Well, this afternoon, nothing too out of the ordinary...just lots of good "makin' it bigger, bolder and brighter!" for my students...

Until one boy (whom others might call "not too bright") looked at me and said, "I have the hiccups."

I said, "well, do you want me to SCARE them out of you?"

"No!"

"Well, then, just look at the second hand on the clock. When it gets to the twelve, KEEP LOOKING AT IT until it gets to the twelve again. Then your hiccups will be gone."

He did. I watched.

When he was done, a classmate said, "are they GONE, [name]?"

"yes!" (with a big smile on his face).

Works like a charm every time!

Phil

Hi Phil,

excellent work! Maybe you could work some of your own magic, before going to sleep,

"Well, then, just look at the second hand on the clock. When it gets to the twelve, KEEP LOOKING AT IT until it gets to the twelve again. Then your hiccups will be gone."

on your brux!

Ignore if you have done so already!

Violeta

Violeta,

I never thought of that, honestly! Now, there is no reason for it to not work on the grind...or is there...

...somehow, there are issues of ecology, which I will discuss with the wizard on Wednesday (oh, but I'm off-topic now, aren't I).

Phil

mmmmm, the wizard you say, and he in OZ Ohio? Now, here is the funny thing, your are a teacher and you have many munchkins around you, my friend, and you are talking about the yellow brick road and seeing the wizard.


I remember doing an exercise during master prac where we discovered a lot about each other by asking who our favourite fairy tale character or hero was as we were growing up, and then asking the question what made them special.

It was amazing to see how these qualities were qualities which we considered important within our own lives.

I wonder which character you see yourself as?

Have a great day

Frederic

Frederic,

It would not be Dorothy (as I am sure you are imagining now!), but I will say that my last visit to see the wizard was full of metaphor all around the theme of--yup, you guessed it!

So, I just call him the wizard from now on!

It makes me smile, anyway. But...does anyone really see the wizard more than once? I wonder...

Ahhhh, mind reading and our imagination have their places my friend, though in this instance neither were present, so no it was not Dorothy or anyother character for that matter.

Though, I would imagine you more as the good witch of the North type.

Now that you mention it, I can vividly picture you flying off into the sunset on your broom stick carrying a basket of home baked goods

Be well

Frederic

Closer, Frederic, but alas...no cigar.

I do bake a mean Tarte Tatin, though.

Phil

Talking about witches and wizards...

Today I was teaching a class of 10 year-olds and here's what I did:
I told them the story of a little girl -Marina-who came out of the supermarket to find a poor old woman with lots of bags in her hands. The woman asked the girl to help her carry the bags to the nearest bus stop. When they arrived there the woman smiled and snapped her fingers. She was immediately transformed into Lily, the good witch. (The kids themselves provided the name and I made a nice drawing on the board). The little girl was surprised at first. The witch said: "Now tell me, what can I do for you? You can have 3 wishes".
Marina scratched her head for a while and then she whispered in the witch's ear: "no chickpeas, no homework, no waking up early". Of course, the witch granted her the 3 wishes so now she doesn't do any homework, she doesn't eat chickpeas and she doesn't have to wake up early any more...
Next I asked the kids: "If you met Lily the witch somewhere, what would be your three wishes?"

Hey, they all listened with such genuine devotion, even the noisiest ones! And they couldn't wait to contribute their own wishes afterwards! Great, we all enjoyed it!

Oh, dear...I just ate curried CHICKPEAS for lunch!

Excellent, Chris. What an elegant way to get children in the "as if" mindset.

Keep on with your magic, and I will with mine...

Phil

Hello, world!

It is my BIRTH-day today, so I am GIVING presents all day!

Today was a "VIP" day at my school, so I had a room full of grandparents with a class of six year-olds.

One student was working hard on accessing a piece of information in her brain, and couldn't quite get it, so some classmates helped her re-learn it. Then I simply looked at her and said, "now remember to put that in your computer, and save it for later!" Immediately on cue, she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, and I responded without hesitation, "ooh, there you go!"

