Digging For Buried Treasure: Day 2

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My first day of this residency was rough.

ROUGH!

I went home and started considering all of the various things I was planning to do, all the things that I suspected wouldn't fly, and all of the things that might work.

Then, I stopped myself and did the thing I should have done on the first day. I guess if you go too long without doing a thing, you lose track of the plot.



I do have some skills. They are limited to a small scope of the world, but they have served me pretty darn well. The most useful skill is reading an audience. I needed to do better at reading these students.

It required some questions.

1. What do these kids actually already know how to do?

2. How do I get them to show me what they already know?

3. Is there something I can share with them that could move them a hair's breadth closer to where I hope they could be?

4. If so, what is that thing I could do?

5. What does success look like in a residency like this?

6. What challenges do I need to set this group so that they can fight their way beyond even what they think they can do so I can celebrate them loudly, proudly and obnoxiously in the library?

7. What really quick "traditions" can I establish that will make the kids vie for the behavior?

8. What performance enhancing, call and response, audience control, participatory strategies do I need to employ to find a place where I can meet these kids?


So, Day 2.

I banned all references to video games. The teachers cheered loudly. The kids groaned.

I did improvisational language association games and pulled as much out of them as I could.

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I established a very loud, arms up, hand gesture for kids who used radically impressive language during one phase of the game, and the words that started pouring out of the second graders were fantastic.

I modeled coaxing and suggestive behaviors for teachers to get students to use the images that naturally occur when they hear words.

It was exhausting.

It worked. Most of the kids succeeded. The teachers were intrigued.

We still had some videogame references, but they decreased, and other kids called them on it.

Two classes clearly struggled with language more than the other two, and I chose to go slower with them. So, at the end of the day, I had four classes and they'd all done radically different things at different speeds.

Still, it was better than day 1.

As for the second graders, once their brains were turned away from video games their true nature emerged.

Poop humor and saying eww when a prince kisses a princess.

Okay. Back on familiar ground.

Video Game Head Kids - 2
Storyteller - 1

(Everybody won today. Tomorrow is another story. Let us hope it goes as well.)

Happy Teaching!

The Search For Imagination - Day 1
Digging For Buried Treasure: Day 2
A Mixed Bag of Failure, Confusion,Success  and storytelling: Day 3

The search for Imagination: Residency Day 1

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In October of 2018, I did a master class with a high school. The drama teacher told me that kids today are different. She said that they spend far too much time scrolling through things on their phones. They walk with their phones, they use them instead of having conversations, and that their social skills were suffering because of it.




I squirreled that little piece of info away for a later day.


In January of 2019, I was out in Arizona. The principal of one of the schools took me aside and told me he was amazed at his student's behavior during the program.

He proceeded to tell me that they'd had problems with their last assemblies. The students couldn't sit still. They were restless and unattentive. I told him I don't usually have that problem. I attribute it to the way using stories hooks into the brain of listeners.

Apparently, in an effort to let the parents know that he was concerned about the student's behavior, he had a meeting one evening. As he spoke to the parents, he was struck by what he saw. Most of them couldn't go more than a few minutes without looking down at their phones and scrolling through whatever was in front of them. They didn't focus on much of anything more than about three or four minutes. They couldn't even stay off of their phones long enough to get through the short meeting.

The principal said, "It was obvious why their kids are the way they are. If this is how plugged in the parents are, imagine what they let their kids do?"

I filed that away for a later date.

This week, I am in residence.

I don't often teach residencies.

I don't often teach below the fourth grade.

I don't particularly like residencies, and I teach as few as possible.

So, you might ask, how did you end up teaching a second grade residency this week?

The answer?

I have absolutely no idea.

I'm pretty sure when I agreed to this we weren't talking about second grade...but here we are.

Two weeks ago, when The David told me to pick up the phone, I discovered I was talking to a curriculum coordinator who informed me that the school decided that second grade was the best grade for the residency.

Now, it is only three days long, so it isn't like I am going to be here for three weeks, but that is not the point.

It has been years...and I mean years...since I worked with the second grade. Their abilities and habits are completely foreign to me.

Not to worry, I said to myself, it isn't like I don't perform for this group all of the time. I could adapt to this, no problem.

Second Graders love Fortnite

That was my first mistake.

I obviously don't know anything about second graders. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. Less than bupkis.

My first day was a disaster.

I started teaching an activity and realized in the first five minutes that the kids could not do what was needed. They did not have the skills. It was odd.

Second graders can put sentences together, right?
Second graders can use imaginative language, right?
Second graders can come up with a single sentence that is related to a sentence that came before, right?
Second graders do still have use of a creative play, right?

Apparently, not...at least not the ones I encountered on Day 1.

I went to plan E as I deduced quickly that plans B - D were probably not a good idea.

I took the teachers aside and asked what the heck was happening.

They informed me that their children have trouble because they spend so much time plugged in that they don't seem to have good social skills, don't know how to hold conversations, and really do not know how to control their emotions.

Their parents use technology as a babysitter. Instead of teaching their children to learn how to control their anger or upsetness, they just give them the Ipad.

