So, continuing the theme of stories, this time we looked at one in particular. I chose a rather spooky Roald Dahl story about a boy who is eaten by a carpet. (Apologies to the late Mr Dahl for the simplification!)
While I read the story I asked them to think a bit about some simple questions: When was it written? Who might have written it? And Why? We had some interesting discussions about how you can tell when a story was written from the use of language, and then got onto the subject of spooky stories and why we like them (a subject much on my mind since we went to see the fantastic but terrifying Coraline last weekend). One interesting thing that came out was that several of the children had seen a number of very scary films - two that were mentioned were Chucky and I Am Legend. We didn't have time to explore this much further, though.
We finished off with a quick game of Just a Minute - but sad to report, my doorbell keyboard still isn't working. I'm going to give it another try this weekend. Still, we played it au naturel and it was great fun, although my daughter won a little bit spectacularly (in fairness, she's had quite a bit of practice)
It's half term next week, so there's a bit of a break until the next session where we're going back to science for a while. I'm planning to spend a bit of time talking about the scientific method, experiments and hypotheses. And I've been given the go-ahead by my boss to do something a bit special under the auspices of the company where I work, so I should have something rather fun to bring in.
Wednesday 20 May 2009
Day Three
Days 3 and 4 were about stories. I've been interested in storytelling and story structure for many years and have developed quite a few theories about them, so this seemed a good opportunity to discuss them with a captive audience!
One question I've often wondered about is what stories are for? After all, every culture in the world tells stories - fictional, allegorical, biographical and mythical. They must have some value, but what?
It's certainly true that we find it easier to remember things when they're told in the form of a story - it's long been a standard trick of memorization to take lists of objects and turn them into a narrative, which even if it's crazy seems to stick in the mind better than the list on its own. We explored this at the start of Day 3, by playing a memory game ('As I was walking along the river yesterday, I saw...'). But I suspect that this is not the reason we tell stories - more likely, we remember stories because they're useful, not the other way round.
Another, more interesting possibility is that stories are useful because they are an extension of personal experience. Before we had language, we could only learn from our own experiences. A cat might remember that going into a particular garden is dangerous because a big dog lives there. But it can't tell another cat not to go into the garden. So the very first 'stories' would have been just that - 'I went down into the valley yesterday and I nearly got eaten by a sabre-tooth'. It's worth noticing that most stories today are still of this form - think how many stories start 'I had a nightmare time the other day...'
Consider what a huge advantage it is to be able to benefit from other people's experiences. At a stroke, the number of things you can learn about is multipled by all the other people you know. You don't even have to experience the danger yourself. And it's a short step to the 'warning' story about experiences that weren't survived!
And so we come to fiction. Because if we tell stories about dangerous situations that no one has experienced, then no one has to get into actual danger. With the power of imagination, empathy and analogy, we can take the experience of imagined people and translate it into our own situation. It's like a scientific thought experiment, taking some imagined people and placing them into a situation to see how they will react.
No wonder we remember and seek out stories. They are a major part of how we have been so successful as a species.
One question I've often wondered about is what stories are for? After all, every culture in the world tells stories - fictional, allegorical, biographical and mythical. They must have some value, but what?
It's certainly true that we find it easier to remember things when they're told in the form of a story - it's long been a standard trick of memorization to take lists of objects and turn them into a narrative, which even if it's crazy seems to stick in the mind better than the list on its own. We explored this at the start of Day 3, by playing a memory game ('As I was walking along the river yesterday, I saw...'). But I suspect that this is not the reason we tell stories - more likely, we remember stories because they're useful, not the other way round.
Another, more interesting possibility is that stories are useful because they are an extension of personal experience. Before we had language, we could only learn from our own experiences. A cat might remember that going into a particular garden is dangerous because a big dog lives there. But it can't tell another cat not to go into the garden. So the very first 'stories' would have been just that - 'I went down into the valley yesterday and I nearly got eaten by a sabre-tooth'. It's worth noticing that most stories today are still of this form - think how many stories start 'I had a nightmare time the other day...'
Consider what a huge advantage it is to be able to benefit from other people's experiences. At a stroke, the number of things you can learn about is multipled by all the other people you know. You don't even have to experience the danger yourself. And it's a short step to the 'warning' story about experiences that weren't survived!
And so we come to fiction. Because if we tell stories about dangerous situations that no one has experienced, then no one has to get into actual danger. With the power of imagination, empathy and analogy, we can take the experience of imagined people and translate it into our own situation. It's like a scientific thought experiment, taking some imagined people and placing them into a situation to see how they will react.
