Like most Americans I quote the Bible to suit my purposes but know very little about it. I read the whole thing a time or two and I don't remember much but I do remember that story about Jesus dividing loaves and fishes up so a whole unexpected crowd got fed. That made a big impression on me.
Consequently I am flabbergasted when shortly after the Pledge of Allegiance (one nation under God) I hear a person who publicly identifies with the religion of the dominant culture question whether or not it's the school's job to feed children..
Wow!
The logic of these tea bagger types is that if we provide money and food for these children, then it merely enables the parents not to do their job and feed their own children. A crasser version of this came from a now forgotten millionaire who said something to the effect that when we feed poor people they just multiply. So we shouldn't feed poor people.
Wow!
In case you were curious about the dollar figures, here's a few stunners: The federal government spends 11 billion on school lunches and 2650 billion on the military....wars past, present and future....So following the logic of the conservative faithful perhaps we need to quit funding the military so much......After all, if we do, they will just breed and multiply.
Have a good weekend. Namaste Jeff
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip: The Appreciation Circle
In case you ever wondered whether or not it was a bad idea for substitute teachers to play dodge ball with highly agitated middle schoolers a week and a half before Christmas break......it is.The game resulted in one physical fight, two major conflicts and an entire class that could not focus on anything for the rest of the day.
I had been asked to lead a mousetrap activity from my book but I picked up on the energy right away when I walked into the classroom. Accusations were flying back and forth. People had chosen sides, of course, and the sub was at a loss....the dark side of anarchy.
The plan was to watch the last part of a movie and then do a trust activity with mousetraps but the gods had different plans. I started by just asking what happened and received a multitude of field reports with interesting variations on reality.Of course most of them felt obligated to give their view point and that took awhile. It was starting to drag until one student suggested we do a compliment or appreciation circle "like we do in yoga class."
I first learned this technique from Lynn Duus who called it "strength bombardment." I changed it to appreciation circle and was reintroduced to it again from Lynea Gillen at Yoga Calm who called it the "compliment circle."
By any name, the idea is the same. One person stands in the center of the circle and receives compliments from the rest of the group. I had not often done an appreciation circle in whole classes. I preferred to save it for smaller groups where some degree of intimacy and connection had already been established. My intuition said this could really backfire but I often venture into territory where angel, demons and fools fear to tread.Certainly nothing of any educational nature was going to happen.
I picked the first of the two girls who had been squabbling about something all day and placed her in the center of the circle. Generally I do not allow kids in yoga class or group to "pass" but I told them in this case I would allow it. I also do not allow any qualifiers. "You are nice but......" I did not ask for elaborate compliments either. I could clearly see that we were starting from ground zero. Anything would be progress at this juncture.
And it worked.
Five or six kids (one at a time) were blessed by standing in a circle of their peers and receiving compliments. The mood shifted almost visibly. It seemed like they were starting to recenter so I told them it was time to start the movie and finish the lesson. There was a clamor to continue. I thought it about it for a minute and then told them I would continue on one condition: no more passes and everybody had to agree.
We continued the rest of the period giving compliments with only one complaint: not everybody had a chance to go.
Instructions for Appreciation Circle
I had been asked to lead a mousetrap activity from my book but I picked up on the energy right away when I walked into the classroom. Accusations were flying back and forth. People had chosen sides, of course, and the sub was at a loss....the dark side of anarchy.
The plan was to watch the last part of a movie and then do a trust activity with mousetraps but the gods had different plans. I started by just asking what happened and received a multitude of field reports with interesting variations on reality.Of course most of them felt obligated to give their view point and that took awhile. It was starting to drag until one student suggested we do a compliment or appreciation circle "like we do in yoga class."
I first learned this technique from Lynn Duus who called it "strength bombardment." I changed it to appreciation circle and was reintroduced to it again from Lynea Gillen at Yoga Calm who called it the "compliment circle."
By any name, the idea is the same. One person stands in the center of the circle and receives compliments from the rest of the group. I had not often done an appreciation circle in whole classes. I preferred to save it for smaller groups where some degree of intimacy and connection had already been established. My intuition said this could really backfire but I often venture into territory where angel, demons and fools fear to tread.Certainly nothing of any educational nature was going to happen.
