Rumblings of War...

Roylat: alright, what do we want sorted today?

Me: Before we get started, I believe the delegate from Kaliee wishes to say something.

Diamond: umm... I’m not ready for this I don’t wanna talk about it Sir!

Me: Go. On.

A good few minutes of goading and motivating until...

I'll let you hear it as I did! 

The shock and giddiness caused by this sudden announcement of course led a couple of children off topic, and made a few of them erupt into (quite evil sounding) laughter. I gently reminded the child in charge (Roylat) to keep her classmates in check. She decided to act on my advice by bellowing out

Roylat: PUT UP YIZZER HANDS IF YIZ NEED TA TALK!

(I love the word "yizzer". Fantastic stuff.)

Riane: Eh... I wanted to ask eh... Diamond why does she want war with eh... Terra Gaia?

Oooh! Such a hard hitting question! Why does she want war? Did Terra Gaia offend Kaliee? Is there two nations fighting over resources? Are Kaliee nobly defending the people of Terra Gaia from genicide? I'M ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT HERE!!!

Diamond: Uh, it wasn't my idea... It was Yesleks idea she uh...

I actually facepalmed straight away.

[General chatter of shock]

Roylat: Will yiz let her talk!

Diamond: Em...she had a bit of a problem with Marine and....

[Even more chatter!]

Roylat: Shh! Let Diamond talk!

Diamond: Ehm... Yeah, Yeslek had a problem with Marine. [Directly to Marine] I don't know why.

Roylat: If yiz don't have the ball, don't talk!
Hulk: I want to have the ball.
Roylat: Then put up your hand!
Diamon: Here.(Hands Hulk the ball)
Hulk: Right. Oooookaaaayyy.... I forget what I wanted to say. Oh yeah, I don't care what your reasons are, but why Terra Gaia? They're not strong, they're not rich... Whey not De'th? They're right beside you and have loads of magicite you can take... It doesn't make sense! So if youz [Kaliee] are going to declare war then youz [Terra Gaia] are going to have to run away!
Raine: [Ruler of the country De'th, whom Hulk just recommended Kaliee have a war against] Ehm, I think we should start working on the actual war.
Roylat: Okay, Ehm sir, can we make weapons?

There was yet another buzz of excitement, and I can't blame them. They're children, excitement is part of who they are. But this wasn't going in the direction I felt it had to. I steered the converstation back towards what it was meant to be about.

Me: Diamond, what did Terra Gaia do to you that you feel justifies declaring war.
Diamond: Yeslek said that she has some sort of problem with Marine.
Me: Okay... Could one of the delegates from Terra Gaia acutally say something? Girls, since war has been declared on you you've done nothing but laugh. In Bevelle, this is a really serious thing, people from and in your country are going to be killed if you can't stop this.
Eitak(From Terra Gaia): Okay... So Diamond, what is Yeslek's problem with Marine?
Diamond: Haven't got a clue.
Eibba: Then why did you agree to go to war?!
Diamond: Cause she was very angry and I thought she was going to kill me!
(Oh my! Sounds like we have a dictatorship forming!)
Naldo: Well then if she gets angry, you get angry too!
Riane: Well I think that if Marine and Yeslek have a problem they should sort it out themselves.
Roylat: So youz are having a war.. but why are yiz having a war?
Marine: I don't know they just want to fight me!
Roylat: Yeah but what did you do?

The children were a bit lost for thought here. I decided I needed to steer the conversation once more.

Me: Okay, show of hands here. If you understand and can clearly explain Kalliee's reasons for declaring war on Terra Gaia, raise your hand.
Hulk: Sir can I ask, where is Kalliee and Terra Gaia on the map?

Bit of a detour, but I felt it was an important one. Many of the children in my class are like me, a visual learner. I hopped over to the map and pointed out the two countries at war.

Hulk: But they're really far apart... it must be so awkward to get across those other countries and that ocean!

The children were really confused about Kalliee's motives, and to be perfectly honest, so was I! Diamond did say that it was Yeslek's idea, and it was because Marine did something that Yeslek didn't agree with, but seeing as Yeslek wasn't in we couldn't get much more out of her! This war talk was really exciting the kids and not only that, the kids were getting bored asking Diamond for her reason, and her reason not really being solid. So I decided to open up the conversation and ask...

