ANOTHER WONDERFUL DAY IN 2G
How many fabulous days can we have in 2G?
We’ll take all that are going!
FAVORITE ZOOLOGY CONVERSATION OF THE DAY
First chance they get, 2G rushes en mass to view Ibuki, our fast-growing white-tern chick.
Student 1: It’s in its nest!
Teacher: If you recall, white terns don’t have nests. They lay their egg in a puka.
Student 2: Yeah, if they made nests they’d lay more than one egg and they only want one egg!
Student 1: Oh…
Ah yes, the N.M.M.E (Nests Mean More Eggs) theory.
“AUTHENTIC” LEARNING EXPERIENCES
In the educational literature, much is made of “authentic” learning experiences. Proponents of “authentic” experiences suggest they lead to deep learning whereas “inauthentic” experiences are shallow and quickly forgotten.
But what is an authentic learning experience?
And does “authentic” mean something different when teaching younger children as opposed to university students?
Many take “authentic” as meaning something like, “Dealing with the REAL problems we are facing right NOW in the REAL world” and have young children tackling projects “in the community”: pollution, overpopulation, high-density living, lower-cost housing, income inequality, the 6th extinction…
As these are problems highly-trained scientists have difficulty grappling with, some argue that, for young children, such projects are inauthentic — and developmentally inappropriate.
Recall the earlier conversation about the white tern “nest.”
If asked to use the “authentic” label and provide an example of “authentic” learning, I would share 2G’s videotaping experience today.
Students—
Experience and engage with text in a form in which it is actively used in the world (Hollywood, Bollywood)
Quickly learn how to navigate a script: this text is instruction for the director/editor, this text is to be spoken by and actor/actress — and it’s very different from a book
Find their auditory memories stretched: I can remember and repeat a short line, two short lines. But that slightly longer sentence which I can easily read isn’t so easy to remember and repeat
Find their “working memory” — everything you’ve got to keep in mind to accomplish a task — taxed: they must remember
(1) to repeat the words exactly as given
(2) to wait 2 seconds before repeating them back
(3) to talk to the person behind the camera (i.e., look at the audience)
(4) to breathe life into the lines (and not read like a robot)
(5) keep looking at the camera for a few seconds after finishing
— and do this all again so we can get 2-3 takes of a line — and young children can typically keep maybe 3 things in mind simultaneously!
Learn that text is not written in stone: If a line is too long, we can shorten it or give part of it to another speaker
When behind the camera must check their impulses before starting the camera (are the director and actor/actress ready?) and at the end of a take (the editor needs at least 2 seconds of silence after a take)
When behind the camera must figure out how to get a partner “in frame” and keep things we don’t want in the frame (the church bulletin board, the stonework at the side of the church doors) out of the frame
Today, students also got to see a rough edit of some of their practice for “HNS Kindness: Real Stories.” Many students had “lifetime firsts”—
Seeing the guts of a non-linear editing program: video bits, audio (spoken, music) bits, video stacked over audio, video stacked over still shots
Learning why/how my voice (giving the line to an actor/actress) wasn’t heard in the edited rough draft
Seeing selected video moved about like Lego blocks
Understanding how an animated intro (the WHNS TV or Lion & Mouse intros) could be “dropped in” to replace the stand-in text
Witnessing the “flow” that eventually comes from all their hard work in front of the camera
Seeing themselves deliver their best lines
Understanding the creative process behind actively creating media rather than passively receiving it
In sum: a developmentally-appropriate “authentic” (language-arts and socio-emotional) learning experience! One 2G loved!
100% INDEPENDENT
2G students are thoroughly enjoying their “100% Independent Tickets.” They especially like choosing which order to do things in.
Today we got a lot of filming done as those not in front of or behind the camera worked quietly.
As Darth Vader said to Luke Skywalker (in The Empire Strikes Back), “Impressive.”
STARVED FOR IMAGINATIVE PLAY
In the afternoon, I was covering the TV screen with its green-leaf sarong cloth. I told the two girls playing BINGO inside that in pre-COVID times imaginative play often incorporated the many colorful sarongs we have in the classroom (as well as other large pieces of cloth and baskets full of stuffed animals).
Their 👀 got very BIG — and they grabbed the sarong!
They wanted nothing more than to use it to make a tent, or to dress up with or…
I felt like a real meany saying that, thanks to COVID, they couldn’t.
Immediately afterwards Ms. Erin and I were watching two students creating architectural structures with blocks and a group of students at the sand tray forming mountains and tunnels and (dry) lakes and (dry) rivers and parks and zoos and…
It struck us that — thanks COVID! — our students have been truly starved for imaginative play. It was overwhelmingly clear to both of use that young children NEED imaginative play. Imaginative play = brain food.
We’re thankful to everyone who’s made what imaginative play we can engage in possible.
Onwards!