Recycling in Jinan China!!

6 months ago, I arrived in China with the blessed commission to do all within my abilities, and beyond, to begin the monumental task of Cultural and Ecological Regeneration in the small northern chip of Jinan. The great Puertorriqueño poet, Victor Hernandez Cruz, speaks to me these days, with a soft and gentle reminder that can only come from a comrade,

"..Camara
You gotta have your tips on fire..."

Sorting through our in-class-brought-from-home recylcables

You see it all begins by first scoping out the state of the union. Jinan is a place where first impressions deceive one into thinking that there is no RECYCLING program. In the best case scenario you have the classic recycling recipients that no one honors or else the century old ALL IN ONE dumpsters. Fresh on the block, and with only a humble NI HAO to get by with, I kept a close eye on the activity of these dumpsters. It didn't take long to stumble upon the army of individuals that dumpster dive within literally seconds of any recyclable material tossed carelessly into them. So, there was my solution for our home: We continued to separate our trash into organic, glass, metal and cardboard just as we always had, but set these outside of the trashcans as a gift to those who usually had to dive for them. Now, this behavior came at the price of many-a-onlookers disapproval. Their glare seem to question how come having come so close to the dumpster, I was not able to put it inside. I'm sure that more than one of them assumed that this was yet another strange and inappropriate behavior from the west. On one occasion I saw one of the caretakers, take what my family had carefully separated at home and toss it all into the trash. I waited for him to leave and did my share of dumpster diving and then kept careful watch of my re-recycled-non-trash, until spotting one of the official dumpster divers that in order to put food on the table were inadvertently doing you and I and this world so much good!

Our talk to the kids was a push for them to lead at home!!

My next trial was that of bringing a recycling culture to my gang of Kindergarteners. To my surprise, many of the momma's quickly joined in on the operation. Week by week, kids would randomly show up and show me the boxes or plastic bottles they had avoided throwing out. Another initial concern of mine, in terms of setting up a Holistic Kindergarten that aimed towards the regenerative expectations of the wonderful organization I represent, was avoiding the exorbitant purchasing of arts and crafts materials that go into Kindergarten programs worldwide. So our collection of recyclables was systematically turned into an 8-ft long cardboard Dragon (yet to be finished) that is dormant in the corner of our classroom, an entire entourage of Halloween decorations, as well as our very own special version of the ever so popular Caine's Cardboard Arcade, which we recently paid tribute to upon honoring Santa's Elves and his chilly but spirited workshop.

Little Kaby and Theo hauling the NOT TRASH!!

Nonetheless the recyclables were beginning to take over our classroom working space, with an insurmountable amount of tiny used and reused pieces of paper and cardboard. It was time to seek out my old dumpster diving messiahs!!

I hereby share with you pictures from our class yesterday where we took to sorting through the goods and made it presentable for our good friends who had WE JUST HIT THE JACKPOT grins when we asked if they could use what we had used for our first 6 months of pre-school.

I know this is only a small little effort in bringing upon regenerative living to Jinan, but it is one I am proud of...especially when I ponder deep in thought the ripple effect in the little hearts and minds of the kids I get to play with each day in Caillou Home.

Merry Christmas everyone!! I am certainly feeling the spirit despite being so far from those who celebrate the Christ mass

Our Caillou model, Alan, with a great backdrop!

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Designing and Building a Holistic Environment for Learning

Crucial to the Holistic model of learning is the design and building of a healthy environment for learning to take place. Way too often in traditional education, this is deemed a vagary or capriccio. In our one-lane-fast-track-get-the-most-for-your-penny ways there is no time for the preparation of the holy grounds on which learning will take place, let alone for the ritual and ceremony that must open the channels for the divine to speak down and into us and henceforth us in return. We live in times of "I have paid my monies. I have opened my mouth. Now feed me". It should be no surprise that the results are so short-rooted.

But what is meant by "Designing and Building a Holistic Environment for Learning."

Consider how much of the routines of modern life contain substantial meaning. How often are our actions something worth composing a story designed to preserve a path for our children and grandchildren to use as an example of sustainable culture? Professional instructors know well this death as articulated in the cries of boredom. Why are some learners plagued by boredom? What constitutes an exciting learning environment? How much does such entertainment cost? What are the correlations affecting motivation?

Motivation has long since been attributed to the ability to see or find relevance. If students are provided an environment that stimulates relevance and meaning, self discovery and curiosity become the fuel for study. However, many modern and wealthy educational models have short-cut the development of relevance with attractive gimmicks in the same way that advertisements may lure consumers to purchase. The environment and delivery of content has become increasingly technological, bright, fast, and selfish, providing instantaneous gratification like candy - a quick boost void of lasting nutrition.

Spotlight Plus is the second program opened in Jinan, China. It seeks to foster a vibrant learning environment. Non-surprisingly it is beginning to attract others to its' bustling hive. For the past 2 weeks, Summer Dong, 26, soon-to-be intern of the Originateve Internship for Mentors in Holistic Education, has opted to wake up early on her day off and join our class to co-exist in the learning/teaching environment that we, a group of 10 vibrant children of ages 5-8, one of 19, one of 27 and one of 33 (me:)), have been designing and building together. Here are some of her words on yesterday's stocking sewing class:

"Today I joined the PLUS class again. Henry moved me a lot when we quilting the Christmas stockings. The first time around, he spent one minute trying to pass the thread through the needle. Then he spent at least three minutes trying to make a knot. He tried many times but never gave up. I even can not believe that this six years old boy has so much patience and focus. When he sewed he followed the Christmas song and swinged his head. He seems to relish it. He used three threads to sew his stockings. The last time, he found the way to knot quickly. When he finished he watch his stockings very carefully. Obviously, he was very pride. He had a very meaningful class."