No wonder we remember and seek out stories. They are a major part of how we have been so successful as a species.
Sunday 10 May 2009
Day Two
It's taken a few days to get round to writing up the second session - the arrival of a new kitchen set me back a little. It went well, but there were certainly some lessons to be learned.
I'd been looking forward to this session for some time. When I first had the idea of playing occasional games of Just a Minute, one of the things that occurred to me early on was that it would be very awkward to play it, as they'd all need to crowd round the keyboard. Musing on this, I came up with a solution: make a custom keyboard wired up to door bells.
I haven't had a chance to make a proper how-to guide yet, although I intend to do this next week. But in essence, what we did was to take a computer keyboard apart and wire doorbells to the appropriate switches inside, so that pressing a bell would make the computer think we'd pressed a key.
I knew this would be tricky to get right, and that we would be tight for time. My plan was to spend a few minutes playing a game of Just a Minute, then discuss how we could make it simpler, ending up with about twenty minutes making the thing and a quick game at the end. But I made a few mistakes, the first being that I left out the matchstick puzzle we'd been looking at the week before. This was too much of a distraction. I also didn't bring along enough screwdrivers, which meant a lot of sharing. And because we were rushing a bit, the end result didn't really work very well and we didn't have time to test it and fix it, which would have made it much more satisfying.
All that said, I think it was a success. The idea of looking inside the keyboard and understanding how it worked was a real hit, and the moment when they pressed the bell and a letter came up on the screen was great. It was pleasantly rowdy too.
I wanted to make a more finished and permanent version of the doorbell keyboard for next time, but that's not going to happen yet. But I think it's probably a good idea to switch to something a bit different and calmer next time, so we'll leave it another week. My plan for Day 3 is to do a session (possibly the first of a pair) on Stories and how they work, one of a number of sessions I plan to devote to critical thinking. Any suggestions about a good short story to read as an example would be happily received!
I'd been looking forward to this session for some time. When I first had the idea of playing occasional games of Just a Minute, one of the things that occurred to me early on was that it would be very awkward to play it, as they'd all need to crowd round the keyboard. Musing on this, I came up with a solution: make a custom keyboard wired up to door bells.
I haven't had a chance to make a proper how-to guide yet, although I intend to do this next week. But in essence, what we did was to take a computer keyboard apart and wire doorbells to the appropriate switches inside, so that pressing a bell would make the computer think we'd pressed a key.
I knew this would be tricky to get right, and that we would be tight for time. My plan was to spend a few minutes playing a game of Just a Minute, then discuss how we could make it simpler, ending up with about twenty minutes making the thing and a quick game at the end. But I made a few mistakes, the first being that I left out the matchstick puzzle we'd been looking at the week before. This was too much of a distraction. I also didn't bring along enough screwdrivers, which meant a lot of sharing. And because we were rushing a bit, the end result didn't really work very well and we didn't have time to test it and fix it, which would have made it much more satisfying.
All that said, I think it was a success. The idea of looking inside the keyboard and understanding how it worked was a real hit, and the moment when they pressed the bell and a letter came up on the screen was great. It was pleasantly rowdy too.
I wanted to make a more finished and permanent version of the doorbell keyboard for next time, but that's not going to happen yet. But I think it's probably a good idea to switch to something a bit different and calmer next time, so we'll leave it another week. My plan for Day 3 is to do a session (possibly the first of a pair) on Stories and how they work, one of a number of sessions I plan to devote to critical thinking. Any suggestions about a good short story to read as an example would be happily received!
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Just a Minute
I've got two things planned for the second session tomorrow. I'm going to post about the main one tomorrow night (there may be photographs) but for now, I thought I'd post the first version of my Quiz Show application that should see a fair amount of use over the next few weeks.
I'm planning to include as part of most sessions some kind of quick-fire game as a mental warm-up. Today we're going to be playing Just a Minute (based on the Radio 4 panel game of the same name), at least partly as a tribute to Sir Clement Freud who died the other day.
I've put together a little programme that will allow us to play it, and if anyone would like to use it for their own purposes, feel free. You'll find it here. As I say, I'll probably be adding more games and options to it as time goes on, so watch this space. Oh, and in case you find the Keys screen confusing, all will be made clear. For now, just click on the keys you want to use.