Me: Right, what is the purpose of war?
Riane: The purpose of war is if someone stole from another... and then they start war...
Me: Okay so if one country steals from another, why do they do? Start a war, take back what was stolen and leave?
Riane:...No... coz they can't take it back.
Me: Okay, for example, Kaliee just declared war on Terra Gaia. What I want to know is, at what stage does Kaliee or Terra Gaia say to themselves "Yay we've won!" When does someone win a war?
Diamond: When everybody's killed?
Hulk: No it's after the other... after your opponent doesn't have any players left. When they have less players.
(This word players was slightly disturbing...)
Me: Less players?!
Hulk: No less people (PHEW!!)
Riane: No sir it's when... what do ya call it again? When you don't want to do it anymore... they stop they... SURRENDER!
Me: Right so war is when two countries...
All: Fight.
Me: ... until one country...
All: Surrenders.
Naural: Eh sir... can I speak now?

This is where things get very interesting!

Naural and Roylat run the nation of Candy Lab, and in the midst of this talk they decided to declare war on Tropical Land, one of the designated Superpowers! The reaction here was hilarious. "YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!" and "You fools... you FOOLS!" being among the best quotes...

But then something happened that I really didn't expect... War just... ERUPTED. Candy Lab is fighting against Tropical Land, Davbie is taking on Siena, while the original war of Kaliee and Terra Gaia is still going on. Every country bar one is waging war...

So I decided to let them at it.

For homework, the children were given one simple task. They had to write a letter to the parents of fallen soldiers. I gave them this assignment with the hope they would really think about the horrors of war...

Meanwhile, as the children were moving furniture back after the lesson, Riane, the little swindler from before came up and whispered something to me.

Watch this space!

Always darkest before the dawn.

I was quite nervous getting ready for this week's drama lesson. After the absolute debacle that was my last drama lesson, my nervousness was well founded. I thought about my last drama lesson and realised that I had focused on the problems, the document, the elephant in the room. I took a step back and asked myself "What is the purpose of this project?" And decided to redirect my focus.

The entire point of this project is to push the children into real life situations, and get them to solve them. This project is developing their problem solving skills, NOT my ability to present a well written series of interlocking issues. 

So with that established; here we go. 

What Actually Happened. 

We started the same way I start every lesson, reminding the kiddles how the last lesson in drama went. As if to confirm my incompetence in teaching one child actually groaned and said "oh god, not those problems again!" Which only further convinced me that I was doing the right thing. I started off by putting the children sitting in a circle in the middle of the room.  As simple a step as that was, sitting in a circle will encourage them to listen and talk to each other far more. Add this to the fact that I purposely sat outside the circle to remove myself from the group, and the entire discussion will be totally theirs. 

I gave out the Crisis Document and  directed them to the content page. Here i asked the children to read the problems through and asked them to ask about ones they didn't understand. I kept these explanations short and clear. I didn't want to throw them off by just saying "read the document" like I did the previous week. 

Once the children had a basic understanding of the issues in the document, I asked them what they'd like to solve first. Unanimously the children decided to focus on Tsunamis(the problem being how do we predict them and defend from them). Clearly, they were going for the "cooler" of the problems.

Finally, I did the one thing that I felt could save the project. I handed control of the class to the children.

I chose two boys, who run the superpower Siena, to run the meeting. I gave them a speaking object, an orange ball, and reminded the class of the rules of speaking objects. This worked at first, but it started to hold the kiddles back from talking so I removed it altogether. It did serve one important cause though, and gave the Siena boys some power. It took a while for them to get started, and they gradually somehow drifted to talking about stopping deforestation, and that's where it REALLY kicked off. 

I recorded this conversation, and here it is transcribed.

The names I use are the names the children picked for their characters. Hulk and Greg are the two from Siena. 
Text in brackets like <this> are descriptions of anything going on that can't be heard. 
Italics are my own thoughts.


Riane: The government should just stop altogether cutting down trees but to make paper like eh write on... write on something else like leather or something. 

Leather is a pretty cool idea I must say!  
??: I'd still need paper.
Hulk: We are the Government.
Riane: I know, we'll write on leather or something else.
<"Roylat" had been waving her hand in the air for a while at this stage.>
Hulk: Okay. right whatever your name is down there... you... missy!
<Awkward silence.>
Roylat: Which one?! we're all missies!
<Laughter>
Hulk: You!
Roylat: Who's you?!
Everyone: Roylat!
This makes me laugh so much everytime.
<Some confusion and then...>
Hulk: Just just... whatever Roylat just go!
Roylat: Right. We need wood, we need paper and if we don't use trees how can we use wood and paper, how can we make chairs and tables
Hulk: That's why we're cutting down the trees!
Roylat: I'm saying we need to cut down the trees. 
Greg: Oh my god.
Eibba: We can't keep cutting them down because that's deforestation!
<lots of people talking over each other>
Yeslek: Alright. I'm the one with the best i-
Eibba: (using a real name) We don't talk when your talking!
Riane: Hulk just asked her to talk!
Yeslek: Right.... Why is everyone cutting down trees and causing deforestation. Why can't we just make things out of the same thing, but without using trees?
<confused silence>
Hulk: Okay... say that again, I have no idea what you said.
Yeslek: UGH! Right... Make things out of something that doesn't involve cutting down trees!
Hulk: Alright, you say what.
Yeslek: I came up with the idea, I don't know.
<laughter.>
Yeslek: Can't we just make an invention?!
Eibba: But we need trees to make an invention!
Hulk: Rolyat! Go on.
Roylat: Right. You should only cut one tree down every two weeks, and that will make it better.
Eibba: But that's deforestation!
Roylat: Yeah but ya need paper, ya need wood!
Eibba: But that causes deforestation.
Eolia: Then what can we use!?