I picked the first of the two girls who had been squabbling about something all day and placed her in the center of the circle. Generally I do not allow kids in yoga class or group to "pass" but I told them in this case I would allow it. I also do not allow any qualifiers. "You are nice but......" I did not ask for elaborate compliments either. I could clearly see that we were starting from ground zero. Anything would be progress at this juncture.
And it worked.
Five or six kids (one at a time) were blessed by standing in a circle of their peers and receiving compliments. The mood shifted almost visibly. It seemed like they were starting to recenter so I told them it was time to start the movie and finish the lesson. There was a clamor to continue. I thought it about it for a minute and then told them I would continue on one condition: no more passes and everybody had to agree.
We continued the rest of the period giving compliments with only one complaint: not everybody had a chance to go.
Instructions for Appreciation Circle
- Instruct students in how to give a pure compliment. By pure I mean there are no qualifiers. Often I give an extreme example. "You used to be a jerk but now you're nice." That's not OK.
- One person at a time stands in the center of a circle and receives compliments.
- That person's only response is "thank you."
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
A Different Kind of School
I had a dream last night about a different kind of school. We all remember school. Endless hours hunched over workbooks, textbooks, textbook and now of course netbooks. Lines, rules, regulations, codes, policies, rules, procedures, hierarchy, and of course rules.
This was a different kind of school. There were no long dark narrow hallways reminiscent of hospitals. This school had large airy south facing windows and skylights in every classroom. As I walked around the structure I caught snippets of conversations. The ninth graders were engrossed in a unit on sacred geometry. They were studying the sacred geometry of the pyramids and speculating on whether or not there was contact between the Egyptian pyramid builders and the Mayan Pyramid builders.
The English class was getting a little noisy with their poetry slam so the principal walked down the hallway and quietly closed the door. The students were engaged in a vigorous rap, hip hop and beat poetry competition. Yes kids were excited about English class!
The science teacher was concerned about the ph level of the chicken feed so he sent a student out to the school garden to measure the level. That student recorded the levels and emailed them back on his iphone to the classroom so the class could come up with solutions. Emailing saved a trip back and then she could help the Sustainable Futures class (formerly called Consumer Education) gather eggs for the mid morning school snack.
Another science class was across town wiring the solar shingles into the new Habitat for Humanity straw bale home. The home had been built as part of a learning expedition. The Sustainable Economics class had raised the initial funds through an innovative cottage industry program and then invested those funds in environmentally responsible stocks and bonds. After a year, they had enough to start. They sure had to be patient that year! The math class had decided after a consensus session to build the home based on the principles of the Golden Mean. This gave the home a feeling unlike any other. Almost everything in that home came from the local area. The poles to make the framework had been salvaged from a slash pile in a nearby logging operation. The straw bales came from a local farmer.
As I continued walking I noticed things I had never seen in school before (at least no school I had ever seen). The civics class (were they teaching that again?) was extremely nervous about their upcoming test so the teacher was leading them through some breathing exercises and a few sun salutations to help them prepare. Of course one student had to be different and insisted on doing a head stand instead. He wasn't punished but the teacher did insist on a few spotters.
Each week the school had different kinds of music piped over the school wide intercom. The music was sometimes chosen by consensus but at different times of the year there were silly competitions between classes and clubs to determine what music would be played. The FFA (was that back too?) had won the bubble blowing contest this week so the hipsters were suffering good naturedly through Taylor Swift and Merle Haggard.
I found the principal again in the enormous greenhouse that provided both heat and food for the building. She was engaged in a vigorous debate with the permaculture class over whether today was the optimal time to harvest the basil. They wanted to wait three days. She thought the time was now. The students won.
Then I woke up. I never did get to see the rest of that school.
Was it just a dream?
This was a different kind of school. There were no long dark narrow hallways reminiscent of hospitals. This school had large airy south facing windows and skylights in every classroom. As I walked around the structure I caught snippets of conversations. The ninth graders were engrossed in a unit on sacred geometry. They were studying the sacred geometry of the pyramids and speculating on whether or not there was contact between the Egyptian pyramid builders and the Mayan Pyramid builders.
The English class was getting a little noisy with their poetry slam so the principal walked down the hallway and quietly closed the door. The students were engaged in a vigorous rap, hip hop and beat poetry competition. Yes kids were excited about English class!
