OS with third graders

[ashley cooper]

I'm glad you are enjoying the story!

Michael, your offer to add to the fund is so generous and supportive of the
youth's voices being heard. Unfortunately this OS was 1 1/2 weeks before the
end of the school year and while they moved quickly into action planning
they did not make it into action implementing. They were able to use an
extra 20 minutes a week later to follow up with topics of interest and they
chose to use this time further discussing and sharing their ideas with one
another.

I passed on the proceeding notes to the 4th grade teachers today, in case
they want to follow up on the children's interests.

And Christy, that is such fun to hear that you spoke to one of the teachers.
They were all so supportive of trying the open space and interested in
seeing what would happen. They are open to more next year. Yippee!!

Warmly,
Ashley

On 6/15/06, Michael M Pannwitz <mmpanne at boscop.de> wrote:
>
> 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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