Yesterday I got to be the giraffe in the production of First Thursday, at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford. I both charmed and terrified this little girl. Increasingly, I find that my life is becoming pretty magical. Now that I no longer give 90% of my time to a single institution (a boarding school), I have enough time to participate in events like First Thursday, and have cool things happen to me — and make cool things happen to others. I think we forget, as teachers, that it’s important not only to think outside the box, but to BE outside the box on a fairly regular basis. You can’t really know what your students are going to do. Anne Cubberly, the mask-maker and costume designer who built this giraffe head, teaches workshops to public school children… but I’d never have connected with her, or connected her with my school, without going to an event she happened to be loosely involved with. I’d never have met her and never made this happen for me without being willing to try new things.
And to think… I was kinda thinking last night that maybe it was time to start thinking about my classroom and plan my Latin class…
Of such stuff is out-of-the-box thinking made.
Fantastic! You are a very good giraffe-which makes me consider all the things that a person might try being, and certainly that little girl is wrapping her mind around the possibilities.