As a kindergarten teacher from China, Summer is writing in her second language. It should go without saying that the vocabulary she used to write this reflection on yesterday was full of rich and brave novelty (stocking, swing, needle, thread, quilt, knot, sew etc...) Once done this blog entry I will work on editing and correcting a few things about her use of English. Alas!! Learning and growth do not end in a cyclical Holistic Environment that seeks to seize every moment as a chance to learn by stimulating "relevance and meaning, self discovery and curiosity".

Sparking the embers...

Spotlight Plus Blog
Unit 1: Circles of Life

Lesson #6
Nov 16^th – Green Eggs and Ham

Holistic Education seeks to bring the experience of learning back into full fruition in the same way that perma-culture seeks to regenerate soils depleted by monocultivation. This past Sunday was indeed one of those explosive moments of regenerative beauty!! Back in my village we call it EATING THE BOOKS YOU READ.

The previous week, I had prepped the kids for the goodness to come, by reading one of my Dr. Seuss favorites during our snack time: GREEN EGGS AND HAM. Upon popping the question, “Have you ever had green eggs and ham?” It became apparent what our next lesson would be all about!

Key to Holistic Education is connecting with the inner free spirit of children and key to this connection is the setup. One must know how to spearhead the inner-fascination all children-at-heart have with the obscure, the weird, and the delirious! When it comes to learning, way too often this magic that true mentors hold, is written off as charlatanism and shenanigans. I count myself as truly blessed by all of you PLUS parents who have entrusted your kids to this alternative educational model.

Spotlight Plus - Special circle and tailoring.

This is how I started off my 5th class last week, with the Imix kids of the recently opened Spotlight PLUS Holistic ESL Program:

"Dear kids,

Please sit down and gather for our special circle.

You know that every week we have a special time where we sit down and speak words of grief and praise to each other, trying to unlock the special doors of the things that are oftentimes hard to say and for some even hard to hear. Today I would like to start off by re-membering words of praise from the past 5 weeks of classes. Does anyone here re-member the 3 people that we praised on our very first class? For what did we praise them for? "

A moment of suspense and curiosity filled the room. It was quite clear that the kids were caught up in the mystery I was trying to create by connecting with them at a level they had seldom, if ever, been reached out at. Slowly, the bravest began to take part in the conversation with their guesses and questions. They are an eager group, at a golden age where the desire to learn has not yet been killed. Then suddenly one of them surprised me by saying the names of the 2 girls that finished the sewing project of a The Maker Doll. This girls were bestowed with the honor of being in charge of costume design for our upcoming production of: The Adventures of Mouse deer. 

In Holistic education, mentors are the seamstress, that patiently puts the needle in and out of the canvas of their children’s lives, carefully making sure to bring together the cognitive, emotional and spiritual potential we know all children have, but that if not fostered unravels like any sweater with a loose thread that no one cared to mend. Parents unfamiliar with the cyclical notions of Holistic Education, are often skeptical of activities such as sewing in their kids language classes. As mentors, we understand the difficulty of mustering the patience necessary to begin to see these processes through to fruition. As the mentor of the first ESL Holistic program in Eastern China, I am honored by the group of 10 parents that have entrusted their kids’ development to our care.

Next in line to be honored by our special circle, were the girls that often times were seen “wasting their time” drawing in some distant corner of the class while the group was engaged in a story. The doubt of the program is once again understandable. Multiple learning stations within one same classroom can look quite chaotic to the eye unacquainted with ideas such as peripheral learning. Holistic education takes seriously the idea that every child is a unique gift to the Universe. There is a distinct ember in each of us that must be fanned back into the blazing fire we are meant to be. In order to achieve this near divine task, we take advantage of peripheral learning by allowing kids to engage in the activities that they are naturally inclined to while exposing them to the activities of others around them. In this way we are all learning from each other, in different ways but towards the same goal: the holistic development of the self. By the way, the young lady honored for her sketches, which often times in traditional education are reason for punishment, was honored with the task of being in charge of the stage design for our big production. As a group we were taken by her beautiful question of can I first draw the stage in my notebook and see what you guys think?

Then was the honoring of the 6 individuals that finished the electrical circuit we had made for a light bulb that served for a representative of the first light in our Zoroastrian story of Ahura Mazda. During the week, I had discussed with upper management the building of a nice stage and theatre for Spotlight productions. The special surprise for these kids is that they will be able to be a part of the electrical installation of the lights. This here is a key Mentoring way of always being 10 steps ahead of the apprentice. We want kids to believe in the impossible. That the Universe is an ongoing surprise, a love relationship between the creator and the created. Experiences like these are what ignite the soul and once the soul is on fire, there is no limited to growth.

The special circle was key for the emotional intelligence and group chemistry needed, especially for the difficult task that followed: Beginning our Reading through the script for the play we will put on in December. Upon building up the show to this degree, the kids were then ready to read like they never read before. We enjoyed 30 minutes of reading in their 2^nd language. Where I paired up strong readers with the beginners to have peer to peer accountability. Upon finishing the reading, the kids took their scripts over to the table and highlighted the parts they needed to learn during the next 6 weeks. The task ahead is an impossible one and as a Holistic Mentor I would have it no other way. We will perform a play together, we will make the costumes, we will install the lights, we will set up the stage:

This is only just the beginning of what you can expect from a Holistic program for your children.  

Prepping for the first day of Pre-school!!

