Show and Tell

It happened in Mary’s primary intensive class....  It was profound, really... Quite the feat....  How did it happen?...  The children were told to simply relax and enjoy the ‘Show and Tell’ break today.

The Great Dane had entered the classroom, owner in tow. The girl from our group moved into position, beside her mom, the parent whose dog was the topic of attention and affection this morning.... My students had stopped  kneading the dough and moved to another table  in anticipation of the dog show that would begin momentarily.....

I had asked them not to worry about their hands... We’d wash them later before returning to the kneading table.... We watched as the magnificent beast entered the room.... The students sat down as the question and answer period began. ... I looked. Again, I looked.....What was my group doing? ...  I had not asked them to do the impossible but the impossible was what they were doing. ... The students reminded me of surgeons, clean hands suspended in mid air, elbows resting on the table. These driven little people had decided as a group to sit together and not let their hands touch anything. ... They understood the importance of hygiene, especially when it applied to food handling. They had showed respect for their craft. ... But it was not necessary to think about that now. ... Show and Tell was up next.

My ‘dough’ group was focused, attentive, disciplined, trying to keep their hands out of harm’s way.  Their self-control was not what I had asked or expected of them. ... They were too young to demonstrate that quality under those circumstances.  These qualities that make us human generally occur at a later stage of development. ... The question and answer period lasted 10 minutes. ...  But in those few minutes of Show and Tell, I learned a lot that day! ... Sometimes, the expectations we set for children can be lower than what they set for themselves!

A five part series on the power of dough in the Special Needs classroom will begin soon....The miracle in the classroom, as mentioned earlier this year in Special Education-/Engagement/ Senses- a five year plan- will document, anecdotally, of course, dough's ease, as a teaching/learning tool in the primary  special needs classroom towards the development of higher order thinking.

#1).... ”No it’s not.  It’s  carbon dioxide”,  she remarked, quickly correcting her classmate... 

#2).... “We don’t need her”, he remarked after being told I would not be in today...

#3).... “The Five Second Rule"            

#4)....  "What do you think of my crueller?”, the student asked?...

#5).... “Why didn't you use that gluten word?", he asked.

Children make us think; therefore, they make us smarter.... We re-evaluate, re- formulate new hypotheses that challenge  them and ourselves in reshaping our thinking on what we know or what we think we know.. ..I look forward to illustrating how yeast dough helped shape these special students into incredible thinking machines, starting with the little girl who dared to challenge everyone and everything. ...