I'm planning to include as part of most sessions some kind of quick-fire game as a mental warm-up. Today we're going to be playing Just a Minute (based on the Radio 4 panel game of the same name), at least partly as a tribute to Sir Clement Freud who died the other day.
I've put together a little programme that will allow us to play it, and if anyone would like to use it for their own purposes, feel free. You'll find it here. As I say, I'll probably be adding more games and options to it as time goes on, so watch this space. Oh, and in case you find the Keys screen confusing, all will be made clear. For now, just click on the keys you want to use.
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Day 1
So we had the first session today. In the end there were just six of us, as two people have dropped out and a third is busy on some other work for a couple of weeks. This means the group is a little less balanced than it was, with one boy each in years 1 and 5, and the rest all in year 3. It's not ideal, so I hope we get some more recruits soon.
So as you can see by the previous post, today's session was mostly focused on the topic of Infinity, in particular, the story of Hilbert's Hotel, otherwise known as Hotel Infinity. This hotel has an infinite number of rooms, which means that even when it's completely full, by moving people into different rooms we can make space for more visitors - even an infinite number of them!
The animation tells it better than words can, and it was a big success, I'm pleased to say, with the kids clustered around it pressing buttons and laughing like crazy at the end of the day - a nice sight for the head teacher when she came into the room.
The session was topped and tailed by a couple of classic puzzles. We started off, after a brief discussion of Thinking and what it means, with a wonderful Edward De Bono problem: given six identical rectangular blocks, can you arrange them so that each one touches exactly two others? What about exactly three others? (You can also do 4 and 5, although we didn't go that far)
At the end, they've gone away with two additional things to think about: a quick matchstick puzzle and a more difficult infinity puzzle. It'll be interesting to see whether they come back having looked at them.
All in all, I really couldn't have hoped for better. The room is great too, very out of the way and important.
Next week a bit more nonsense.
So as you can see by the previous post, today's session was mostly focused on the topic of Infinity, in particular, the story of Hilbert's Hotel, otherwise known as Hotel Infinity. This hotel has an infinite number of rooms, which means that even when it's completely full, by moving people into different rooms we can make space for more visitors - even an infinite number of them!
The animation tells it better than words can, and it was a big success, I'm pleased to say, with the kids clustered around it pressing buttons and laughing like crazy at the end of the day - a nice sight for the head teacher when she came into the room.
The session was topped and tailed by a couple of classic puzzles. We started off, after a brief discussion of Thinking and what it means, with a wonderful Edward De Bono problem: given six identical rectangular blocks, can you arrange them so that each one touches exactly two others? What about exactly three others? (You can also do 4 and 5, although we didn't go that far)
At the end, they've gone away with two additional things to think about: a quick matchstick puzzle and a more difficult infinity puzzle. It'll be interesting to see whether they come back having looked at them.
All in all, I really couldn't have hoped for better. The room is great too, very out of the way and important.
Next week a bit more nonsense.
Monday 27 April 2009
Hotel Infinity
Here's an interactive animation I put together to illustrate Infinity. It features Hotel Infinity, a hotel in a distant galaxy with an infinite number of rooms. Click the button on the bottom right (Blogger is refusing to display it correctly, but you can just about see the button) to experiment with a few infinite examples. Use the buttons at the top to change animation speed.
Full Screen Version
updateI've removed the embedded version as it was causing too many problems, sorry!
Full Screen Version
updateI've removed the embedded version as it was causing too many problems, sorry!
Wednesday 22 April 2009
And the names are in!
So, a little less than a week to go, and the kids are back in school. I've received the final list of attendees and it's a nicely mixed little group. The youngest is my son in Year 1, then there's a girl in year 2, three boys and a girl (my daughter) from year 3, a year 5 boy, and a boy and girl from year 6. The wide range will be a challenge, I'm sure.
Note: I'm only going to say this once, so readers from outside the UK: pay attention! Year 1 is ages 5-6, year 2 is 6-7 and so on. The highest year in UK primary schools is Year 6 (10-11). Now I never have to explain it again
I've been busy for the last few weeks preparing ideas for the first few sessions. After each session after the write-up I'm going to put various materials on the site for anyone that wants to download them.
Note: I'm only going to say this once, so readers from outside the UK: pay attention! Year 1 is ages 5-6, year 2 is 6-7 and so on. The highest year in UK primary schools is Year 6 (10-11). Now I never have to explain it again
I've been busy for the last few weeks preparing ideas for the first few sessions. After each session after the write-up I'm going to put various materials on the site for anyone that wants to download them.