Having taught toddlers for almost 5 years now, I look back at the humorous situations I have put my 2 sons through in order to hopefully avoid that dreaded moment where you take your kid to his first day of pre-school and he pulls a fit.

My good friend, Otto Delgado,
from Venezuela holding newborn Owen Jazz

Our first born, Owen Jazz, must have been hours old when our friends from all over the world came to see him up in the mountains of Cartago, Costa Rica. I remember quite vividly the excitement of the moment being squelched by a silly despair to see him in everyone's hands....becoming social. As he grew up to be a whopping 1 year old, I decided it was time for him to start preparing for pre-school and so I tagged him on to the back of my bicycle down to the studio where I was helping mentor teens. A marvelous plan I believed to have conjured up, 2 or more birds fed with the same seed. His presence allowed for more than one of my adolescents to get their hands on some poopy diapers for the first time and also build up collective tolerance for the hungry/sleepy baby shrilling that new parents think they will never adjust to but, by the time the second one comes around, strangely miss and secretly beg for as a chance to prove they are still fit to snooze under cacophonic conditions.

I don't regret the comedy my kids have grown up in. My wife and I, just like everyone else out there, have had to mostly guess our way through parenting as well. Nonetheless, there are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare your toddlers for that big day:

First and foremost, don't stress about the cognitive, focus on the social.

For most kids pre-school is the first serious socially diverse environment that will co-exist in after the family nest: new adult figures to tend to, vast amounts of kids to share space and attention with. Here are a few quick ideas that help get the train on track:

At the playground:

a. Take your kids frequently to public play areas, once they are comfortably feeling their nitch, carefully observe them from afar, especially watching out for their interaction with other kids and adults.

b. If conflict arises check if you really must intervene. Find time to talk in the heat of the moment but more importantly afterwards, in a self reflective manner.   

c. Feel lucky if another caring adult speaks to your child. Encourage your child to listen to other adults. The old: "Don't talk to strangers", might need a balance check.
d. How about you showing up the parents in the park by hosting a group game for the pre-schoolers? Surely they are all in need of some prepping for group games. Pre-school is full of them, and it is always clear which kids seemed to have never shared in a round of musical chairs, let alone lost!

At home:

a. Nothing better than the 2 for one deal of a babysitter: Mom and Dad get some alone time out on the town and your kids begin their process of socialization, falling asleep to another voice, stretching out their trusting beaks to our birds.
b. Board games make it so easy and fun to develop patience in your child: Wait your turn!!
c. Plan activities that foster perseverance. For example choose a puzzle your child can finish and see him/her through to the end. He will love the feeling of accomplishment and the following challenge of doing it again without mommy's help or trying a bigger puzzle.

d. Make sure that there is always ample time for your child to develop his/her own routines: time to get dressed, to finish the food, time to clean up....especially cleaning up!

Now, I am sure many of you experienced parents out there have many stories and ideas of your own to share as well. I look forward to hearing from all of you!!

Spotlight Band: Jam #1

For the past few months I have been swarmed by toddlers bustling in their dream time hive which oozes with the inebriating nectar of the honey that keeps my pooh belly full and my grizzly beard sticky. Midst their buzzing I have heard their tiny human hearts ticking much faster than my own lethargic muscle and it seems to resemble the rate of change I see in their development. Like beekeepers of a healthy hive, us pre-school parents and mentors, are blessed to see our little bees week to week growth: scissor cutting skills, pencil grip, clean up routines, their first words in their second and third language........ad infinitum.

But as the tick-tock of the heart slows down it seems that so does our rate of change. I look back at the 4 years that I spent in Esparza working with teenagers and although their transformation is now clear, there were months where it felt like nothing was happening. With teens one has to trust much more in the seeds being sown, one has to have much more patience to see the first sprouts. Studio lingo often tickled our ears with the simile of teens and bamboo:  For 5 years bamboo grows its root work before cracking through the soil in search of sunlight.

Last week, my boss asked me to sit in on a few of the older kids' classes to get a feel for the dynamic of the environment. As to be expected I walked into a sheepish sea of eye-contact-avoiding adolescents. I love those first encounters. 4 years of mentoring grants me the confidence that I will win them over sooner or later. With this hand-fold of geniuses it happened much quicker than I thought.

It started off with a little chat with the girl next to me, "Do you like music?". She glared at me with the inflated eyeballs of a toddler under his first firework lit sky on a cloudless fourth of July, before turning away in a giggle to ask her friend in Chinese what the hell I was saying. I insisted a bit and got an answer from the braver one in the pack. Little by little the rest of the group started drawing into our ESL chit chat and after about 5 minutes we had a band: 4 clapping hands, 2 stomping feet, 2 dizi's, 1 erhu, 1 pipa, my piano, and 9 -angelic voices.

Our first scheduled rehearsal was for 8am this morning. I was blessed to spend 15 minutes with a group of teens that have hearts that still beat at the 175bpm that newborn babies do. I hope my heart can sync up with theirs and stay on beat forever.

Click on the video to see what we jammed out!!

(If trouble loading WATCH IT HERE)

  

DRAGONS - Part 1: Language and Culture are one.

Snack time Dragon Story time!

A second tongue should never compromise the culture and stories behind one's first language.

Far too often, ESL programs around the globe cash in on the all-pennies-in-one-piggy parents, looking to secure their child's future by guaranteeing a world language. They are not to blame. This is the demand of participation in a global market. The words of Sir Ken Robinson come to mind in his viral talk: "Changing Educational Paradigms":

"People are trying to work out, how do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century? How do we do that? Even though we can’t anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week."

Dragon Art.

