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| triumphs of the imagination | ||
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| Tony Gee |
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  Registered Member #2 Joined: Wed 08 Dec 2004, 09:55AMPosts: 179 | joy, illumination, devices that work, mmm | ||
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| Tony Gee |
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| Registered Member #2 Joined: Wed 08 Dec 2004, 09:55AMPosts: 179 | it was so simple - we invented a Kingdom called Wecan and made a show in two days with one hudred 6 and 7 year olds. It was just great being in a room of young voices whose regular response over two days was ' we can!'. Can't be bad. | ||
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| amanda |
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 Registered Member #31 Joined: Thu 13 Jan 2005, 12:29PMPosts: 20 | have just been reading about how the mandala in a buddhist context is a representation of a domain in to which you can imagine yourself for the purpose of understanding aspects of the process of enlightenment. How great to create a WeCanKingdom Mandala for kids to imagine themselves into! YAY! | ||
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| Tony Gee |
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| Registered Member #2 Joined: Wed 08 Dec 2004, 09:55AMPosts: 179 | on finishing a project in a girl's junior school making a show in a week with 130 eight to eleven year olds, the headteacher walked up and told me that the six girls whose choice to be narrators I had accepted(i.e. I say : who wants to be a narrator? They put up their hands. i say: OK, its you six.) were deemed by their teachers to be the worst six girls I could have possibly chosen. Including the"only girl in the school with a speech impendiment". A fact that I picked up on after I had given the final, and most vital, piece of narration. when she began reading my initial though was: "oh my god , what have I done?" But as she read on , she did it so well - I thought, get over it - she's got the part. So, all this made me think about how advantageous it can be to not know anything about the people you are working AND ALSO how sometimes what we hink we do know can often blind us to other infinite fields of possibilities. | ||
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| cooltimms |
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 Registered Member #36 Joined: Sat 29 Jan 2005, 05:58PMPosts: 8 | I found it hard to be in the teas/lunch/foyer space- the fumes from the new carpet set off my asthma, and with no natural light or ventilation I felt like I was going to suffocate.Our workspace was more comfortable wasn't it? Old-style windows-I made sure they were all open,no-one seemed to mind.Anyway, I went outside at every opportunity, meeting only the occasional smoker or fresh air fiend. I tried all the doors at the back, but they were locked.So the only way in or out was through the main front entrance. Somehow I needed to work all this out in order to feel comfortable, walking all around the building even where the newly bulldozed ancient gardens met fresh concrete to form quite a steep precipice (would anyone find me if I tumbled among the brambles trying to reach the golden pears a good 30 feet high?)No-one else about today,but quite a track where I guess children had pushed over the metal fence and made dens where the bulldozer hadn't yet been.Anyway, I kept going back to the group. I wanted to 'join in'!-but I did start to feel a bit cramped, a bit hot, a bit addled by the time I'd done a dance,planned a place of learning, written a poem AND printed some money-so- now I'm getting to the point- it was so great to be given permission not only to go outside, but to let my creative imagination run free.....(I realize that in the classroom one technique can be to Keep The Children Busy at All Costs-but maybe actually at the cost of having time to dream, and it doesn't take long.....I spend maybe 15 minutes with the camera taking photos which are to 'reflect an episode in my learning process at any stage of my life'.( It took me back to an exercise we did with John Moat which I really loved. We didn't actually go outside for this, we journeyed inside ,eyes shut for an equally short time, but what wealth of material that made,how wonderful to hear where everyone went! My preamble has been so long so I'll just briefly describe how I used the bulldozed gardens as a metaphor for my own university education. I took pictures of how, in spite of shedloads of gravel, the bindweed had crept in.The brambles had squeezed their way under the fence. One brave sunflower had seeded itself on a muddy landslide.All this worked in a flash to give me a new sense of hope and freedom from reawakened feelings of helpless institutionalization(sparked off by the Teacher-Tableaux perhaps, as well as the building?).So thank you, Kate for helping me have flashes of inspiration on that rainy Friday.And I'm sorry there wasn't time to air it, or to hear about other peoples' journeys. | ||
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| raprojects |
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| Registered Member #24 Joined: Fri 07 Jan 2005, 11:08AMGeographical location: Exeter Posts: 11 | wanted to follow up on the point tony made about knowing things about the people we are working with. My experience, on the whole, in schools is that they seem desperate to tell you whom the 'difficult' 'bad' or 'disruptive' people are. i always specifically ask not to know, as different people behave differently under different environments. I give participants a huge range of choices about how they choose to participate - usually incuding building/acting and all the backstage work (I am a dramatist - whatever that means!). I often find that the best participants - the ones whom take on building responsibilities, get things done and make many interesting practical decisions - are usually the ones whom the organisers later say 'they are the worst behaved' or 'they have educational needs and can't usually cope'. This is why we MUST NOT know about the participants, or these oportunities and chances for these participants will not be offered because of fear. That's my feelings anyway, but it also depends on how you run the workshop!!! | ||
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| roz hilton |
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| Registered Member #182 Joined: Thu 04 Oct 2007, 03:56PMPosts: 11 | a lovely day yesterday doing a follow-up with the 'eggy' kids... the simple making activities we offered were taken to with much enthusiasm and commitment, meaning an unprecidented amount of time and attention was given by individulas to their creations, and aspirations for our grande-film-finale were reduced. to no matter though, as in the proccess of creating their magical mini-me and an aspirational environment (in which to play out the realisation of their dream) seemed to be deeply affirming and gratifying for our participants. many were relucant to leave the space at breaktime, and the unprovoked thankyous and goodbyes we recieved at the end of the day were eager and genuine. each took home; a map of evidence that they are on the way to their dream, a minature character with a belly-full of secret attributes, a pop-up environment of their ultimate goal, and perhaps a litle more clarity and self-belief after our day sharing inquiry and encouragement. video footage will be sent to them on dvd soon. what inspiring and cabable young people every one! | ||
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