This makes for miserable behavior, lack of cooperative learning, and poor reading skills amongst lots of the kids. During creative writing time, they struggle. They often can't come up with anything but storylines from video games, and they don't have as much interest in anything that isn't electronic.

The librarian informed me that when kids come to her house to play with her son if she doesn't let them play on the computer or play videogames, they tell her they are bored and want to go home.

What the heck am I going to do now?

Day 1 of my residency - VIDEO HEAD STUDENTS  - 1
                                        STORYTELLER - 0


Happy Teaching


The Search For Imagination - Day 1
Digging For Buried Treasure: Day 2
A Mixed Bag of Failure, Confusion,Success  and storytelling: Day 3

Process v.s. Product while in Residence

I truly hate doing short residencies that are meant to end up in a performance.

This is not the case if I am brought in to work with a group of kids who are already planning to present something. In a general classroom setting with a myriad of different kinds of kids...I don't enjoy it.



For a small number of kids, being on stage will be one of the most amazing things in the world, and perhaps they will get bitten by the performance bug, and someday they will be on Access Hollywood talking about that artist that came to their rural elementary school and opened their world...

Then there are the children who will freak out about it...




These are the children who will hate the performance with a red hot hatred. These are the children who are so shy they can barely open their mouths in front of their peers, and this forced performance will absolutely confirm every fear they've ever had about being on stage.



This is the person you encounter on line in the grocery store who will tell you that they were forced to get up in front of everyone, and that was the moment when they realized they had no talent and would never, ever, ever want to be on stage again.

The bulk of the children will fall in the middle of the spectrum.

As a born ham, I never had trouble speaking to anyone anywhere. I didn't really get shy kids when I was younger. I didn't grow up in a family with any, and most of my friends were anything but. That doesn't mean I didn't know some...I just didn't get them.

I took them at their word that they were scared to speak, but I didn't get it.
I remember well parents who found their shy kids embarrassing, and they attempted to force them to get over it.

This idea that if you just showed shy people that they had nothing to fear they would come out of their shy shells and be like everyone else is a myth that got picked up somewhere, and it is often used to scar shy children. 

Some grow out of being shy, and others never do. That is just how it is.

Recently, I met sixty-one absolutely marvelous third graders. We played story games, language games, and did a short skit at the end of the week.

In small groups, these kids did really well. When we did tableau work, and they had to stand before their peers, but  didn't have to say anything, they were fabulous. Then, we had our first speaking work.

Despite having ample time to practice their little skits that lasted only about thirty seconds, I had an entire class where none of the four groups could get all the way through the skit. Once they were standing in front of their peers, they just stared at them and went silent. The lines they were able to recall as long as they were in small group slipped away, and they couldn't even remember what they were supposed to do.

In the other classes, we had a variety of outcomes.

One little boy couldn't manage anything but giggling. He was a guard without any lines at all, and he giggled all the way through the five line skit they created.

One group had five kids, and only two of them were willing to say anything.

We had people who, while they were working with their group, couldn't seem to find their way, but when they were standing up in front of the group, they turned into forceful performers, and took everyone by surprise...including themselves.

Several other kids absolutely bloomed and had amazing characters that every single person in class enjoyed. We laughed and loved their wild characters, but they were the exception to the rule.

I bring all of this up because when we originally conceived this residency, I explained that what I was going for was working on communication and interpersonal skills. The district was excited about that. I explained how I would be doing that, and they were very excited. Then, they added an extra two days and asked if the kids could do a performance.

They didn't bother to tell me they wanted one until I showed up and got the schedule.

On our first day together, Monday, I did performances for the whole school.

After the show, the director realized I was not anxious to have the kids do a performance. He asked why, and I explained that if we were going to do a performance, then we would need to work all week doing that, but I only had each class 4 times for 45 minutes a day.

That would mean that in four 45 minute sessions I would have to get over sixty kids ready to stand in front of their peers and possibly the parents or other members of the school to do some storytelling.

I explained that we might be able to produce some semblance of storytelling, but we would not be able to focus on the slow, deliberate work of learning some of the basic skills that could be carried over into other areas of their lives. I also suggested we could do an exhibition where we showed the other kids and their parents what we had been doing all week.


In the end, we agreed to focus on small group and communication skills, and not sweat the "performance".


I have done some storytelling residencies that culminated in performance, but those usually require multiple hours each day with the same group of kids, or more than just a few contacts, and we go through a very particular process to reach our goal. It is much more geared to working for an audience, not small groups to learning how to better communicate with peers. That could be a side effect of the work, but it is not the main thrust.

All of the kids in those intensives are successful, and I work hard to bring each kid to a place where they feel comfortable. Any kid who doesn't think they can do it, I work with...however, I don't force kids onto the stage.

I will always choose process over performance if I can, because learning the process is like teaching the kid to fish. If they understand the process, they can apply it to many different circumstances, including getting up on stage someday if they wish.

We all progress from stage to stage at our own pace. Forcing square pegs into round holes is never a good fit.

Some people adore the performance aspect, and couldn't imagine not having a presentation.

As an artist teacher, stay true to what you do, articulate it as well as you can, and help your charges succeed...wherever they are.

Happy Teaching and Telling!