Get well sir

Back at work and ready to go!

Phil

Today's gems from the classroom both deal with management issues.

This afternoon I was working with a group of nine year-olds. One girl has the habit of blurting things out right and left. So I asked her the following question:

"Can you imagine that there are times in your life when you don't have to share everything that you're thinking?"

Immediately her eyes shot up and to the left, accompanied by a huge grin. "yes," she answered, and then managed her talking much better from that point on in the lesson.

I would have loved to know what picture she was remembering!

The second example was the same class. As a whole, they tend to be easily distracted (I'm wondering why; my first guess is the classroom teacher's style, but that's another story...). At one point in the lesson, I stopped, got the room quiet and paying attention, and then said, "I'm wondering if you can begin to think about how aware you are of what is going on around you, how much you are learning, and how much you are missing."

Pins dropping would have sounded like silverware. Massive transderivational search.

Maybe two more times during the lesson I reminded individual students of this, and things slowly improved to the end of the lesson.

Phil

One more for eye-accessing cues.

I was just teaching a Kindergarten class (five year-olds), and we were working on differentiation between high and low. I sang a high note, and then asked one girl if it was high or low. She was so focused on the manipulative that she was going to get to use with the chart, I think she had not rememberd the answer! So, I asked her (as she had a puzzled look on her face), "can you remember how it sounded when I sang it?" Immediately her eyes shot straight over to the right. "Uh oh," I thought, "she's making it up!" Much to my surprise she came up with the correct answer (of course, she had a fifty percent chance of getting it right, but I found what was going on compelling. Then I had a brilliant idea, and asked her to hold up the hand she holds her pencil with. She held up her left hand.

When her teacher arrived back in the room, I told her, "did you know that [name] is left handed? "Oh, no," the teacher replied, "she writes with her right hand." I looked at the student again, and said, "show me which hand you hold your pencil with." Again, without hesitation, her left hand went up.

Two lessons:

Teachers, pay attention to your students!

and...

Don't forget to calibrate! Left-handers sometimes do it the other way!

Phil

As one who does it the other way, thanks for paying attention, Phil.

And if a left-hander's accessing cues are reversed l/r, so will be other things she locates in space (in my experience), such as past/future.

BMcKenna wrote:

And if a left-hander's accessing cues are reversed l/r, so will be other things she locates in space (in my experience), such as past/future.

Thanks for bringing up this point, Bridget. I didn't think of that before, but of course, I am now!

Phil

I'm sharing the following moment for a couple of reasons; first, to remind us all (as I did yesterday) as teachers to pay attention to our students, and secondly, it was another important lesson in calibration.

Students in a class of six and seven year-olds were taking turns playing a very simple accompaniment on the bass xylophone while we sang and played a game. One girl finally arrived at her turn to play, and she was nearly the last student to go (which means that she should have been able to easily absorb the simple pattern). She stepped up to the xylophone, and first of all was unsure of which notes to play. I stood there scratching my head, saying to myself, "oh good grief, she was really daydreaming today!" So, I had another student model for her, with her standing right in front of him. She found the notes, but still faltered on the pattern. Finally, I modeled for her, and she would begin successfully, but falter in the middle of the pattern. Something in me said, "this is so not right," but I attempted to correct her one more time, and then let it go.

Her classroom teacher walked in as she was just finished and then pulled me aside to tell me the sad news that she had brain damage and siezures, but was doing much better on new medication.

I never knew and I felt like a heel. Something told me that something was seriously wrong, and I ignored it.

So, teachers, please pay attention to your students and what they are doing! Had I gone with my gut, I would have been able to instruct her in a much more successful way.

Live and learn...

