It Looked Foggy In Manhatten...

Where my final project started in earnest. On this trip to Crystal Palace Park with O, I'd been tweeting (for my previous project) as one of the Crystal Palace sphinxes and O seemed to be intrigued and interested in this. She wanted to go to the park and try and translate the hieroglyphs. We ended up making a video about the out trip and basically O just enjoyed hanging out by the sphinxes. It was as if she was at home there and as if she had a connection with them because I did. We visited again a few weeks later and a similar thing happened. I felt inspired in the connection that O made with the area and in the film she made (by directing me) and definitely got me truly thinking about using media to create some form of trail for engaging people... and audio in the main....

A few images from the poetry and soundtracks event in what I think could be a great little venue in the station! Bit like a crypt type thing! Oh and finally seen the Paxton plaque - for the crystal palace photo collection!

#norwood #funpalaces #jameswilsoncoffeeshop

Busy National Theatre the other night as viewed from the bus...

Today Bedford Avenue and surrounding area in Brooklyn...

Testing, testing

Am I causing more distractions for myself or creating something that will be of productive use for my final course project and of an interesting read for others? Only time will tell! Lets see if this posts to Twitter and or Facebook!

Today's NYC outing was a visit to the Tenement Museum - a guided tour and a self guided walking tour

Some images of the creativity that is taking place in L’Arche London - a craft workshop for adults with learning disabilities in South East London.

Me in the World

October 2016

Hello there :)

Testing out writing a bit more regularly about what I do in my tutoring, music and storytelling sessions. I would be interested to hear if any of it is useful to anyone reading this.

So the first activity that I am going to talk about is a one I found through a search of Montessori blogs. It is called a 'Me on the Map' or 'Me in the world' activity. It is an activity I didn't come across when I was Montessori teaching a few years back. However, when searching for activities about the world I really liked the idea of this. An important part of Montessori philosophy for me is the area of cultural education. Montessori was very much dedicated to peace and the activities in this area really develop this through helping children to understand more about the world, their place in it and how everything is connected.

I tried this activity out with two brothers I tutor. The idea is that you have coloured circles of ascending sizes. You start by asking the child to draw a picture of themselves and then their house and gradually progress to their continent and the world.

The youngest started accordng to the plan. He wasn't too keen on drawing his houseso drew the entry gate to his house. We only did about three last week and completed this week because the activity did not captivate him as much as others. The eldest decided that he would do it in his own way and started with a mean looking character who ended up living on the moon. He gave areas of the moon different number codes that got more complex as they went along and really got into it. I had intended that he did it about himself, however, I loved his creativity. Below are the results. And here is a link to the page I found the best for describing this activity and variations:  Here

Bye for now....

Jam packed Westow Park for the crystal palace overground festival... Where I was happy to meet some familiar faces as well as some previously twitter only acquaintances. I also met some new locals at their stalls (and shops) - i introduced myself and handed out some little flyers to try and recruit more trail participants!