The day started out well, yesterday. I made it to Atherton Community School in a record three hours (door to door). I had such a great day at Atherton. They are planning a really exciting project designing all of their signage for their new building (opening next year). I got to present to the students at an assembly about critique and they are really getting into the Kind, Helpful, Specific critique format. I'm starting to fall in love with the students there - especially the rambunctious ones, you know the ones who are easiest to get to know, right away. One boy, in particular, has a really rough home life and is new to the school - you can just tell how badly he wants to be loved and accepted, so he's constantly seeking attention in mischievous ways... but if you can find moments to point out anything positive, his whole being lights up as if no one has ever said anything positive to him, before. It's so fun to shine a light on his strengths, and he is getting good at shining a light on other kid's strengths through critique.
The whole school has posters up about Ron Berger critique in every classroom. It's really exciting to see! And they are getting good at being kind, helpful and specific (their strength is kindness). For their next project, they are using a community resource full of 3-D printers, computers with CAD software, laser cutters and top quality equipment for printing that is about 10-minutes away that will allow students to design and possibly manufacture the signs for their new building. I am working with Ian from Chapel St. (an organization opening "free" schools - our charter school equivalent, I think) to design the project that kicks off next Wednesday with a kid-friendly Stanford Design workshop for the students that will introduce design thinking and the project. I'm excited about helping teachers design web pages for all of these projects kicking off at different schools - I hope they'll swap projects.
So the day started out well, but soon fell apart when I left the school. Atherton is normally about a six hour commute (in total - three hours each way with walks, trains and transfers), but last night was really insane. A train that derailed and caught fire (luckily no one was injured) cancelled all trains between Atherton and Manchester. It took quite a while to find a bus stop (there is no bus station in Atherton) and once I had no train, bus or car ride home in sight, it started to snow, again. After about an hour, I found a bus that took slightly short of forever (I was a bit cranky at this point, so I think my sense of time was off) to get to Manchester Picadilly, and that train station was ridiculously crowded. I ended up squeezing on a train and I definitely got closer (literally and in conversation) with a group crammed together like sardines in the luggage compartment. Getting home was a five hour journey, but I shouldn't complain since it ended with Darrick, pizza and wine...life is good.
I'm writing this post on my phone while standing in another luggage compartment in a train to Sheffield. Oh trains... I used to love riding you.
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