I wonder what those grandparents thought...

May you all experience the magic as much or even more as that lovely six year-old child this morning! That is MY BIRTH-day wish for YOU!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

Happy birthday Phil.

Happy birthday Phil!

How nice to receive birthday wishes from dueling Chrises!

Singing a duet for me, aren't you?

And it is lovely to celebrate a birthday and a BIRTH-day, all at once...

Phil

Happy Birthday Bruxatawney Phil.

Uh, Tony...that nickname...it just doesn't make sense to me any more...

As I told the Wizard, this morning when I woke up, my mouth felt unusually relaxed...and for some reason, I just don't even think about that problem any more!

Oops! I'm off-topic, aren't I?

Well, it's a strange day anyway, with my visit to Oz last night, and today being my BIRTH-day, and with all these visitors in the building, I'm pretty much done teaching this afternoon, just helping out a teacher during the class' music time, because the teacher already planned a special activity for the kids to do with their visitors--but I'm very happy to help, since the class is my favorite age group to work with--Kindergarten!

Let's all do an age regression, shall we...perhaps back to...five! Don't forget to do your ecology check first...and then join me as we all color outside the lines!!!

I'll take us all out for ice cream and sodas afterwards!

Phil

Happy Birthday Phil,

I see that you got all your relaxing Birthday Wishes. I'm so happy for you!

Thanks for all our pressies, much appreciated here in Italy!

Ciao Violeta

Yeah! love you Phil!

Have a great day and give those kids an education in how to P.A.R.T.Y!!!

Woooop Woooop!

Matt

I have further proof that I indeed age regress when I'm working with children.

This afternoon, due to a change in my schedule, I had some time to work with a student who was with the tutor. The tutor was busy with another student, so I offered to help the lad with his math/language arts activity that he was typing on the computer. He is seven, by the way, and also happened to be the child that I gave the magic bubbles to a couple of weeks ago.

After we had completed his work, his tutor suggested that he print a copy for me to take home. I smiled and said, "I want to hang it on the refrigerator! But first, get a pencil, and draw two faces--yours and mine with BIG SMILES on both of them!"

It was so cute, he even made my hair stick straight up in the picture (I have a flattop, in case you haven't noticed). Now, those of you who know about children's artistic representations of people know that by the age of seven, they definitely make a differentiation between the body size of a child and an adult.

He drew us exactly the same size.

I'm saving that one forever, as a reminder of the wonderful gift of entering a child's world.

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

I have a funny story for you about pacing and leading...

This morning, I was working with some special needs students on a pitch-matching game. There is one autistic girl that I have a very good relationship with--last year, I was actually instrumental in helping her to develop a sense of humor, which you may know is very difficult (if not impossible) for many children with autism.

Today she was taking her turn matching pitch with me, and the key she chose to sing in was a lot higher than the rest of the class, and I brought this to her attention. She understood, and I asked her if she would like me to sing higher, instead of her singing lower, so that we matched. She said, "OK," and so I did. In fact, I did quite an elegant job of perfectly matching her tone quality, volume, mannerisms, etc., just for fun.

After about fifteen seconds, her turn in the game was done--thank goodness--because I began to feel very strange...it was like an odd mind warp that I was NOT prepared to experience! In other words, for a brief moment, I believe that I actually entered the world of an autistic child...

Now that was strange...

I turned to her teacher and said, "I was just in [student's name]'s world, for a minute, and I don't think I liked it!!! She understood completely what I was talking about.

I wonder if any experts in the field of autism have thought about deep trance identification as a means of better understanding the world of autism. I'm not saying that I did it for very long, or fully immersed myself in it, but I definitely had a shift in my perception of reality that told me I wasn't in Kansas any more!

I'm very anxious to get some feedback from some of you on this experience!

Be well, and at peace,

Phil

I just had a conversation with Jay Budzynski about Autism and DTI, and he brought this video about mirror neurons to my attention, which is applicable.

Fascinating!

NOVA | scienceNOW | Mirror Neurons | PBS

Phil