Now, don't get me wrong, as a bilingual native language speaker of English and Spanish (and some introductory work on a few indigenous/ endangered languages), I have traveled half way around the world to immerse myself and family into a 3rd language environment. Clearly, I am an advocate of language acquisition, but, contrary to many of the approaches of educators, not at the expense of all of the other multifaceted learning and stimuli our kids need in their prime time: motor skill development, story, art, music, dialogue, discipline, a connection to nature, science, spirit, mathematics and so much more.

Today, however I will address specifically the great opportunity that is spread out before us for children to grow up with a strong sense of cultural identity using the ESL environment as a tool for recovery rather than butchery. 

Dragon Story.

It should be no surprise that our children are growing up without story. Those days of the family gathered around the fire at the end of a labor intensive day are long since gone. On a good night, we get a 10 minute sprint to a fast-food joint or take-out around the dinner table? No, more likely the couch in front of the TV. All the time interrupted by androids that beg for a 3rd hand. In the monumental exchange between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, the idea that our youth are growing up without Myth, and therefore creating their own, is vastly discussed and feared. Since the beginning of time, story has guided our ancestors towards realization and evolution. What light guideth our storyless children? 

At Originateve we believe that STORY should be at the core of all young learner curriculum. ESL environments are a great opportunity to engage in this front for cultural recovery. Vast amounts of time are allocated to the acquisition of English as a second language. Why not at the same time empower the mother tongue’s story? 

This is precisely what unfolded this week at Caillou home where we have started yet a new project: DRAGONS. Granted one can see how easily we could've slipped into the mistake of teaching a unit on the American Buffalo or the Extinct Buffalo, but thankfully we do not work with culturally non-sensitive textbooks designed for the non-thinkative way of the busy, bogged down uninspired ESL instructor. The training Originateve Mentors receive is one that: prepares a facilitator of learning to understand the humans with whom we are working, imparts a desire to resurrect the culture in which they are growing up, and fosters use of creative imagination along side the intuition to carry it out. The Dragon being the unquestioned icon of China seemed like a most fitting Unit to embark on with the little toddlers.

Oh what a week we have had! Stay tuned as the story unfolds!!

Prep work for our 6ft Dragon-

Folding Dragons. 

Messy dragon spinal work. 

     

WORMS - Part 1: The quizzical hunt

After 4 years of creating a Perma-culture environment along side my Amerikanoestudios community in Esparza, Costa Rica, my arrival in Jinan has been an unhealthy stupefying dose of eco-culture shock. It has taken some time to observe and develop a strategy coherent with the area I now reside in and so begin the regenerative process.

My beloved Xibalba garden. Amerikanoestudios
Esparza, Costa

For those unfamiliar with Permaculture, Bill Mollison puts it like this:

"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system." 

(Wiki Permaculture article)

For me, this philosophy began to click as soon as I understood that the task at hand was much simpler than I thought; I merely needed to slow down my thinking and start observing much more. Time to confront my own part in our species' hubris: believing that our sub-microbic consciousness can resolve what nature's consciousness has been doing marvelously since the dawn of time.

Typical Jinan soil

That approach had worked all nice and dandy back in rural, dry yet lush forest of western Costa Rica. But what about when there is little left of the natural world to observe? Jinan is just another Oriental bustling town, where progress is measured by the height and numbers of the buildings rising and the color green is a legally regulated distraction to grayscaling as far as the eye can see.

Nonetheless, no matter where you live you can always learn a bit of eco-conciousness from what I call the eco-unconscious (not to be confused with the eco-indifferent); those who out of need or practicality have found ways to live more in harmony with the environment than those of us who mostly just get in the way of what is natural. So, following good perma-culture principles and Marco's dad from Mulberry Street I set off "to see what I could see".

Lunch time in Caillou. 

My first snack time in Caillou, was about as shocking as seeing my homeland, Costa Rica, in the quarter finals of this years' soccer World Cup. Watching the kids learn to throw their seeds and organic waste into the trash can was something I did not want to be a part of. The question however was where could we take such sacred decay. Our school is entirely indoors and the surrounding outdoor spaces are either covered in cement or tarpaulined by grass.

Out worm hunting!

Having no yard to call home, composting was out of the question, next in line, an Originateve favorite: WORMS IN THE CLASSROOM, the perfect way to get eco-skeptic anti-kids-having-a-ball teachers off your supervised shoulder and get the kids between your legs and under your nose, all goeeyed up in a mess of beauty. Nonetheless, since I have long since moved away from "eco-friendly" behaviors that seem to tie you up into the "I NEED TO BUY" scheme quicker than a baby boomer in a bull market, I decided to "keep my eyelids up" for a non-consuming solution to a worm bin.

Styrofoam gardens

After about a 20-minute walk towards nowhere-Jinan, I saw her, the answer to all my problems; here in Jinan all home gardening happens in big styro-foam boxes used initially for fruit only then to be discarded, unless saved by the eco-unconscious who based on practicality not awareness (a prime perma-culture principle afterall) use them for their home-gardening projects.

Back in the classroom Monday morning we were ready to go. Styrofoam boxes were poked in order for the "compost juices" to seep through to the box below. Moist newspaper shreds were placed as bedding and some old freezer burnt lettuce was tossed in for when we came back with the worms. Time for the worm hunt!! This is precisely what I love about doing it versus hearing of others that did it. You stumble upon epiphany, after epiphany, revealing how messed up we are. From my 8th floor window my neighborhood is green, but once on ground level, the wormless earth reveals her thirst. I never would have thought it would be so hard to find worms. The soil all around our apartments is landfill, packed down by heavy machinery. After a 2 hour hunt we stumbled upon 4 little earthworms which we took back and gave an official beginning to Caillou's first Vermiculture box.