Phil

My lesson this morning with my class of gifted and talented nine and ten year-olds was awesome! We're studying jazz, and I talked to them about so many different things using principles of NLP--modeling, communication at the unconcsious level through facial expression and body posture, eliciting states (of all sorts) through hearing music. When I asked the class to think of their favorite piece of music, and how it made them feel, one girl obviously had a strong auditory memory! She was actually not feeling well, and when she thought of that music, you should have seen the signs of trance come over her face, followed by an incredible change of attitude! She still was not completely her perky self, but it definitely made a big difference in her level of participation for the rest of the lesson.

Maybe we should all think of our favorite piece of music right now...

Phil

Phil,
I couldn't tell you what is my favorite piece of music, as there are so many, but I definitley can tell you about various songs that are anchors for me. For example, I was very much into grunge music when I was in high school: Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Meat Puppets, etc. After I graduated in 1994, I made my first trip to the old country (I had to wait until the end of the Soviet Union due to how my family left). I met some wonderful people then with whom I am still very close. This was 14 years ago, but when I hear certain Pearl Jam songs I don't even have to close my eyes and I can still see myself, sitting in the window of the flat I lived in that summer, seeing two of my friends, Lena and Olya, skipping down the street to pick me up and then we would go to the beach, or to drink, or someplace else. I can still smell the rain. Oooooh, the rain. It had a distinctive smell then that it doesn't have anymore, although sometimes, when I'm not looking for it, or more accurately, smelling for it, I can catch that smell again and it takes me back to that time too. When I hear those songs I instantly remember how my best friend in the whole world, Seva, and our friend Anya would sit in the bar called "Paris" which doesn't exist anymore and the old lady who worked there insisted I was English, not American, though she couldn't understand why I spoke Russian so well. And the music of my favorite Russian groups. I could write a book on the times spent as a student in Volgograd State University, sitting up late into the night with my friends, Volodya, Sergei, different girls each night, singing and drinking. I can still feel those emotions as I write these words.
I won't tell you about the 10,000 maniacs and which memories they evoke! This is a family site......

Tony,

I prefer to sample from my musical smorgasbord as needed! Lots of tastes for different days...reminds me of the Dr. Seuss Book, [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Many-Colored-Days-Board-Book/dp/067989344X"]My Many Colored Days![/ame] The [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Seusss-Many-Colored-Notes-Alive/dp/0965381897"]video[/ame] is wonderful too, with delightful music.

I just had a wonderful lesson with a class of eight year-olds (remember the one that is giving the teacher fits in regards to paying attention???). I had them glued to me in the first five minutes of the lesson with little mind/memory sequence games, and one boy even went automatically into an obvious "learning trance" without any suggestion (talk about a powerful anchor! I hope he can transfer that to other places in life...). Anyway, the more these kids are taught what it means to pay attention, the more they do, and realize that it's fun!

Off to lunch, and my favorite part of the day--recess with the five, six and seven year-olds!

Phil

Phil,

My son is studying for a BSc in Music currently and he needed to write an essay on a piece of discriptive music so I told him the story of Strauss' Blue Danube and how the music describes the progression of the river from its source and how it flows through Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania eventually pouring out into the Black Sea.

This was explained to me when I was about 13 when in Secondary School (High School) and I was able to pass on what I had been taught.

After listening to the piece the effect on my Son was amazing he was amazed and excited and went off to write his essay, I think this was a combination of having something to write about finally....... oh and a few choice suggestions I popped into my story as I explained the journey of the river and the music.

I think that I have now passed on my love for this specific piece of music to someone as happened to me.

Jason

OH my favorite song depends on what sort of state I want to develop internally..

aikijason wrote:

OH my favorite song depends on what sort of state I want to develop internally..

Jason,

Yes, that is what the smorgasbord is all about!

And thank you for sharing the story about your son. Super!

For some reason, Smoke on the Water popped into my mind.

Now, that's strange, too, isn't it?

Venus

I really want to tell you a good one about my work with a class of five year-olds this afternoon.

First of all, they came to music late because they were being incredibly rowdy beforehand, and quite honestly, I don't blame them, since their teacher does nothing but YELL at them all day long (well, at least a lot of the time--I ought to know--their classroom is across the hall from the music room).

