OS with third graders

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Great story, Ashley!
Action included!
I am forwarding your story to the German oslistserve to spread the word.
Have a great day
Greetings from Berlin
mmp

PS: Please send me the address of the fund to save the rainforest that 
was decided on by the students, I would like donate to it.

ashley cooper 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



Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
www.boscop.de   www.michaelmpannwitz.de

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