We will keep you posted of her evolution.

Instructional on where to put fruit seeds when finished!

Making our worm bin.

Do you trust the environment?

How quickly we forget the many miracles that took place the 9 months we carried our offspring in the womb? There within that safe environment cells divided, the brain and spine took shape, limbs began to form and the first vibrations of the heart began to pulse out into the universe. What marvels me the most is how little we, as parents, had to do with such a critical period in our kids' lives. Maybe a change in diet, quitting a few unhealthy habits and strange behaviors such as speaking to ones navel.

Lots of peripheral learning!

Nature knows best after all. More often than not we try to think through the natural course of things by adding our 2 cents of conscious rational. We mess it all up; all with the most heartfelt intentions of course, but as I have come to learn over the years good intentions sometimes kill.

One on one time.

Second language acquisition is one of these areas that we try to puppeteer. I think we would be better off sitting back, letting nature runs its wondrous course. In the end it comes down to a basic idea: Do you trust the environment? Thankfully an alternative for the mother's womb has not yet been contrived. We trust it without really understanding it, anxiously awaiting the big day! But do we trust the environment where our kid and his miraculous brain is absorbing a second tongue?

Real life experiences.

Yesterday, in our weekly parent teacher meeting, a concerned mother asked me how much she should worry about repeating vocabulary with her 2 year old son at home. My answer was, "YOU BETTER NOT! No offense, but I won't be speaking Latinized-gringo-infested-mandarin to my sons when they finally get here in August." My wife and I trust that our move to China will allow them to pick up with ease their 3rd language. Just like when they learned Spanish from their cousins, friends and grandparents. The brain has a marvelous magician at work in the upstairs. Make sure to provide the right environment for them to thrive in which Caillou most definitely does. All that is left is to SIT BACK AND WATCH THE SHOW!

To save a forest or sow a seed?

My buddy Paul Stoutenburgh from Earth Soul Productions just shot me over a new film that he assisted in creating with a non-profit called "The Borneo Project" out in Berkeley, California. In 11 minutes the film sharply presents impending displacement of 20,000 people from the mega-dam floods that will take place in Sarawak, Malaysia if the government follows through with the development plans.

Before you soak it all in I want to share a few thoughts.

I was blessed to mentor Paul down in
Esparza, Costa Rica at Amerikanoestudios.
We have been best friends ever since. 

I didn't always empathize with the displaced, although sympathy was always a steady stream. As a young teenager, the houses and communities being presented to these "unfortunate" people always seemed like a step up in their well-being. Those were the days where I knew not what it meant to be connected to the land. To know that your ancestors are in the rivers, the trees and the rivers. I had been educated and for several years now I have been trying to forget everything I thought I knew.

Without giving away the film too much, I want to bear witness to the tears that came streaming down my cheeks as the films' credits rolled followed by a concerned questioning of what the hell I did this week, obsessively trying to convey the wonders of the solar system to the 5 little planets I orbit here in Caillou Kindergarten. Is this where I am needed most? Should I go on sowing seeds when there is an entire forest in need? May the spirits continue to guide me.
Please watch and support: The Borneo Mega Dam Project.

What should the future of reading look like?

Today, was our second visit to the Caillou Library in downtown Jinan. What a marked difference! Kudos to the whole team over there, the changes you made were great! 

Aunt Stephy met us at the door and warmly greeted each child as they came into the womb. As it is a custom here in the east, we all removed our shoes, put on some special slippers and gathered around in the central couch area for a low down on what a library is and the rules:

What is Caillou Library?
A magical place, but where not all can see her magic.

What are the rules?

1. Have fun discovering the magic in every page of every book.
2. Walk slowly and speak softly. Remember the floor you walk on is holy.
3. Put books back on the shelf.  Leave the place nicer than you found it.
4. Take a book to your house and bring it back.

Library Cards fit for K-kids

On our first visit all books had been signed out under my name, the teacher (Lao Shi). This seemed like a missed opportunity to create authentic writing opportunities. This week each of our kids was asked to write their own names and age in a kid-size space provided on their kid-size library cards. Those a bit more ahead in their writing development also wrote the name of the books they were signing out and the date.

Authentic writing upon each visit.

The process of fostering a culture of reading is in full motion. We understand that this is a long term investment. We are anxious to see the results of the decisions we are making with our kids but also confidently patient enough to allow kairology to have its say.

While the kids were fast asleep for their afternoon nap. I quickly jumped online and stumbled upon an engaging entry from one of the sites I follow on Facebook: The Literacy Site  It was a call to help fund a Kickstarter project to bring in the new era of READING RAINBOW. Needless to say my childhood memories flooded back with nostalgic jitters. What I found however was troubling to say the least. As for me, and many of us within the Originateve web of thinkers, we believe the future looks much like a far distant mostly forgotten past.

For now I will hold back any further on our thoughts...but I would like you to check out the  Reading Rainbow Kickstart Video and let us know what you think.

Don't Dumb it Down!

I have been an ESL Teacher for some 6 years or so (probably a lot less depending on your idea of what a "teacher" really is). A few things that have changed over the years, especially upon becoming a father to 2 bilingual children, is that when it comes to language acquisition, DUMBING THINGS DOWN is nooooooooot the way to go!

The temptation is always there though, I know it. Trust me, I battle with myself every time I step in a classroom. You know, wanting to speak in monosyllabic yes/no questions that even our dogs could bark back to. Mostly, I think we do this to feel understood. After all it's quite nice to be fed back an answer we comprehend, or a response we mostly expected, quite possibly even contrived, molded or enchained long before even tossing out our question in the first place. Or perhaps it is simply the urge we have as parents or teachers to be assured that learning has actually taken place. Those haunting voices can't only be spooking me, "You are wasting your time treading off the beaten path trying to disprove the empirical educational system in place".   

