OS with third graders

[Christy Lee-Engel]

What a wonderful report!

My husband teaches at the same school where Ashley works, and at a party
last night I had the chance to speak with one of the third grade teachers,
who is retiring this year after close to 40 years of masterful teaching. She
was very impressed with the Open Space, saying--with some amazement in her
voice!--how well it had gone, and how much the children had loved it, and
how touching it had been for her personally to see.

Thank you, Ashley, for the way you open space with such love,

Christy
-- 
Christy Lee-Engel, ND, LAc
One Sky Wellness Associates
6300 9th Ave NE, Ste 300
Seattle, WA 98115
voice: 206.363.5555
fax: 206.363.5533
mobile: 206.399.0868
Practice: http://oneskywellness.com
Weblog: http://lifecultivatinglife.blogspot.com
Open Space News: http://www.openspaceworld.org/news

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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