The science teacher was concerned about the ph level of the chicken feed so he sent a student out to the school garden to measure the level. That student recorded the levels and emailed them back on his iphone to the classroom so the class could come up with solutions. Emailing saved a trip back and then she could help the Sustainable Futures class (formerly called Consumer Education) gather eggs for the mid morning school snack.
Another science class was across town wiring the solar shingles into the new Habitat for Humanity straw bale home. The home had been built as part of a learning expedition. The Sustainable Economics class had raised the initial funds through an innovative cottage industry program and then invested those funds in environmentally responsible stocks and bonds. After a year, they had enough to start. They sure had to be patient that year! The math class had decided after a consensus session to build the home based on the principles of the Golden Mean. This gave the home a feeling unlike any other. Almost everything in that home came from the local area. The poles to make the framework had been salvaged from a slash pile in a nearby logging operation. The straw bales came from a local farmer.
As I continued walking I noticed things I had never seen in school before (at least no school I had ever seen). The civics class (were they teaching that again?) was extremely nervous about their upcoming test so the teacher was leading them through some breathing exercises and a few sun salutations to help them prepare. Of course one student had to be different and insisted on doing a head stand instead. He wasn't punished but the teacher did insist on a few spotters.
Each week the school had different kinds of music piped over the school wide intercom. The music was sometimes chosen by consensus but at different times of the year there were silly competitions between classes and clubs to determine what music would be played. The FFA (was that back too?) had won the bubble blowing contest this week so the hipsters were suffering good naturedly through Taylor Swift and Merle Haggard.
I found the principal again in the enormous greenhouse that provided both heat and food for the building. She was engaged in a vigorous debate with the permaculture class over whether today was the optimal time to harvest the basil. They wanted to wait three days. She thought the time was now. The students won.
Then I woke up. I never did get to see the rest of that school.
Was it just a dream?
Monday, December 6, 2010
The Wild Wild Wild West of School Lunches: Eggs For Breakfast?
The school breakfast menu read something like this:scrambled eggs, toast, milk, apple sauce. That sounded like a reasonable breakfast. Protein, grain and juice. What could be wrong with that?
I found the box that had contained the "scrambled eggs" and of course I squirreled it away and back up to my office. On the cover of box was a picture of a bucolic farm setting reminiscent of Old MacDonald's farm. It made one think that the eggs in my meal might have been gathered by sturdy and robust children before being brought lovingly to the school.
This intrepid label reader found the following in your child's "eggs"
This intrepid label reader found the following in your child's "eggs"
whole eggs, egg whites, whey, skim milk, soybean oil, salt, xanthan gum, citric acid, .15% water as a carrier for citric acid
64% cholesterol
10% fat
16% sodium 380 milligrams
2 grams sugar
11 grams protein
1% carbohydrates
This is in a 1/2 cup serving. How many kids do you think will only take 1/2 cup? The ingredient list starts out harmlessly. Egg, eggs, milk, soybean oil (not great but ok, although most likely that oil comes from genetically modified soy beans), salt, and then that mysterious stuff known as xanthan gum. Xanthan gum is strange looking gooey substance that is formed from three "corn sugars." To make things simple xanthan gum is a derivative of corn syrup.
"Caloric availability and digestibility studies indicated that xanthan gum is not utilized by the body. This conclusion was substantiated by the finding that practically all of the gum fed during a & -day period could be accounted for in the feces." (Booth et al.,1963)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Landing and Launching: 101 Checkins and Checkouts: Installation #11
21 Sand Tray
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. William Blake
Preparation time:Fifteen minutes
Materials:
(1) A shallow 2x2 box capable of holding sand.* (Dimensions can vary. If you are always in a classroom I would suggest creating a permanently stationed box 3x3 or larger.)
(2) Miniature garden tools (check toy stores)
(3) A variety of miniature props
(4) A small stone or two
Procedure:
Short time option: Best if you are in a classroom or other institutional setting
(1) Explain to participants that the sand tray represents our group and individual universe.
(2) Instruct participants one at a time to place an object from the props in the sand tray.
(3) After this is finished, ask participants to draw a shape in the sand.
(4) The prop and the drawing represent their present reality and emotional state.
(5) In the round or “popcorn” participants may share the shape and object they chose.
More Time Option: If you are at the beginning of a long day or weekend retreat you may want to consider this option.
(1) You will want a larger more visibly present sand tray 4x4 or larger if you have the space.