Furthermore, this does not only occur when it comes to language. This malady spreads to multiple healthy cells like cancer trumping any chance of benign growth. But not this week, not in Caillou Home it won't!!

Concentration level at its peak! 

On Monday morning, we dove straight into Electrical Circuits 101 by putting together a little lamp to represent the Sun in our solar system. The project started out with a trip down to the store so that the kids could see where all of the stuff came from, the wires, the sockets, the bulb, the plugs and screws. We are always taking trips but this week's stop stood out like a nook carved out only for fathers, a previously unadventured cave of wonders. The sparkle in the eyes of my 5 out of 6 boys got me thinking perhaps many of them will spend many-a-hours in shops like these, like me, later down the line. And to think...I was their first venture into the Wunderkammer!

These eyes reveal, "I'm still with you Uncle Carl."

Once we were back in the class we scattered the materials purchased out on the table. A predictable energy was in the air. I started by having the youngest in our group, 2 year old Yiyi, help me cut the wire into 6 little pieces of about 5cms each to hand out to the kids. The goal was to create a little body with 2 arms, 2 legs and some hairy metallic hands and feet. This turned out to be a really fun way to get our practice on for the final splicing and cutting that would be needed on the actual cable we would use to build our light. Not to mention the fantastic fine motor skill development happening all along the way!!

Authentic fine motor skill work 

All but two of my kids dropped away from the activity as it progressed into the more tedious aspects of trying to get the wires through the little holes and then screwing it all together. In part, I was surprised that they didn't all huddle around to watch what I thought was magical. I had imagined one of the problems of this activity being that they would all want to use the one screwdriver we had and I was ready to enforce sharing. But this is the greatest wonder of them all: Kids surf wave-lengths of their own, and more often than not us adults are just meant to be on the safe shores watching them from afar, at times breezing out of the wave's closing tunnels and landing an aerial 360 at others being crushed into the reefs.

Nonetheless, the payoff was celebrated by all. When it came to time to light it up, I gathered everyone around those who would be the stars for the rest of the week and 3...2...1. Tada!!!

What all went down inside each of my kids psyche this week is hard to know. But educated guesses can and should most certainly be made. I imagine that the 2 who stuck through it all had a deeper feeling of satisfaction. Those who didn't may have felt like, "Oh man, I should've helped out." Who knows really? That is not for us to worry about, our concern is to create enriched environments fit for continuous discovery. Beyond any shadow of a doubt I know all my kids are getting that every week they come to Caillou Home, cause in this joint we ain't DUMBING THINGS DOWN!!!

Mounted for the solar system class. 

Little Changchang Tesla.

Fostering a new generation of readers!!

Last week, my K-kids and I took a little trip down to the Caillou Library in downtown Jinan. This was the first of many trips we will be making as part of our strategy towards not only getting the kids to learn HOW to read but also, LOVE READING!!

We had a wonderful time exploring through the boundless amounts of young readers' material. I need to confess though that as we fingered through the towering shelves and leafed through the pages of the books we chose, the dad in me starting to boil up with a selfish eagerness to have my older boy with us. In August, Owen Jazz IV will be rolling in to town alongside his mother and little brother. I can't wait for him to be a part of the Caillou family.

My aforementioned excitement ended up in a brainstorming session this week, alongside the Caillou Main Librarian and Principal. I basically shared with them how I wanted to be in on the action and be a part of the creative efforts carried out to foment a culture of readers in the magical place they ran. The meeting went well, I cannot disclose what is to come just yet. But please stay tuned for future updates.

For now, I will leave you with a few pics from our brainstorming session. This was the first time I had ever talked and had someone take notes of my ideas in Mandarin. Pretty neat!

     

 

Who's Teaching Who?

When Originateve opened up its first holistic studio in Esparza, Costa Rica, one of the first educational paradigm shifts that took place was replacing the all too old, "Teachers Teach, Learners Learn" model for what we came to call the MENACE: All mentors are apprentices, all apprentices are mentors.

Oftentimes a "class" ratio would be made up of 4 apprentices and 2 or more mentors hashing out some sort of a discussion as to what was the best way to go about our garden and why. As time went on in this manner we realized how much "modeling learning" our apprentices were actually getting. One of the basic requirements of a good mentor is to be a good learner and this means having great questions and a solid eagerness to learn. In a MENACE environment this becomes contagious and rubs off like poison oak spreading throughout the apprentice body in seamless, unidentifiable ways.

This week in my Kindergarten in Jinan we had a lot of fun learning about the planets. The question is: Who was teaching who?

Take a close look inside my class and listen in on how much fun we are having:

*If you are having difficulty with the video please view it here: Carl's Youtube Channel
**For more insight on our new educational model, please visit our home in cyber space: Originateve

Magic Entry #2: The Dark Side

Yesterday, I shared a bit of what I hope is a bit of Jedi power white magic for the classroom. Today's write up takes us down into the deep caverns of the dark side. But my thoughts lie like unfurled balls of yarn across the living room floor, so allow me to first reel them in for you.

