Having some fun and “Workshop” – D54

After performing arts, we had some individual work and just before we had the workshop Bert planned for us at 4 p.m. we played some football and have fun at the Jardín Ayau. I was a team with Isa (we won of course), and Carmen, Pablito, and Franz were the other team.

For the workshop, first Bert showed us what we had to do for next week in order to deliver successfully our portfolio. The instructions were as follows:

•         Put yourself on the map
• List the readings and commentary you still have to complete.
• Write a guide to your documentation, highlighting for the reader certain features and content that represents your learning this term.
• Make a daily plan to recover and complete any work by February 4^th, 2013.
• Choose a chapter of one of our books that is particularly meaningful to you to present to the group on Thursday, December 13, 2012.
• Friday celebration at Kyle’s Library Project.

Later, we got into our groups of three and made two moral systems of some author Bert mentioned but I don’t quite remember. Here is the picture of how we divided the virtues and vices. We were close to made the two systems as the author made them, but here is the comparison for you to judge.

Finally, Bert gave us the Dialogue Rubric of the juniors (16-year-old students) at School of the Woods. It’s very interesting how many similarities we found with our rubric, and of course we would grab some ideas to incorporate to our rules. We talked about this rubric and our thoughts on it. Nothing really interesting happened to be honest. So far for today (now it’s 6:10 p.m.) Along with Alejo we stayed playing football-tenis at an improvised court in the individual work room. The match was close (51-47), but I lost. We left at 7 p.m. 

JavierP’s Morning Meeting and Sharing Linkage P4 – D54

Javier Parellada facilitated today’s morning meeting. We did two activities. The first one was that he would touch the shoulder of someone and he would be the “liar” and the rest of the group would have to guess who that person was. We did this two times and to our surprise, the first time no one was the liar and the second everyone was the liar. It was very ingenious and fun to see the different reaction and corporal language each of us had. The second activity was more of a prank to Bert. One person was supposed to go out and when he or she got back everyone would moo, but only one would moo louder and that person would have to guess whom it was. The prank didn’t go quite well but it was funny.

We took the Agora time to continue our activity of sharing linkage. Today, the ones who shared were Alejo, JavierT, Majo, Grace, Bert, and Chacho. 

Lucía’s Morning Meeting and Sharing Linkage P3 – D52

Lucía facilitated today’s morning meeting. She did two activities, both in pairs and to make us more aware of our senses and emotions. The first one was to guess an emotion the other person was supposed to show only with his or her eyes. Isa’s emotion was excitement, which I thought but I guessed it was more happiness than that. My emotion was surprise, and Isa guessed it very fast. The second activity was that one of us (me) would be blindfolded and I had to guess what I was tasting. The first one was an Oreo (I guessed it was a cookie, but not an Oreo), the second was “leche condensada” (I guessed correctly), the third one was a fruit called “granada” (I guessed), and the last one was linseed oil with lime, which was disgusting (I guessed it was oil). It’s fun to realize how much we use our senses to associate things like food, and when we loose one sense, in this case sight, we have a hard time finding out what are we eating and that makes us find other characteristics we take for granted like texture.

The second part of the morning was about sharing linkage. This was the third time we did this, and today Ingrid, Isa, and Carmen shared it with us.

Isa's face of excitement

Marce’s Morning Meeting and Sharing – D51

Marce facilitated today’s morning meeting. She showed us a video called, People and the Choices They Make, by Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker. The video is about the importance of documentation, accountability, and being the best one can be. Only humans have the capacity to decide how much to grow (not physically but mentally) and that’s what makes us different from all other beings. Trees grow to their full capacity, it’s their nature, but our nature could be to conform and if we don’t decide to be the best we can be, to give everything we can, we will tend to conform. Another thought on this is the will power, the energy that keep us moving forward. How big is the difference between waking up tired and not wanting to wake up, and waking up with more energy to keep moving forward, success after success. In the latter, we can expand our energy storage, fueling it with our actions and successes.

After that, we share our linkage. Today, only Kira, Tony, Karen, and Marce, shared their linkage. The first three were visiting us for the day.