Finally when they came over, I had a talk with them about their behavior, and put on my best sad face. One little darling swore up and down that she wasn't one of the noisy ones, but was quietly listening to her teacher the whole time. I somehow knew better, and soon my suspicions were proved correct, for she continued to interrupt me throughout the lesson. I stopped the lesson and looked at her (perched in her time-out spot), and said, now I'm wondering if you can imagine a whole class full of boys and girls like you, all noisy at once. How does that make you feel? "Happy!" she said with a smile on her face. "oh," I thought, "time to take this child to another position!" So, then I said, "ok, now I want you to close your eyes, and become your teacher. Nod your head when you are her. (she did) Ok, now listen to a whole classrom full of [child's name]. Now open your eyes."

"How do you feel?"

"Sad."

"How does your teacher feel now?"

"Sad."

"That's right. How does Mr. Adams feel?"

"Sad."

"And now you can think of ways to change your behavior so that we are ALL happy, can't you?"

"Yes."

Perfectly behaved for the rest of the lesson.

Phil

Phil,
Beautiful.

Tony

Well, today...not so beautiful! I'm actually going to ask advice.

I have one class of nine year-olds who are particularly restless during instruction. This teacher's class was exactly the same last year, and last year I would have chalked it up to the group of students, but funny, now that those students are with different classroom teachers they are more calm, and this teacher's class...here we go again!

My thought is that she does some serious anchoring of this restless behavior in her students. I work with these children for one forty-minute lesson a week. Any advice as to how I can anchor a different state with them? Should I change their seating/physical location just for music, and put them in a configuration that completely dissociates them from their "normal" state when she is in their room instructing them?

I just spoke with another staff member in the building whose opinion I trust and value, and she agrees with me that it is primarily this teacher's "teaching style," as she puts it, that is influencing the students' behavior.

I do NOT want another year like last year! I know that these children can be in a better learning state than this during instruction!

Any advice for me?

Phil

Hi everyone!

(I'm sorry, Phil, I won't be able to give you the advice you seek at the moment..)
Here's what I wanted to share with you:

Today was a beautiful sunny day so our school went for a nice walk to a nearby park to spend a few hours there. On the road, two 12-year-old classmates, Kostas and Thanos ‘walked’ together or, to be more precise, Kostas pushed Thanos’ wheelchair- the latter being on a wheelchair for three years now. (the names are made up)
When we arrived at the park Kostas passed his friend over to me saying: ‘Miss, I’m off to play football now’.
So I took over. I asked Thanos ‘Where do you want me to take you?’ and he said: ‘Miss, I want to have a pee”… I was so perplexed, didn’t have a clue what to do…The first thought that occurred to me was to look for his regular teacher. I looked around but she was nowhere to be seen…I was even more perplexed but I said: ‘Ok, I’ll help you”.
Unfortunately, there were no toilets around so we had to look for a place where he could ‘hide’ from the others... ‘Please tell me what to do’, I said. And he did…Oh, I was so embarrassed…It was my first time. Now I know…

Afterwards, I said: ‘Ok, where shall we go now?’ He pointed to a place where a group of girls were playing volleyball, saying: ‘Over there, Miss, I want to be close to Sophia, I’m in love with her…’ ‘How straightforward!’, I thought. And of course, we went there…

Chris

Ah!

A true philosopher.

Venus :-)

Chris,

Thank you for sharing this touching story.

Isn't it incredible work we do?

I just want to say that I read your story again this morning, Chris, and am finding myself in tears. Thank you.

Phil

Thank you...for providing me the "space" to write about all this...

I just wanted to say that I wrote it e-x-a-c-t-l-y as it happened to me, not adding aything at all...

Hey Phil, is there a longer thread than this one on NLP Connections??
I 'm just wondering...

Sending you a hug from cloudy Greece...

Chris