YARN STRAND #1
On Saturday morning, I gave my first lecture in China to parents. The topic picked by popular demand was PARENTING IN THE US. Go figure. I get invited as a guest speaker on a topic I know nothing about. Although I have been able to decipher a few things on parenting thanks to the only true proven scientific method for up and coming dads: TRIAL AND ERROR, I most definitely know nothing about the "IN THE US" side of the ordeal. This wasn't the first time since being in China that I was lumped into the whole lot of what in the far East is known as America: one big overly deified blob of beauty and and near perfection. Ouch. Unsure exactly as to what pseudo parenting knowledge I could possibly offer, I at least was certain on how I was going to get the show rolling: Crash Course Introduction to Western Geography and Culture.

After losing half of the parents interest in anything I had to say due to my overly rehearsed rant trying to explain the K some of us have started to use when differentiating between the idea of America and a much vaster idea of what AMERIKA really is, I pulled out my scapegoat joker card from under my sleeve and took 'um all out for some game time, involving raw eggs of course. Brilliant recover-your-audience technique. (for more info please visit: www.howtosaveasmallaudiencethathaslostallinterestinyourdisertationriskingyourjobandthefuturewellbeingofyourfamily.com, GREAT STUFF! I have hung out there a lot over the years!)

YARN STRAND #2
We washed up and gathered back in the conference room and had quite a wonderful time together. I was quite taken by the straight to the heart of the matter participation of the parents. Until we struck a very interesting minor chord that seemed to dampen the the melodious major chords that had been keeping spirits high. One of the parents of a 5 year old girl expressed herself and I quote, "I am worried that my child has a problem with reading. She grew up with books and we have been practicing for quite some time now but she just doesn't get it". Wow. Can you feel the dark side creeping in?

In all honesty my "wow" was a double edged sword. Just this week while transitioning my kids and staff at the Caillou Kindergarten out of the "teacher signs each art piece" mode into getting them to start etching their own names, initials and/or lines, doom fell upon me: These Mandarin speaking kids can spell better in English than the bilingual, bookworm genius I bred and nurtured back in Costa Rica. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Breath Carl, breath. Your wife is just an email away. HONEEEEEEEEEY!!! We've gotta get Owen started on his spelling. Make Cards, post things everywhere!! He's late! I am worried he might have a...

Wait a minute. Who's the guy in charge here? I realized that the concerned mother's question was but an echo of the unsettling fears I had been through just a few days before stepping on stage as the one who had something to offer the world on the topic of parenting.

YARN STRAND #3
Thanks to the Great Spirits, this week I came across one of the many exchanges Confucius had with his followers:

"Does a gentleman also sometimes also find himself in adversity?" "Yes", replied Confucius, "a gentleman also sometimes finds himself in adversity, but when a common man finds himself in adversity, he forgets himself and does all sorts of foolish things."

Duh. Homer Simpson moment. I quickly collected myself and proceeded as a gentleman to confess to the audience my own sins of having lost my cool earlier this week as well. Admittedly, the urge to compare be it to a standard, peer or idea, has to be one of the hardest things to control as parents.

YARN STRAND #2 (again)
Sins purged, I jumped back into the title of expert I had been bestowed and spoke with conviction to the mom and the rest of the expectant audience. "Ma'am, we must be oh so careful with words such as "Problem" and "Worry". Worrying is really your only problem. You have done everything right. You have created an enriched environment for your child to thrive in. But remember that even the greatest of farmers, having done everything well can't make the rain fall before it is her time. Continue as you have and worry no more, in good time you will see the fruit of your toil.

THREAD #4
(and we are inching closer to collecting the entire wad)
Doomsday is coming for them all. And the Great Reaper in this Apocalyptic account carries the Scythe of Standardized Testing. Like one of the village boats men racing towards the sinking body of the great Chinese poet, Qu Yuan, when he cast himself into the Miliu river upon being vanished from the Chu Kingdom, all of us at Originateve are rowing together, putting all of our efforts towards keeping as many as we can away from such vicious, teeth grinding oblivion for our children. The irony in all of this is that we start the whole process of "standardization" at home! We give into the dark side manifested in ideas such as: "I think my son has a problem", "He needs more phonics", "His spelling is rough", "He skips letter J" and so on and so forth. Any remedial action taken to cure these hypochondria is black magic at its best. So instead, just continue to water the seed. In its own time it will sprout.

THREAD #5: The Black Wizard
Way back in the day, I had a High School teacher who I vaguely recall save for a time he gave us the untask of not watching TV for a week. I had no idea what this would do for me. Now, my kids are growing up in a house without a TV and I have entire families trusting his once-insane-to-me advice.

Recently I caught up with Paul Darvasi who is Media and English instructor at Royal St. George's College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He had just finished writing up what he claims to be the one-size-fits-all-only-matched-by-the-holy-grail report card comment. Check it:

"Sam is enrolled in the class and has been notified of all assignment deadlines. He has been granted the opportunity to learn and review class material, and has responded accordingly. Sam tends to absorb the elements of the course that do not escape him. His potential remains intact, and his ability to succeed depends on a number of internal and external factors. I have noted Sam's behavior, and will continue to monitor his attendance. One might say that Sam approaches the course much like many other aspect of his life. I have no doubt that, in the years ahead, Sam will reap what he sows."

Welcome to the dark side people. This wizardry is only matched by that of Voldemort himself.

My words of woe in all of this are: Be wary that what your child is on paper may not truly be your child at all. Likewise whom you feel your child is may not be who he/she is. You are going need some magic to decode that one, just make sure its of the white kind.

Magic Entry #1: The Jedi

Hey everyone,

Today's blog has a bit of magic, I believe.
         It started out as prose
                  but at the bottom of it all
                           it ended up as a series of ones and zeroes.

Let me know what you think...