(2) Instruct participants to go outside and find two stones. One stone represents their present perceptional reality or emotional state. The second stone represents their wishes, goals, hopes and dreams.
(3) One at a time either in the round or popcorn style participants share both their present reality and their future state.
(1) You can also reframe this with three stones. They represent past, present and future.
Alternatives: If you really enjoy this activity you want to consider helping your students create their own sand trays for home and school or both. The best option I have found for this is old lunch pails. They generally have a colorful theme and can be closed to keep the family cat from using the tray when nobody's around.
Notes: Use your imagination and creativity when creating a box. Since I am so mobile I use a smaller jewelry box and keep the sand, tool and props in baggies. Nine by twelve glass Pyrex baking pans are a functional size and they usually come with a plastic cover. You don't really need it to be more that two inches deep. You will most likely find that a sand tray leads to wonderfully imaginative journeys.
*If you are a craft type person you can go to our website for several different plans to make your own sand tray.
Activity Credit: Adapted from Jean Sutton’s therapy practice.
High Concept
22 High Ropes Course Gear
Preparation time: None!!! Providing of course that you are on a high ropes course.
Materials:
(1) Helmets: Who leads but does not have a title? The head of the organization/group, not necessarily titles
(2) Carabiners: Who links things, ideas and people together?
(3) Ropes: The lifeline. Who/What is your lifeline?
(4) Harnesses: Who keeps everybody safe?
(5) Shear Reduction Devices: Who reduces or mediates conflict?
(6) Figure 8: Who helps you float and gives you a sense of freedom?
(7) Rescue 8: Who rescues others from difficult situations?
(8) All the different elements: Ropes courses all have different elements but think about what each could represent. Most courses have a jungle gym. What jungles do you have in your life?
(9) Pulleys: Who makes your job easier?
Procedure:
(1) Explain to the group that each thing we use on the high ropes course represents a useful function of each member
Notes: These metaphors can easily be used as checkouts. You might consider using these metaphors at the beginning and end of your high ropes day.
Activity Credit: Adapted from 10 years of running ropes courses with Bill Smith.
23 Matruska Dolls
Preparation time: Five minutes or less
Materials: Matruska doll preferably unpainted. A matruska doll also called a nesting doll consists of anywhere from 5-10 hollow wooden dolls of increasingly smaller sizes. Traditionally they were elaborately painted and then lacquered. You way want to paint yours or obtain a painted one but I prefer mine unpainted.
Procedure: With the five layer doll explain that each layer represents a layer of ourselves:
(1) Social: Church, school, sports, clubs
(2) Family: Biological family, adopted family, those taken into the family “like family”
(3) Friendships: Our larger circle of friends, people we most often hang out with
(4) Intimate relationships (for younger audiences best friend)
(5) The true self: the me that nobody sees and few know
Ask participants to explain how they are in each situation. Are they loud, funny, hostile, relaxed, withdrawn, secretive, revealing, completely honest?
Alternatives: You can also teach other models of the layers of the self
Notes: This activity is an example of finding meaning anywhere and everywhere. The unpainted matruska doll I now possess sat on a shelf in the Wishram teacher's lounge. When I came in for my bi-weekly visits I would ask who it belonged to. Nobody knew. After a few weeks of this the book keeper asked “if you want it why don't you just take it?” I took this as permission and it's been traveling with me ever since.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip #9: Classroom Mental Health: Kerplunk
One of the most difficult things for most teachers to get a handle in the classroom is the constant stream of slurs, put downs, slams and clever one liners that disrupt the peace and serenity of the classroom. If you want to move your classroom toward being a more supportive environment, the slur, both casual and intentional.
My personal pet peeve is the use of the word "gay" to describe anything kids don't like. I find it more offensive than the "f" bomb or the "s" word. Yet it is used with impunity and the kids seem to have beaten the teachers into submission on this one. It happens so often that it just becomes part of the background scenery. It has to stop.
But as even the most amateur behaviorist knows, as soon as you tell kids not to do something, they immediately do it more. You have to be smarter than the kids and use gimmicks to create awareness. A simple tool to increase awareness of put downs is the game kerplunk.
Th game Kerplunk consists of a clear plastic cylindrical tube with a lot of holes drilled in it, marbles and colored slender plastic sticks. The sticks are inserted in the holes in various directions so they create a framework to support the marbles. The framework of support creates a wonderful metaphor for the support each student needs in the classroom.
