The Council of Bevelle meets for the first time.

What Actually Happened...

"Councillors of Bevelle,

I thank you deeply for the honour you have bestowed upon me. Even though I am very old, the kindness, and respect you have given to me by the world still surprises me. For those who do not know my face, you certainly know my name. I am An Séanfhear Niderb, otherwise known as Niderb the Ancient. Although you cannot tell by my looks, I was born long before any of the nations you are here to represent were even heard of. I cannot think of a better way to put my age, experience and love of all peoples of Bevelle to good use.

We all know full well that Bevelle is a world full of wonder, magic, and excitement; however, Bevelle is not without its troubles. Those troubles are what brought this Council together.I have been made aware that some Councillors did not have the chance to read my letter before they arrived here. These letters explained my position here. The leaders of the great nations of Siena and Tropical Land asked me to be the impartial advisor, facilitator and chairperson.

I hope that Bevelle will profit from these meetings, and deeply wish that all persons here will conduct themselves in a manner that would make themselves and their nations proud.

Now let us begin!"

The drama lesson this week has me even more excited then previous lessons. (Which, I didn't think was possible!) This week I finally got the action going and held the very first "Council of Bevelle". I asked the children to sit in a circle, and told them that this was going to be the first of many meetings of the "Council of Bevelle". Here we discussed what a council is, what the purpose of a council is, and what kind of people are on a council. In opening the official council meeting, I addressed the children as adults and more importantly, with humility. I needed them to feel and believe that they were mature, elected officials that held power and more importantly responsibility.

The power of the imagination really can be impressive, as I learned at the meeting. I asked the children to introduce themselves (in character) and talk about themselves. Each and every child impressed me with their introduction. Some wowed me by putting on generic "foreign" accents, speech impediments (vampires spoke with a lisp because of their teeth) and one girl even refused to speak. This girl just looked at me with a confused facial expression and shook her head every time I asked her a question. At first I thought maybe this girl had decided she was too old for this large scale game of make-believe. Other children were laughing at (what I thought was) my perceived loss of control and I have to say I felt a bit nervous. Could it be that the children didn't connect to the map of Bevelle as much as I had hoped?

But then, one child then asked the group "Does anyone know if they speak English in Terragaia?"(The country the girl's character was from.)Straight away, the children came back into character, asking each other if anyone could speak in this girls language. I was blown away. I think that the children had spent so much time developing the physical layout of Bevelle that it was simple to just become the characters. As if this wasn't enough, the same child that asked the first question just shouted over the noise "Hang on! I have an idea!" and turned to me. This girl had such belief in her character, her world and the characters of her peers she had drawn us all in. The entire class fell silent. (Much more quickly then if it had been ME silencing them I might add!) She turned to me and simply said "I'm sure Seanfhéar Niderb can speak her language, seeing as he's so old and has been everywhere!" I scooped up my jaw off the floor and turned to the Terragaian that caused this little kerfuffle. I just spouted some nonsense words and told the rest of the class that I was going to ask her if she understood English. This ingenious girl flashed me a smile and responded in similar nonsense to what I had said. I turned to the group and announced that she didn't speak English, but that I would work on a potion to help her learn English really quickly.

What really impressed me was how quickly and convincingly the kiddles developed the culture of Bevelle. Children just randomly said "Oh yeah and I'm cousin/brother/sister/friend to..." without any hesitation. Vampires in Bevelle are all brothers and sisters it transpired, and werewolves are very mysterious and rare. There is only one Alchemist on the planet, and she won't teach anyone how to perform alchemy. The country of Tropical Land is ruled by a monarchy, and the country of De'th is ruled by one dictator. Everyone in Candy Lab has lava for blood, which is useful considering it is covered in snow all year round. My character, Niderb (My surname backwards...) was refereced to much more than I intended. Whether I wanted to or not, I am now part of Bevelle and its history and culture.