*If experiencing difficulty with the video. Please visit: Carl's Youtube

Little Princess Annie

Allow me please to bring up an ancient of age debate in the myriad of arenas within most fields of science, Nature vs Nurture. This wonderful princess must be considered a strong argument for the wonders of nature and the dangerous responsibilities of nurture. See, many of the children this first week when asked if they wanted to read a book, ran for their lives to find something fun, something that made them feel alive, something real. Confused as I was I did not give up hope that one of the smallest in our group and therefore more keen to her nature, would become the arrowhead in one of our main goals for the year: that kids would fall in love with books.

Courtship is by no means a process to be rushed, but at times one strikes a lucky cord and things move quickly. With Little Princess Annie this was the case. Upon my suggestion she consented and the week that followed was one of glorious reading moments, mostly all beckoned by the Princess herself. 

THANK GOD IT'S BROKE!!!

Chanchang The Mr. Flag Fixer Man

          Some probably say that us early learning teachers are kind of on the wack-side of the spectrum. I couldn’t agree more. It’s an honor well represented by few. If we are doing our job right, half the time we are standing on our heads pretending to be some sort of Olympic Gold Medal gymnast lost in translation from a day journey to Mars and back, while the other half of the time we are having to continuously readdress and improve strange unheard animal noises such as the Impala. You see the probably with the success of getting kids to answer questions such as, “What sound does the cow make?” via sacrilegiously innumerous amounts of repetition, is that the cattle head always comes back to bite you and in twice the infinity of repetitions, “What sound does the Impala make?” Ad infinitum. Oops.

          But there are other neuroses that occur below the finger pointed at layers. Most of these remain known only to the teacher him/herself and in the best of play areas a handful of faithful shoulders to the wheel. One of these that I’m willing to reveal is that nagging-all consuming internal debate of SHOULD I DO IT or LET A KID DO IT. A seasoned-intuitive mentor knows best that if an adult did it, a learning chance was stolen from the heavenly realms that have decided to create the all so hard to see but ever-occurring moment for natural learning.

This week our focus was on the wonderful gift of broken things. You know, first week of school, in an almost siblingless society, everybody’s still kind of getting used to the whole sociability basic principles of share, pass, wait, don’t smash the oversized Montessori Triangle on your classmate’s nose. What it all comes down to is that, things break. Great! Times to fix something!! Woo-hoo!! It’s time to bust out my ancestry chops, pay credit to my lineage that fixed things before me. Yeah well, not so quickly there buckaroo, not in Caillou School you won’t, not without some neurotic counter-balancing out of the pros and cons of teacher intervention first that is.

And so we opted to let the kids do it! Drawer knobs were glued, the slide’s flag was screwed in and then hoisted, the climbing rope was knotted up again and man the morning flew by and we didn’t even have time to execute the lesson plan I hashed out for a good 45 minutes the night before. Oh well, monumental development took place, Thank God for broken things.

Sit Back and Watch the Show (then jump in on the madness!!)

“Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.”
Loris Malaguzzi

My last 7 years of teaching and learning, and teaching to learn, and learning to teach, have taught me at least one thing I’ve learned to teach at the beginning of a new school year of learning: Don’t plan for a first day of class!

Sensei Malaguzzi knew well what this meant when she asked us all, parents and teachers alike, to “step aside”. So I guess I broke my own rule you could say, I did plan. I planned to step aside and observe. Who are these wonderful creatures coming into my world? What do they like? How do they respond? What makes them jump with glee? How long can they last on a single task? What do they know? What little do I know?

These and many more were the questions I wallowed in, reminiscing for a bit as well, back on my interning days when I used to fret about what I would teach. Ha. Those were much younger days for sure. This week the kids learned much of which only time will choose to disclose. But there were a few things this detective of learning did detect.

DETECTIVE DUTY

         DETECTING LEARNING

(*Please read the following with severe prudence understanding that by no means are these guidelines for all Children or even for my Children for ever here on out. Education is about individuals/authentic and forever changing. But the blueprint we are working with is simple: Sit back and watch the show.)

1. Math Games work great first thing in the morning
2. Music is a nice transition to Math. (Ask why?)
3. Kids love free play in their homeroom.
4. They all listen through and enjoy a 7 minute story entirely told in English, using puppets of course.
5. Everything Craft related they eat up.
   
6. The 2 seconds to destroy a paper boat is well worth the 23 minutes to make it.
7. Laying on their backs, putting their legs up high and doing bicycle motions is an exercise favorite.
8. Most of my ideas for play are discarded and replaced by their own magic. And I'm glad to be around it all week!

Home away from home.

For at least one of us, Cailliou Home has rather quickly become a home away from home. If you may, I will be bold enough to say for a handful more. But what is HOME in the minds and hearts of children like me?

Home is a place you want to get back to. It is not where the entirety of life unfolds but it is a safe place to return to when the wheat has been harvested, the mountains have been climbed and the dragons have been sleighed. When off along the path of the Hero’s Journey, home is deeply missed. When time comes to make the return it is the misty oasis in the distance that causes you to run when you thought you could not run further. By day it is a memory we carry close to heart. By night it is a dream.

Home is a nest with big and small birds with long and short wings always outstretched to hug in times of joy and in times of grief.

Home is a school, the best of all schools for in its classrooms there seems to be no teaching yet infinite learning. Its rules are of the simplest sorts: fly high, love deep, fail but try again, forgive. Far from the nest, these rules are hard to even hear of, let alone do they have the chance to seep into the hallow marrow they were made for.

At the close of our first week of growing together, all the anxiety that has had me sleepless at night and disperse by day has been squeezed out by the swelling gratitude that has finally oozed into these words. Thank you Jinan, thank you Spotlight, for so quickly becoming my home away from home.