I’ll be the Giant Robot and you be the Caterpillar Radio

The Point:

Everyone has interests and curiosities.  Educators enhance their ability to tap individual and collective potential by seeking to understand the interests and curiosities of their students, then weaving them into the learning process.  Tools and information may not be as important as understanding, encouragement, and empowerment are in growth and development.

The Story:

I remember the first time I saw one of those huge cell phones in a bag.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever.  You could literally talk on the phone without having to be connected to a chord in the wall!  A mobile phone, imagine that!  My family had a top-loading Betamax machine – you probably don’t even know what that is.  It’s how we watched videos until the innovation of the VCR.  Fancy!  My brother saved his pennies for years to buy a camcorder when he was about fourteen.  We lived with that thing in our hands.  We must have made hundreds of videos.  Now we can’t even watch them – the technology doesn’t exist anymore (of course we converted to digital, but that’s beside the point).  I remember figuring out that we could make each other disappear and reappear by stopping the recording and leaving the room.  We spent many hours saying “abracadabra,” and feeling super cool when we showed the ‘Hollywood magic’ to our friends.  It was pretty awesome!

Technology continues to change at a dizzying pace.  However, passion, imagination, vision, possibility, and enthusiasm are arguably very much the same as they have always been.  They still have the capacity to excite and energize their host.  Furthermore, when coupled with persistence and belief, they tend to catalyze amazing outcomes.

As educators, we are responsible for facilitating highly engaging learning experiences for our students.  I think it’s important that we tap our own learning and developmental history as tools in achieving this charge.  In doing so, put aside the fact that technology is evolving at the speed of light.  Forget, for a moment, that the world’s gadgets and tools come in and out of fashion more quickly than we can figure out how to use them.  Boil it all back down to the human components of learning for a moment.

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My four year old recently approached me with the following instructions, “I’ll be the giant robot and you be the caterpillar radio.”  Now, that may seem a bit enigmatic on the surface, but in fact, he was offering me an invitation to engage in some imaginative play.  Actually, it was more than an invitation.  He was telling me that it was time to play!  It didn’t really matter what the giant robot or the caterpillar radio would be doing, just that they were doing it together, and that they were taken seriously.  There’s no faking imaginative play with a four year old.  It’s not enough to hold an action figure (or a caterpillar radio) and make a silly voice…you have to seriously get into it!  You have to become what your collective imaginations create.

When I play with my buddy in this way, I remember how real movie making with that old camcorder was for my siblings and me.  Again, we spent hours fully engaged in a creative process.  We were excited to explore and create.  We worked through meals and bedtimes (when we were allowed to).  We were thrilled, we were learning, we were making connections, and we owned all of it.  It was based on our curiosities and our interests.

I don’t imagine it would have been very different if our camcorder was a smart phone, or if our Stretch Armstrong was a giant robot.  The key was that our imaginations were accessed through our interests, and that we had support, encouragement, and a license to explore what we were driven to explore in the ways we were driven to do so.  They say that childhood is a time of magic and wonder.  Take a look at a child when he/she is totally engaged in a creative process that’s based on his/her interests and curiosities.  It’s easy to realize that “magic” and “wonder” may very well be understatements!

Some Connected Thoughts:

Exhaust any amount of time necessary to get to know your learners.  Trust the data you gather through efforts to understand, and use them for scaffolding in goal development and instructional design.  As interests and curiosities unfold, incorporate them into the individual and collective learning structures of your classroom.  Adapt instruction based in part on the prompts your students give as they become increasingly comfortable revealing what commands their attention and enthusiasm.  Facilitate a process by which students are able to own their learning, connect the curricular content to their daily lives (past, present, and future) in meaningful and authentic ways, and dig deep into creative exploration because they’re super excited about it.  If you’re asked to be a caterpillar radio that likes to play with giant robots, do it.  Then, when you can’t stop your student’s workflow or get them to leave the classroom, you know you’re on the right track.  When you do get to that place, let me know how you did it – I need some pointers:)!

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Dream Big.  Work Hard.  Be Well.

4 comments

  1. Tony

    Seth,
    WOW – what an awesome post! I completely agree with everything you are saying about engaging children in their passions. The story you shared about your son and the power of imaginative play captures the essence of what really needs to be at the root of education reform. Lets forget test scores, numbers and standards – lets focus on our children’s passions, interests and natural inclination to explore because that might begin to close the achievement gap! BRAVO!
    Tony

    • bergseye

      Thank you so much for the read and the insightful response Tony! Knowing about the incredible work you’re doing in Cantiague makes this message especially powerful! I think a part of the key is that encouraging and supportive leaders such as yourself continue inspiring those they serve to adopt authentic, meaningful learning attitudes, systems, and structures. Thanks for modeling the type of school culture that allows for connected, interest/inquiry based learning, and masterfully sharing the story of your journey! Have a great weekend my friend! Be well:)!

    • bergseye

      Thanks for the read and the comment Doug…aren’t their imaginations amazing! They say that having Holden makes people young – it’s those moments when we get lost in creative play with them that really drives it home for me. Have a great holiday with your family:)!

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