Zoom In- Cleopatra's World
I decided to take a stroll through the world of my cat, Cleopatra. I followed her to her favorite places and took an extra look to see what she could see.
On the love seat
As a general rule, cats are lazy creatures. Cleo is no exception. She spends much of her time sitting on the love seat and trying to avoid my son. Imagine how she felt just a few days ago when he pulled himself to his feet and screamed in her face. He was right at her eye level and she wasn't very pleased.
Under the table
Another of Cleo's haunts is one of the chairs of our dining room table. The chair varies, but the view is much the same. She doesn't see much and often times the table cloth conceals her, so we also don't see Cleo either.
Looking out the sliding glass door
I always thought Cleo enjoyed looking at the ocean through our sliding glass door as much as I do. I now realize that her view is much different. Much of the romantic appeal is lost when there are all of these obstructions.
Babysitting food
Cleo gets fed automatically at the same time every day. She starts to sit next to her food dish about a hour before her evening feeding. I wonder if this is the hunter in her, stalking her prey.
What's the big idea?
I found body thinking and empathy to be two easily relatable ideas. I spent much of my childhood practicing both as a dancer and as an actress. I also practice both of these creative tools in my adult life as a teacher.
The ways that I use body thinking in my classroom is not so much as a thinking tool, but as a tool to prepare my students to think. I incorporate a lot of brain gym in between my lessons and after breaks such as recess to help prepare my students for the tasks ahead. I know that moving helps them to think, but it is not always possible to move as much as they would like during a lesson, so we try to do some moving before a lesson.
There is also a technique that I have used that seems to work well for my students who cannot sit still. I put a bungee cord between the legs of their chair and they can kick it during their lesson. It helps some of my more active students to focus without disturbing the rest of the class by constantly being out of their seat. Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein point out that “…sensations of muscle movement, body feeling, and touch act as a powerful tool for imaginative thinking” (164). Without much effort, I have given my students a creative outlet.
As mentioned in Sparks of Genius, I have never given much thought to how art can be a form of body thinking. When we do art projects, I never think of how much it may help my students to express themselves using their full body. I think art is a way for students to be creative in larger than life formats, but we so often keep our art confined to paper.
I believe that empathizing is one of the most important tools that I have as a teacher. My students have severe behavioral difficulties and the easiest way for me to help them is to try understanding why they feel the need to be violent. “The key to empathizing is learning to perceive the world through someone else’s mind and body” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 186). I think the easiest way for me to make any impact on my students is to attempt to gain a level of understanding as to where they are coming from.
I also have my students practice empathizing. They so often have the mindset that the world revolves around them that they do not see how their actions impact others. We frequently role play situations that have happened in our classroom to gain a deeper understanding of how the situation affected all parties involved. It not only helps me to understand my students, but role playing help my students to better understand themselves and their classmates.
Body thinking and empathizing are creative tools that I have used for most of my life and often without realizing it. Both ideas are very versatile in my classroom and I look forward to suing both in new and creative ways.
The ways that I use body thinking in my classroom is not so much as a thinking tool, but as a tool to prepare my students to think. I incorporate a lot of brain gym in between my lessons and after breaks such as recess to help prepare my students for the tasks ahead. I know that moving helps them to think, but it is not always possible to move as much as they would like during a lesson, so we try to do some moving before a lesson.
There is also a technique that I have used that seems to work well for my students who cannot sit still. I put a bungee cord between the legs of their chair and they can kick it during their lesson. It helps some of my more active students to focus without disturbing the rest of the class by constantly being out of their seat. Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein point out that “…sensations of muscle movement, body feeling, and touch act as a powerful tool for imaginative thinking” (164). Without much effort, I have given my students a creative outlet.
As mentioned in Sparks of Genius, I have never given much thought to how art can be a form of body thinking. When we do art projects, I never think of how much it may help my students to express themselves using their full body. I think art is a way for students to be creative in larger than life formats, but we so often keep our art confined to paper.
I believe that empathizing is one of the most important tools that I have as a teacher. My students have severe behavioral difficulties and the easiest way for me to help them is to try understanding why they feel the need to be violent. “The key to empathizing is learning to perceive the world through someone else’s mind and body” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 186). I think the easiest way for me to make any impact on my students is to attempt to gain a level of understanding as to where they are coming from.
I also have my students practice empathizing. They so often have the mindset that the world revolves around them that they do not see how their actions impact others. We frequently role play situations that have happened in our classroom to gain a deeper understanding of how the situation affected all parties involved. It not only helps me to understand my students, but role playing help my students to better understand themselves and their classmates.
Body thinking and empathizing are creative tools that I have used for most of my life and often without realizing it. Both ideas are very versatile in my classroom and I look forward to suing both in new and creative ways.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
Play-Doh Words
One activity that I do with nouns uses Play-Doh. There are several variations for this activity. I will give the students the name of a noun and they have to spell the noun using Play-Doh. I will also give them a noun and they have to sculpt a representation of that noun. Another variation is when I give them the noun, they have to use the Play-Doh to tell me if it is a person, place, or thing.
Miming
"...the Encyclopedia Britannica defines mime as the first and only true universal language" (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 175). Sometimes we will act out our favorite nouns in a form of charades.
Noun Race
We also like to have a race with our nouns. Students work in partners. One partner races to one end of the room and reads a noun off a sheet of paper. They race back to their partner who then has to decide if the noun is a person, place, or thing. At the end of the race, partners check their work together before they can be declared winner.