We finished the first meeting with everyone standing up and shaking hands with one another (Although the werewolf and vampires avoided each other!) and as themselves the children played a small drama game.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

I need no further proof that the children believe that the world of Bevelle exists for them and has its own traits. The world that they have created has sucked all of us in and they are really starting to take control of the world. I think I can say that the creation step is officially finished!

Tune in next week to see what plans I am concocting over the Easter Break! I hope to create a dossier for every country, in a true "UN" style. Every country will get profiles on the other countries, a list of resources they have, and suggested prices they can sell them for. More importantly the children will also have to source which resources they need, and what countries have these things.

Most Importantly...

I now know that I can trust the children with this world we have created together. They will throw me at times, but the level of belief is so strong it seems that they will always help out.They will make the decisions, and keep each other in check while... hang on...oh god it's a teachers worst nightmare...

THE KIDS ARE IN CHARGE!!!

Around the World in 80 da- er.. 60 minutes.

What Actually Happened:

Last week, my aim was to solidify the fictional lens that we started the previous week. I planned on starting to create the safe environment that the children need to feel safe to express themselves.

During the week, I put children into pairs (with one child on her own, through her own request). These pairs are going to be the government of their countries. Over the last few days I've asked the children to design the shape of their countries, flags, languages, currencies etc. all of which the children must have ready for Thursday.

Reviewing the lesson from the previous week, the first part the children wanted to discuss was the name of their world. I was secretly delighted that they wanted to change the name of the world. I didn't draw attention to the fact that "Funnest" isn't a word, as my lesson was not an English lesson in the slightest. Drama is a safe haven for these children, and all children really; I wasn't going to taint it with a grammar correction.

Seeing as the very successful classroom management system (ClassRealm) is based on games, and the drama world is based on ClassRealm, I gave the class a list of names of towns from various Final Fantasy games. Long story short, the children's new world has been named: (Drum roll please!)

Again? Next time I won't ask for any drum roll.

Bevelle!

Yes indeed the kiddles named their new and magical wonderland after the pseudo world capital Bevelle from Final Fantasy X.

Upon further reflection of the last drama lesson, I realised that my lesson was much more a geography based one and not so much a drama lesson. This week, the lesson was as much an art lesson as it was a drama lesson!

The children worked hard on planning and forming their countries. They all tried very hard to ensure geographical accuracy, with every country having a river, mountain ranges, deserts, coastlines etc. I decided to support the children's idea here. I told the children some countries were going to be called "superpowers" and be much larger and richer, some would have to be very cold countries, while at least one would be an archipelago.

It's hard to see, but this country is actually in the shape of a camel.

These boys are in charge of one of the two "superpower nations"

The children worked hard and worked long, and none of them wanted to stop working when I told the children that time was up.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

The children are really starting to get sucked into their world, now known as Bevelle. They all were very critical of their countries, which told me that they really cared about how they looked and the way they were represented. I wanted to cement the fictional lens that I had established in the last lesson, and I know that I achieved this from the children's attitudes, not to mention how they introduced their countries to me.

Tune in next week to find out if I:

• Begin the character development of the children.
• Ask the children to meet the other nations at a UN Summit.

Most Importantly...

Like last week, the children really enjoyed themselves. On top of that, they are really becoming invested in Bevelle, including the typically not-so-enthusiastic-about-school kids! I need to keep in mind that for this project to work, I'll need to keep the children's enthusiasm up all the time, and not just at the new, fresh and exciting phase.

Excuses excuses.

It's been more than a week since my last update, which is slightly unprofessional for a weekly blog. I didn't reveal this earlier but my school is undergoing a WSE (Whole School Evaluation) this week. I have the next post half written so it should be up by Friday, I PROMISE.

Also, my inspection is Thursday morning, so I'd be surprised if I manage to get drama done that day. The kiddies will not be happy, so to compensate we'll do drama for a bit longer on Friday.