Throughout the session, I coached the boys in leading the group: "We haven't heard from Sean... Mary's awfully quiet..." "What's Lucy's opinion?"  

There was one girl, Eolia as she is known in Bevelle, who was very quiet, and usually treats classroom discussions as something "Borin". For any non-teacher reading the blog you have heard of the teachers pet, you've heard of the messers, the difficult to teach and the difficult to control. But I can almost guarantee you haven't heard of Eolia, the one who "just doesn't care". This girl has such a negative attitude to school that everything I've done to get her excited about learning or interested in working has fallen flat on its face. She's quite impossible to work with. She doesn't even care about the Bevelle Project! Apart from today. I've been teaching this class since January 28th, and taught them all of last year. That last line "Then what can we use?!" is the FIRST TIME EVER Eolia has joined a classroom discussion willingly. So What I'm getting at here is "Bevelle works wonders"

Gradually discussion kept going in circles until Eolia herself asked someone to clarify what deforestation actually was. Riane offered to explain and defined it as "Cutting down a whole load of trees to use for wood and paper but not replacing them"

I pounced on this word. Replacing. That's what they needed to see. Replacing. I nudged Greg and told him to ask Riane to explain it again, and he caught onto the word "replacing". Straight away the whole class lit up! Of course! That's how we can keep using wood and paper! We'll just replace those that we cut down! 

Two children were chosen at random to write a law about deforestation, and the next drama lesson will start with the children signing it into law. They did it. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Anywhere. They have finally figured out that they CAN solve these problems. It is possible, and they can do it by working together. The confidence boost they got from this will hopefully last for another few weeks, and theoretically this will be the catalyst of a whole onslaught of crisis averting!

Most Importantly...

Two things. 

The confidence boost that I recieved is invaluable. After last week I was convinced I had failed and had put too much pressure on their decade old shoulders. Turns out, they, no WE are going to be fine. 

Secondly; Eolia. I cannot emphasise enough how big a deal it is that she got involved. I don't care anymore if they solve no more problems or if the project fails. I got Eolia interested and involved. The project has succeeded in my eyes. 

Crisiss? Crises? Crisea?... Lots of Problems.

This is it. This is what the entire project has been building towards. The all hallowed, crazy important, slightly scary, Crisis Document. Now that's what I want to call it, but I have a feeling that the children will give it their own name, in the same way the "Resource Record" became the "Selling sheet" pretty darn quickly.

So, what IS the crisis document? Let's not forget that although this idea was partially inspired by gaming and ClassRealm, its primary inspiration came from John Hunter and his World Peace Game. I've watched and listened to John's TED talk countless times now I can actually quote parts of it. Hunter's describes his crisis document as a series "of interlocking problems so that if one thing changes everything else changes"

Hunter had fifty different problems for his World Peace Game. I have come up with a mere 25 so far, but I really worked on it so that every issue is thoroughly integrated with each other. For example: Global Warming can affect weather, specifically droughts in some areas and colder temperatures in others. The freezing cold/drought can cause a famine. One potential solution to famine is to create more farm land, and thus deforestation occurs.... which worsens Global Warming, which worsens weather, which worsens famine, which speeds up deforestation, which means no kid will grow up with a tree house. Ever.

I built this one when I was 10. You can't tell, but the wood is made of old pallets and the windows out of old feed bags. 

What Actually Happened

So you get the idea. This Crisis Document is important. This is the crux of everything. This is what all of the build-up has been about. It is finally time to unleash the children onto their world.

If I was to describe this lesson in two words?

Utter Failure.

If I was to describe this lesson in four words?

Complete and utter Failure.

To be fair it did start off quite well... The children became very excited when I took out the scrolls from the previous post, and they really enjoyed reading it. In fact one of the three boys (No that is not a typo, there are three boys in my class of fifteen.) read the scroll in a very cool accent. I asked would he let me record him to share here, and he agreed!




