Junior High Android Attack

I just got back from a great school visit.

I spent the weekend in a Reiki workshop – not a good preparation for a presentation and workshop. I woke Monday morning deeply quiet and still, and a little freaked out that I’d never be able to amp myself up enough to do a good session. But I forgot something and had to scramble last minute to get it ready, and then drive over, and then I was there and the kids were funny and we were off and running.

I was working with a group of 35 struggling junior high students. We had two hours together (always a treat), and I talked and then we made up a story together.  The teachers said they have trouble inspiring the kids to write, and sometimes the kids have trouble coming up with ideas, but once we got rolling that wasn’t a problem. We turned the grade 8 teacher into an android from another planet needing nice full grade 9 brains, to help him bring donuts back to his planet.

Donuts run the core of the planet, and they were running out. We had Tim Horton jokes, Android phone jokes, and the tragic death of a student before we finally defeated the android with his greatest weakness, water, in a grand water pistol fight.

One guy was bursting with ideas and questions and sometimes had to be hushed, but he also had the best analysis of why one of our two ending options was a mistake, in terms of good story. He caught the problem sooner than I did, and convinced me.

Then they created monsters, in groups. I’m going to have nightmares. When they gave me a bulldog stuffie (the school mascot) as a thank you, I had to check to see if it would turn nasty at night before I would accept it.

I came home excited at how well it had gone, and then I slipped right back into silence.

The lessons for me: make sure to plan for a couple of work-at-home days after Reiki workshops, just as I do after a meditation retreat.

Go wild with the kids, and give them permission to go wild. They’re much more creative that way.

Maureen

Writing For Children

I’ve just finished teaching my second course about writing for children. The first was heavily lecture based; for the second, we agreed on a workshop style, with a focus on in-class writing.

My students’ greatest difficulty was finding/making/stealing time to write. We began each class talking about how writing went that week (starting with me), and every week there were groans and shudders. And yet, writing happened, both in class and during the week, and some really interesting work emerged.

One the greatest challenges for me was putting what I’ve learned about writing into words. You’d think that wouldn’t be hard for a writer, but some days it was a struggle. My greatest pleasure was focusing on exactly what each student needed. Overall, they needed to understand that writing garbage is normal and necessary, rather than a failure. They all struggled with that internal editor, trying to still that critical voice. And, always, they needed to simply put in the time.

My favorite experience? listening to their stories – funny, touching, real, weird and wonderful.

Maureen

A Standing Desk

I have a standing desk. No treadmill yet – it is still to come.

We’ll stain the desk once it’s warm enough to work outside, and we’ll have to level it, once we have the treadmill mat. We discovered the floor slopes rather radically down from the window wall, so I’ve propped up the other side on pads of post-it notes for now. Once everything’s in place we’ll use Mark’s trombone cork to pad up the feet as needed. Once again, we remember that nothing is level in this old house.

Maureen