OS with third graders

Ted Ernst ted at chicagohumanist.org
Wed Jun 14 15:37:12 PDT 2006


Beautiful, Ashley!

On 6/14/06, ashley cooper <mail.easilyamazed at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Thank you for all of the suggestions and ideas for the Open Space with 42
> third graders in 1 hour and 10 minutes. It was a huge success and I am
> looking forward to integrating regular OS's into next year's schedule. (I've
> started with the children and hopefully we'll get to move up to the staff
> and the parents too!)
>
> The theme was *What can we do to make our school a better place? What can we
> do to make our world a better place?*
>
> Of course, the children took to it so easily. We had 2, 20 minute sessions
> in which they generated 18 topics such as *New Rules for the Playground, How
> we should be nice and kind to each other, Learning from history's mistakes,
> Children's Voting Rights, Try to help the environment! Not polluting any
> more!, and Not excluding people from anything*.
>
> We ended with a once around reflection circle in which everyone had a chance
> to share. Here are some of their comments.
>
> ·        What I liked in my group was that there were no debates. We were
> all united. There were differences about how it is, but we were all united.
>
> ·        We decided to start a fund to save the rainforest.
>
> ·        Our group went well. Kids voting rights. It was a good opportunity
> for discussion.
>
> ·        In history's biggest mistakes, it started as being silly with just
> girls there. Then the boys came in and made it better. In the second session
> I bonded with someone I didn't know that well.
>
> ·        Everyone agreed with saving the rainforest. It wasn't silly. We
> were serious.
>
> ·        I think we talked about an important issue: not excluding.
>
> One little touch that I think helped a lot with this age group was to
> provide a basket of objects that hosts could choose to use for a talking
> stick. I saw a few kids struggling with everyone talking at once and then
> one of them running to grab a talking stick. I also provided a generic form
> for them to use for note taking.
>
> Aside from the opportunity for their voices to be heard, to connect with one
> another around things that matter to them, and to experience themselves
> self-organizing, I greatly appreciated that students who have a tendency to
> wander and not participate in assigned topics (students that can often be
> labeled as challenges) that at the OS they actually had names and roles for
> their ways of being, butterflies and bumble bees. I loved that they were
> doing what they were 'supposed to be doing' by wandering around and trying
> to figure out where they belong and where they want to participate.
>
> Thanks again for all of the support.
>
> Warmly,
> Ashley
>
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-- 
Humanize the Earth!  http://tedernst.com
Open more space!  http://www.openspaceworld.org
Chicago event July 14-16: http://moreandmore.us/
skype: TedErnst
google talk/jabber: tedernst at gmail.com

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