Thursday 2 April 2009
More on money
The only time in the past that I've done any 'proper' teaching (with an actual class) it was the administrative side that let me down - dealing with the institution and especially with the examining board. Admin has never been my strong point, and the nice thing about a club like this is that because there are no curriculum requirements, I don't have to keep complex teaching records, just dealing with attendance (although of course I'm keeping this record as well as my own notes just for reference). But it's interesting that before the club has even started, again it's admin that complicates matters.
All of which is just an intro to the following: contrary to my last post, please don't try to pay at the school office just yet. I'm still sorting out how payments are going to work.
All of which is just an intro to the following: contrary to my last post, please don't try to pay at the school office just yet. I'm still sorting out how payments are going to work.
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Cost
The invitation for parents went out yesterday and I've had a couple of inquiries about the cost. I think the letter was a bit confusing, so for anyone that wants to know: we're charging £4 per session. That's all going to the school, and should be paid at the school office as with other clubs.
I'm pleased with the response so far - I've had quite a bit of traffic to this site and a number of people have already said they'd like to attend, so it's looking like we're good to go.
I'm pleased with the response so far - I've had quite a bit of traffic to this site and a number of people have already said they'd like to attend, so it's looking like we're good to go.
Wednesday 25 March 2009
About Brainstretchers
In a few weeks' time, I'm due to start running a new club at a small school on the outskirts of London, which I'm calling Brainstretchers. I'm not normally the kind of person to write a blog, but I do feel like this is the kind of thing that might genuinely be of interest to other people: I'm trying something quite unusual here.
The idea behind Brainstretchers, which will run on Tuesday mornings for 45 minutes before school starts, is to kick start kids' brains - to give them something stimulating to think about during the day, perhaps all week. What that thing will be is different from week to week - literally anything goes - but it's specifically non-curriculum based. This is about general thinking, a complement to the more formal education they get in normal school time. My personal buzzword is that it's about Big Questions.
It took a long time for the idea to really take shape in my head - I was originally thinking of running a club on story telling and story structure, but it was only when I conceived of it as a club to run before school that it really started to come together. Now I'm planning to use this blog as a way of documenting our progress and seeing if it's a success. I think many people would be doubtful that this kind of thing is appropriate for such young children - I'm planning to cover topics like philosophy, evolution, music, art history and many other 'advanced' ideas, but I'm convinced that they're more than capable of engaging with them and taking them forward. I should also take my hat off to the head teacher for her enthusiasm and support for such an unusual venture!
The club will include my own two children (currently aged 6 and 8), and the first hurdle is to see how many others sign up! For those readers who are parents thinking of joining, I should point out that neither the name of the school nor the names of the children will be included in the blog, and I shall do my best to ensure that when I do talk about what happens in the class, particular children aren't identifiable even to those who know them.
That's it for now. I'm going to post again shortly before the first session and I hope people will enjoy finding out how we get on. In the meantime, feel free to find out more about me from my profile. I'm busy preparing my first session, which will be on the nature of Infinity...
The idea behind Brainstretchers, which will run on Tuesday mornings for 45 minutes before school starts, is to kick start kids' brains - to give them something stimulating to think about during the day, perhaps all week. What that thing will be is different from week to week - literally anything goes - but it's specifically non-curriculum based. This is about general thinking, a complement to the more formal education they get in normal school time. My personal buzzword is that it's about Big Questions.
It took a long time for the idea to really take shape in my head - I was originally thinking of running a club on story telling and story structure, but it was only when I conceived of it as a club to run before school that it really started to come together. Now I'm planning to use this blog as a way of documenting our progress and seeing if it's a success. I think many people would be doubtful that this kind of thing is appropriate for such young children - I'm planning to cover topics like philosophy, evolution, music, art history and many other 'advanced' ideas, but I'm convinced that they're more than capable of engaging with them and taking them forward. I should also take my hat off to the head teacher for her enthusiasm and support for such an unusual venture!
The club will include my own two children (currently aged 6 and 8), and the first hurdle is to see how many others sign up! For those readers who are parents thinking of joining, I should point out that neither the name of the school nor the names of the children will be included in the blog, and I shall do my best to ensure that when I do talk about what happens in the class, particular children aren't identifiable even to those who know them.
That's it for now. I'm going to post again shortly before the first session and I hope people will enjoy finding out how we get on. In the meantime, feel free to find out more about me from my profile. I'm busy preparing my first session, which will be on the nature of Infinity...
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