say words like why wonât this or that work, is it the circuit, is it the power supply what is it? which encouraged them to check everything; if it was the circuit, the group would rearrange the circuits until they accomplished their goal, there was some components(resistors and capacitors) that required more understanding, so I printed a manual of all the symbols for each electronic component so the group had a better understanding what each symbol meant this meant very little to some of the kids they simply just put the unit together in different ways until something worked. Once the children learned how to get the LED on, the propellers, the annoying alarms, and the speakers working, & plug circuits, the production of many different outcomes for the equipment mentioned became possibleâit was fascinating. After a few days, I didnât need to facilitate any further unless there was a new person interested in the project or if the equipment needed repairs in which I assigned some the kids the task of repair the parts (mostly the propellers). The group expanded from snapping circuits together to a repair area, then it evolved from that to using the rotors and lights for different reasons, one such reason was taking cardboard, cutting it into small pieces to cut an even smaller hole in the middle of the cardboard so it would settle on the rotor, after, the children created a plug circuit to produce rotation, once this happened the group took a sheet of paper and started shaping the piece of paper into different shapes using the rotating cardboard attached the motor basically a chipper or if you can imagine a water blaster shaping metal but with cardboard ; it was discovered that the spinning cardboard started to rotate the entire circuit board ; the group went from circuits, to shaping paper, and the discovery of propulsion all in one project; all I did was encourage it I never tried to tell them that it could do this and that I allowed to literally discover all of this as a group-it was exciting. The workshop was not the only thing available, I experimented with other activities these activities included using a white board to allow the kids to draw their ideal house, once this was accomplished, I would ask them a series of questions on the framing the house, will the doors slide?, will it have a knob?, what about the floor in the interior?, How will your house deal with hurricane force winds? etc. If you do this long enough youâll see gradual changes in the house over time it is a truly fascinating site to see.
The second activity only required a group or individual to build a standing circular structure using thin square cards. I found two participants willing to try it out, at first the girls would use the card as they were to make the circular walls, but the card would fall down very quickly; one of the girls took the cards, and laid them down flat in a circular arrangement; I allowed this to show that there is no right or wrong, but possibilities. I timed this activity, it took one of the girls 5 minutes and 30 secs to figure out if you take the flat cardboard and bend it slightly, you will get a curve in the paper I wondered how could I reduce the time? The girl easily created a circular standing walls without me having to tell them, her friend quickly caught on and used the same method. I asked them what did you guys learn from this, they told me that curved shapes are better the the flat square because the curvature did not fall so easily when the table would shake and it took more time and energy to keep the square cards from falling then the curved cards. The idea came about one day when I was assisting a classroom, I became bored and I had some square cards in front of me, so I used them to see if I could build a standing structure with the cards; after ten-minutes with the cards, I realized if I bent them slightly, the cards would curve allowing them to stand for a longer period of time I was excited about that, and I thought to myself, I wonder if the kids would enjoy something like this. As time passed, kids that participated did not do it just to put a set of cards in a circle, the child would create amazing structures.
In these activities, we can have a discussion about houses, structural engineering, architecture, use the scientific method to test our structure, and most of all bonds are being built between the child and adult. it is very interesting to see a child experience trail an error which in turn, alters the structures form and something happensâ evolution an emerges of new ideas and new interest. it is a shame we punish and threaten our children with punitive means and a call to the parents when errors in the environment occur, but if you create an activities where the child as to build a 2 foot structure on their own, the child will make errors but will not be punished, he or she overtime will understand his or her mistake and correct it without the need to be sent to the office, but the library, the computer or a class trip to actual building being built and tested under harsh conditions you would not need security, principles or police instead you would call the parent about the amazing structure this child build in one hour or less, you would take pictures of each structure the student erected to get to the final one and playback how the student got from here to there. If the structure falls down after he as simulated an earthquake by shaking the table, ask the child how could you improve the structure so it will not fall down? discuss the project with child(write more about this)
I also donât mind asking students can I test their theories in the open with other students around. One day, an 8th grader told her friends I can take this broken piece of plastic and re-attach it back on the pen by heating it, so I told the 8th grader âcan I test that? she said âyeah you got a lighterâ I said âsure itâs in my bagâ I grabbed my lighter without the teacher knowing, I attempted to re-attach the piece that was missing from the pen and used the lighter to put the pen back together but when we tested it by hitting it on the table, me and some of the students quickly realized this was not the case.
There was a student in the same group that gave me and the rest of the group involved a riddle to solve, this riddle came in a text, the text was long it was about the length of a paragraph shown below if you want to read. She read the text message to us word for word, but as she went on things got a little weird, the kids and I became confused mid-way every time. She tried reading it 3 more times but to know avail the 8th grader even told us it took her awhile to understand the text message it seem it would take us long as well. After realizing reading it to us was not eliciting the response she was looking for, she quickly change her approach, so the students could understand the text message but in another form. This look like a person taking a large fraction and breaking down into a lower form, (more examples) Imagine if the children was tasked to take a complicated piece of literature and change it into something totally understandable to all children even, especially for the few who have a hard time reading, imagine the kids coming up with ways to solve math problems together, together these children can take a math problem with teamwork, imagine the middle school student somehow figuring out how to shorten the steps to solve a math problem, and these steps were used because 90% of all students understand this process to solve the math equationâwe would encourage it & not force them to learn these long steps to solve one problemâwhat a waste of time.
by Jamir Brunson
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