My personal pet peeve is the use of the word "gay" to describe anything kids don't like. I find it more offensive than the "f" bomb or the "s" word. Yet it is used with impunity and the kids seem to have beaten the teachers into submission on this one. It happens so often that it just becomes part of the background scenery. It has to stop.
But as even the most amateur behaviorist knows, as soon as you tell kids not to do something, they immediately do it more. You have to be smarter than the kids and use gimmicks to create awareness. A simple tool to increase awareness of put downs is the game kerplunk.
Th game Kerplunk consists of a clear plastic cylindrical tube with a lot of holes drilled in it, marbles and colored slender plastic sticks. The sticks are inserted in the holes in various directions so they create a framework to support the marbles. The framework of support creates a wonderful metaphor for the support each student needs in the classroom.
- Explain to the class that the game Kerplunk will be used as a scientific measuring device to track the number of put downs in the classroom.
- Put all the sticks in and one marble to represent each class member.
- Every time somebody makes a put down remove one stick.
- If you get to the point where a marble or two drops, stop and explain to the class that those marbles represent people the class did not support.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Integrated School Health Tip #8: The Crisis/Christmas Season
It's as predictable as corrupt politicians. It begins a week before Thanksgiving break and ends sometime in early January. Not all kids experience Hallmark holidays with smiling relatives and June Cleaver icons running around dishing out gravy and marveling over their new hand warmers under the Christmas tree.
Holidays bring out dump truck loads of emotions in kids at school. Sometimes they get shuffled from mixed family setting to mixed family setting. Sometimes absentee dads randomly show up or don't show up at all. Sometimes absentee Disney land dad shows up with an armful of presents and disappears shortly afterward. Sometimes mom or dad's recent or latest partner shows up. Even in the most functional of families, holidays can be a reminder of who is not there: a recently deceased grandparent or sibling overseas in the military. Sometimes, especially in this economy, there's not enough money to buy all the stuff TV land wants you to buy.
When you throw a little substance abuse into the mix, things get even more complicated. Seems like most families have at least one alcoholic relative. Sometimes the entire event whether it be Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's is one long drinking event. More than one kid has told me they'd rather go to school than stay home.
Teachers and other school staff see the end results of this angst in their classrooms. A friend of mine told me about two girls fighting in the cafeteria of a school she works in. One threw her taco salad (a subconscious rejection perhaps?). She was surprised. I wasn't. In another school I was about to enter a middle school classroom to get kids for a yoga group when a girl leaving the classroom in tears nearly knocked me over. Yoga that day turned out to be a conflict resolution session.
People under stress go to their default or survival strategies. Middle schoolers with few skills will resort to basic defensive strategies unless somebody takes the time to teach them something different. In the next few weeks I am going to provide some mental health tips to help you manage those roller coaster emotions of childhood and adolescence.
Holidays bring out dump truck loads of emotions in kids at school. Sometimes they get shuffled from mixed family setting to mixed family setting. Sometimes absentee dads randomly show up or don't show up at all. Sometimes absentee Disney land dad shows up with an armful of presents and disappears shortly afterward. Sometimes mom or dad's recent or latest partner shows up. Even in the most functional of families, holidays can be a reminder of who is not there: a recently deceased grandparent or sibling overseas in the military. Sometimes, especially in this economy, there's not enough money to buy all the stuff TV land wants you to buy.
When you throw a little substance abuse into the mix, things get even more complicated. Seems like most families have at least one alcoholic relative. Sometimes the entire event whether it be Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's is one long drinking event. More than one kid has told me they'd rather go to school than stay home.
Teachers and other school staff see the end results of this angst in their classrooms. A friend of mine told me about two girls fighting in the cafeteria of a school she works in. One threw her taco salad (a subconscious rejection perhaps?). She was surprised. I wasn't. In another school I was about to enter a middle school classroom to get kids for a yoga group when a girl leaving the classroom in tears nearly knocked me over. Yoga that day turned out to be a conflict resolution session.
People under stress go to their default or survival strategies. Middle schoolers with few skills will resort to basic defensive strategies unless somebody takes the time to teach them something different. In the next few weeks I am going to provide some mental health tips to help you manage those roller coaster emotions of childhood and adolescence.
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