Adventures of a Teacher Summer (Summer Institute Day 1— July 12)
I must be experiencing lost time, because my entry for yesterday was dated (by me) July 10 and today is July 12. Also, aliens drank all of my Coca-Cola.
Due to my abduction and unexplained 24 hours, I have not been feeling myself today. Stomach in an uproar, brain sort of spacey. The usual. The unfortunate aspect of that is that here I am in a DC neighborhood with 25 restaurants per square block, and I just picked up some Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup and crackers for dinner. The other unfortunate thing is that I dropped my phone in the street and the screen shattered. I’m 49 years old and have never broken a phone screen before. I also just GOT THIS PHONE ONE WEEK AGO as a replacement from Google. &#&@!
But, this is supposed to be a reflection on my summer institute, so here’s Day 1:
The day started with a walk down to Three-Fifty Bakery and OH MY GOD the coffee was so good. I got the ginger scone which did help settle my stomach a little, and the pumpkin muffin, which I am saving for tomorrow (which is how you can tell that I don’t feel well, Normally, that would have been second breakfast).
The INSTITUTE day started with a half hour of intros into my small group breakout session. It’s like a discussion section for a lecture class in college. Zoom introductions are terrible, and when we are all supposed to take a turn, but the facilitators let everyone decide when to go, it means never knowing when to awkwardly jump in. I sympathize more with my students in situations like these. The facilitators were great, though and everyone was excited for the learning!
My first content session was the accordion book making, which I started last night because I am a model student. I love how mine turned out, and I even started writing/drawing in it.
I used these new watercolor crayons I just got to try to place a river (of ideas!) along one side of the accordion. It looks a little like an image of Ming the Merciless’ cardiovascular system, but I like it! The artist who was teaching us, Arzu Mistry, was clearly also a teacher and was very thoughtful and reflective and VERY good at explaining things. These books are supposed to be added onto, expanded, with added pouches, flaps, art, extensions, etc. I’m not sure this is how I think, but neither is this spiral notebook that has myriad lists and story starts, song lyrics, doodles and doesn’t make any sense. I think I am going to make one of these accordion thingies to take on my summer road trip.
Then, we had our intro session with the 100+ participants from around the world. This aspect of the institute is very cool, except there is very limited time to chat and exchange with others, so the benefit of the participants’ experiences is pretty much lost. Ugh. I did get to see the live view out of a window in Rio, so that was a plus. Speaking of Rio, as I was scrolling through the participants in the large session, one teacher had a large poster of the cover of Duran Duran’s Rio on the wall. I consider her my best friend now.
The session was all about learning to “look slow” at artwork (and, possibly life) in order to examine, describe, and engage with artwork (and, I hope, life). We got to examine “Pani Rang” by Lynda Benglis.
I REALLY like this piece, but when we were asked to LOOK and DESCRIBE, I liked the looking part, but had a very hard time actually forming words to describe it. I was all about the “what do you see?” and “how do you relate to this?”, but straight up describing was hard for me, WHICH I DID NOT EXPECT.
The other idea I am taking away from that session is that EMOTIONS ARE DATA, which will make sense to anyone reading this who is also a teacher.
Later, after another session with our small groups in which we were mercifully given time to journal and reflect, we had a 5:30 session on emotions and the brain with Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang who shared some VERY interesting brain research on emotional engagement and brain activity. Her findings?
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT ACTIVATES THE SAME BRAIN SYSTEMS THAT KEEP YOU ALIVE!!!
The same part of your brain that runs your heart and activates your breathing is engaged when you empathize with others or are emotionally invested in something for yourself. Also, the sections of the brain involved with memory and learning are also engaged with emotional response. If a student cares about a subject, and feels emotionally safe and connected a class, they will likely learn more! Weknowdis.
However, it’s nice when hard science backs it up.
I went for a walk after the evening session just to enjoy the evening, which was impossible to do because DC is a hot wet blanket in the summer and not like the one they wrap around your leg when you opt for the spa pedicure.
I walked down the street where I used to live, but I could not remember which house was mine. Funny.
Here’s some pics from the neighborhood. Hope to feel a bit better tomorrow!