Columbia Explorers: Creepy, Crazy, Magical

Posted by Tai on February 8, 2009 at 03:57 PM
School Shows School Workshops

The Columbia Explorers show is tomorrow morning, and today our dedicated cast is reviewing their lines and practicing their dance moves. Yesterday was the last of our six rehearsals. The BOM adaptation and rehearsal process is fast and furious, and can leave us feeling a little crazy at times:

RSS readers: click on the post title to view this video!

As I mentioned previously, the teaching team for this residency tried out some new additions to the usual BOM curriculum. Week 3, normally True Story Day, became a day to explore characters and settings that the kids were most familiar with: those around their school and homes. We brainstormed people, places, and things that the kids encountered on a daily basis in their neighborhood: teachers, friends, family members; Pete’s Market, Dulcelandia, McKinley Park; trains, trees, and graffiti. We brainstormed “what if” scenarios: what if aliens landed in McKinley Park? What if the Kedzie stop on the Orange Line was overrun with zoo animals? Then, in the usual fashion, the kids wrote and performed group stories utilizing these elements, and had time for individual writing.

This exercise inspired stories such as “The Magical Place,” by Dulce H., where she finds a hidden room inside the local McDonald’s, full of “all the things a girl could want.”

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The Famous Columbia Explorers Academy!

Posted by Tai on January 28, 2009 at 08:30 AM
School Shows School Workshops

Rehearsals for the Columbia Explorers show started yesterday. I’m very excited about the show. This residency was a blast, but I wouldn’t expect any less from the kids at this school. The four-class residency was split between two days per week, with myself and volunteer Mariah on Tuesdays, Kate and volunteer Mani on Wednesdays, and rockstars Ricky, Jason, and Sarah teaching both days.

Barrel of Monkeys has been teaching at Columbia Explorers Academy for years, since back when it was called Davis-Shields Elementary, and is the birthplace of “That’s Weird, Grandma” favorites Cereal Story and Untitled (Astronauts).

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Kids Write It—and We Learn From It.

Posted by Samantha on November 20, 2008 at 11:33 AM
School Workshops

During the past weeks I have found myself, in everyday conversations, regularly quoting and retelling stories that our Trumbull students wrote. Just yesterday I was reminded of one of the sweetest stories I’ve read in a long time—a story about Larry the Ant by Yekeen. In this true story, Yekeen tells about the time he had a pet ant named Larry. He fed him lettuce and kept him in his room. Unfortunately, Larry was sick and didn’t live very long. But he lives on in Yekeen’s heart, forever and ever.

Kids have a way of saying so much with so little. It might be one of my favorite things about teaching with Barrel of Monkeys. Every time I leave a residency I realize how much I can learn from each 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th grader.

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A new school… A new world!

Posted by Maggie on November 10, 2008 at 11:36 AM
School Workshops

Six weeks ago we started at a new school.  Although this was the first time Dixie, Sam, Jen, Rachel, Brad and I had walked through the front doors armed with paper, markers and over 60 fresh Barrel of Monkeys Journals, it was a school we’d all seen many times.  Close to many of our homes, even in the same zip-code as some of our mail, right across from The Neo-Futurarium, the theater we’ve been running That’s Weird, Grandma in for over 5 years! 

Yes that’s right I’m talking about Trumbull School. The school stands four stories high with four architecturally historic wrought iron staircases that over 500 children scale and descend everyday with the sound of a bell.

 

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Before and After

Posted by Rachel on October 21, 2008 at 01:26 PM
School Workshops

The Cleveland Team gathered for a marathon journal reading on Sunday night at Erick’s house. He made us some fish curry soup of his own invention, and it sustained us for the five hours it took to read the brilliant writing of 70 students. We read everything our students write, and it is a pleasure, but given our teachers’ busy schedules, finding a time when everyone can gather to read so many journals is a challenge. We have to do it all at one go

For the Cleveland residency, we had two volunteer teachers, Katie and Lupe, who have been indispensible. They used their Spanish speaking skills to help those of us who studied French in high school communicate. They volunteered their time and energy to meet for breakfast before each teaching day, to teach for six mornings when they could have been at other jobs, and most recently, to read and sign all our students’ journals. The children love them—I know because they wrote about it in their journals—and we love them too.

Here’s the intrepid Cleveland Team before our reading meeting:

See the After picture post-jump . . .

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