So all in all, it was off to a great start. I gave a short tour of the Crisis Document, but it was quick and not at all in depth. I said to the children to read through the document, and solve the problems contained within. Then I sat down, and said:

"You have seven weeks, and this week you have 45 minutes left. Your time starts now."

It was around here that I expected the children to read through, start rushing around, possibly have a fight or two(just a verbal one, I didn't want an Irish version of Battle Royale). I wanted them to feel overwhelmed, but with just enough of a hope of success that they would strive towards it. Instead I got this:

"But Sir where are the problems?"
"Is this what real politicians do? I don't like it"
"How do we answer the questions? Where ARE the questions?"
"Sir can you just tell us the answers?"
"I just don't GET it sir"

My heart broke. It turns out, they've been so indoctrinated to school they couldn't handle this at all. In school you always know exactly what an answer looks like and 'problem-solving' has clear questions and looks like this:

Strangely enough, the problems have nothing to do with an invasion of cycling aliens.

That blinkered view of "problems" has altered the children's thinking skills so much that they couldn't handle, or even attempt my Crisis Document.

This is the bit where I'd love to say "But it was okay, because Seán and Mary TOTALLY got it and explained it to everyone else and the end." But unfortunately no child got it, there was no-one to explain it, and I don't even have a Seán OR Mary in my class! (Something quite rare in Ireland.)

I was at a total loss. The children were at a total loss. The entire lesson, and point of the lesson, was at a loss. I did a complete 180 on the lesson and started reading through the document and tried to explain it, constantly explaining that the entire document was linked to itself. However, my lesson ran out of time and I then realised that the children were completely and utterly bored. Now usually I'm okay with that, I am a teacher, not an entertainer. Boredom happens sometimes, and sometimes it can not be avoided. But this was a drama lesson. This lesson was supposed to distract from the humdrum of everyday teaching, so why was I continuing.

It was during my first ever TP (Teaching Practice) that I learned an extremely useful and important lesson. When teaching, it is perfectly okay to just drop the lesson and move onto something completely different. When I was a student teacher, that seemed like a sin, or even a fail worthy offence, but now I know that the children's learning (and in the case of drama, enjoyment) is more important. So I moved onto Maths, and then PE and analysed what went wrong.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

First of all, I know that this is partially my fault. The document is too big, too difficult and just too intimidating. This is tough. As I see it, I have a few options.

• Read through the report with them in the next lesson, and try to chunk it down, encourage them to write notes on it etc. 
• Rewrite the document and try to make it even simpler.
• Tell them to put up with it and really push them to work it out themselves.

I have to figure out which one is best for the class. Should I allow them to rely on me? Should I say "tough luck, figure it out yourselves."

Its not easy!

Most Importantly...

I messed up. This lesson was a waste for the kiddles, but it really helped me. I wanted the children to learn independence, develop problem solving and learn how to invest time into a project. Instead, I have learned that there is such a thing as pushing them too far to be independent, that I have to directly teach problem solving skills, and that I can fail, and it's not that big a deal. 

Making Scrolls! - A photo Step by Step guide!

This is a step by step photo guide to making your own scrolls with a wax seal! I bought four wax sticks but only used half of one. I made eleven seals, two for practice, eight countries, and one for my own copy of the scroll to put up on the display.

PLEASE NOTE: Every single step is necessary to achieve the desired effect, you must not skip any step at all. Seriously.

Step 1: Type up a letter to all the Nations of the BCP (Bevelle Council of Peace)

Step 2: Roll up the letter and use a used toilet roll to keep it in shape.

Step 3: Get an auld Dominos Menu(no other menu or scrap of paper will suffice) to protect your table.  Light a tea light and hold your specially bought stick-o-wax over the flame to melt it.

Step 4: Find any old coin or badge to use as a stamp. Found this one in a little stand in George's Street Arcade.

Step 5: Realise that Step 2 makes no sense and put the toilet roll inside the paper. 

Step 6: Find out that Dexter is on and relocate to the sitting room.

Step 7: Try not to freak out when the wax gets all stringy.

Step 8: Roll up the page again, because you foolishly let go during Step 6.

Step 9: Repeat Step 3, but with the nice Cinnamon scented candle you bought on a whim before Christmas and never really bothered lighting.

Step 10: Rub the melted wax onto the joint in the paper.

Step 11: While the wax is still molten, firmly press the stamp  into the wax.

Step 12: "I'll hold it for a bit longer... just to make sure"

Step 13: There we go! Darn stamp wasn't very deep, so the design isn't too obvious, but it still looks very cool.

Step 14: Weep silently as the children rip it apart without a second thought.

Step 15: Laugh maniacally as you plan to hand out the next test this way to get revenge.

Next Blog post: Friday the 3rd of May!