zero pressure

i’ve learnt that sometimes it’s best to leave writing a blog post until a while after the event.  this is such a post.  there is still much information transferring and it’s taking me a while to catch up.

lots to add, so i’ll lean on some informal mindfulness to help me focus on where to begin.

i’m excited by the proposition of using google drive as a place to collaborate via shared documents.  i’ve been playing this evening and added a simple hello world document and invited the other collaborators to add their hello world message.

our site is a partner venue in the maker ed #makercorps project for summer 2016.  today i’ve joined up online and begun to explore all the resources available.

yesterday i took part in our first brain storming session at the building and i’m going to use what, so what, what now as a reflective tool:

what?

we initially stood in a facilitated group talking in flow and adding key points as written postit notes onto a wall in the space.

so what?

i felt awkward at first as i posted before the facilitator had given us our operating boundaries, although i posted in order to discover what those boundaries were.

while the facilitator was present i felt happy and being part of a constructive positive process that had purpose and direction.

the discussion went on for 3 hours.  i worked hard to stay with it.  the effort required left me feeling unhappy.  in reflecting about the experience with my partner i was able to vocalise something that i’d never been able to say before.  the method of working in the brainstorming after the initial hour does not suit my kinesthetic learning style.

now what?

i need to discuss further my findings about myself with those in the project.  i will take the opportunity here in this post to collate my thoughts about what i realised last night.

to aid my brain storming ability, i would like to try a brain storming session that lasts one hour.  after this hour i would like the opportunity to take what i learnt in the brain storming session and wave my arms around while collecting materials and trying out ideas based on what i learnt. in other words to immediately attempt to prototype something.

last night in our living room i waved my arms around and spoke at my partner while i worked out why my head felt like it had been solidified by something that solidifies things.

i passionately spoke to her about how i’ve never really been able to express what my needs have been in terms of what i need to help me move towards my potential.  i asked her if she thought i might be the only person like this.  “i doubt it” came her reply.

i started to explore my forest school experiences for anything that i could connect to.  for sometime i’ve felt that kinesthetic learners are those who have an immediacy of connection with a forest school session and ultimately the process.

there are examples of this i can recall at the school i volunteer at.  the forest school ethos / process is made available to children who have the potential to improve their current levels.  i asked the question last night “of those children, how many have kinesthetic as their main learning style?”  through more focussed observation this might be understood.

i started to make further connections.  the school process is about sitting and listening and responding in written form(for the most part).  we hear of children who are extremely good at this and are at their target level and sometimes above.  we also hear of children that are below target and find it difficult to do the work needed to make the level.  would those below target respond better to a different learning approach ?

something i must add here.

to help me feel like my head was suidgy/maleable again and me … me, i took a path of things to make me feel better.  i played, i listened to some music. i did things that helped me affirm i was me and happy again.

there was a moment where i asked the question “of those kinesthetic learners at school who are short of their potential, how many of them do things to clear their heads that annoy others (their intention being merely to clear their head and to feel themselves again)?”

yesterday i became aware i am going to work be better, be more productive, happier, more energised by a modified brain storming process.  i look forward to sharing this with the group when we next meet up.

monday was my brother’s birthday.  i sent him a card made by the scribble/squiggle bots i took with me on thursday last week to help describe my passion/interest in making.  the image is a detail of that card.

in the united states the steam process is described as project based holistic learning.  it’s within a ball park of the forest school ethos.  i think my next steps are to start to explore what projects i want to attempt and let myself discover where this takes me.

in the beginning …. such a biblical proportion of a statement.  the start of the residency does feel of biblical proportions, the ambition of those behind the re-imagining of the derby silk mill museum being bold and looking way into the future.

their vision is that by 2019/20 the museum of making will be fully open to the public.  in the up coming 14 weeks the 6 of us are part of the on going research and prototyping of that vision.

within this blog my intention is to record what i do and reflect upon that.  part of the brief is to answer 21 questions set by the museum team.

yesterday was the first official day of the residency.  i met with the museum team and the maker team.  the makers being guided through the history of the project and informed of the current status.

it was then quickly down to work.  guided by the main curator we were taken high into the building and introduced to one of the collection rooms.  our brief was to find something that could inspire a making activity based around a theme of communication to the drop in public audience later that afternoon.

part of that experience was to chat with the curator re his interpretation of communication.  the maker team had quickly latched onto the verbal obvious forms of communication.  our curatorial guide gave examples of social non verbal communication.  for example how the collection of qualcast lawn mowers communicates aspiration.  how the textiles machine communicated something about ambition and status to the people who worked with them.  i felt uncomfortable with this notion of social communication, partly because over time i have rejected it as a sub-concicous notion to participate in.

over lunch the makers sat and discussed the morning and particularly the visit to the store and the need to develop an activity.  as i listened and tucked into lunch i became aware of what i was part of.  it resembled something from a realife tv series where a bunch of people are brought together and given a task to do to see how they cope.  i loved the experience because the dialogue became very open and very honest.

currently the silk mill building is only open to the public on the ground floor.  through the re:make project the interior was gutted, asbestos removed and all made beautiful again.  there’s an area to view things and there’s an area in which making occurs.  currently in the viewing area there is a maker bar and curatorial hub where objects from the collection are cleaned and documented ahead of the upper floors make over project.

the activity we arrived at was to create personal totems, adding them to a collective totem pole.  i found the process really exciting as working with 5 other people meant i could action the small ideas i had to offer, feeding this into a collective effort without having to worry at all as their were interpretations of what i was doing that helped to collectively arrive at something we were all happy with.  a benefit over working alone where it’s so easy to get bogged down in a small detail.

there are however some details i do need to consider.  we left the day with a briefing document.  7 considerations each with 3 treatments.

for this blog i’m going to return to the driscoll (by borton) model of reflection.  i’ve not practiced much with this so i’m going to be a little clunky over it’s use while i get familiar again.  we covered a lot yesterday so focussing in on something to reflect upon is going to make this process more manageable.

so my focus today is the 21 point making brief….

step 1. what ?

This is a description of the event.

Trigger questions: What…

• … is the purpose of returning to this situation?
• … happened?
• … did other people do who were involved in this?
• … did I see/do?
• … was my reaction to it

what happened was as a group we arrived at a making activity for the public based on an object in the collection, group discussion, group prototyping and group deployment.

step 2. so what ?

This is an analysis of the event.

Trigger questions: So what…

• … did I feel at the time of the event?
• … are my feelings now, after the event, any different from what I experienced at the time?
• … were the effects of what I did (or did not do)?
• … positive aspects now emerge for me from the event that happened in practice?
• … have I noticed about my behaviour in practice by taking a more measured look at it?
• … observations does any person helping me to reflect on my practice make of the way I acted at the time?
• … is the purpose of returning to this situation?
• Were those feelings I had any different from those of other people?
• Who were also involved at the time?
• Did I feel troubled, if so, in what way?

my reaction to it overall was good.  i enjoyed every stage of the process.  i enjoyed putting forward my thoughts/ideas and it was ok that my main idea wasn;t picked because what was picked was something i hadn’t considered or thought of and it worked really well.  i was able to adapt to the evolving idea and made things.  i felt good in myself that i had been able to make a positive contribution to the activity.

step 3. now what?

Proposed actions following the event

Trigger questions: Now what…

• …are the implications for me and others in clinical practice based on what I have described and analysed?
• …difference does it make if I choose to do nothing?
• …is the main learning that I take from reflecting on my practice in this way?
• …help do I need to help me ‘action’ the results of my reflections?
• …aspect should be tackled first?
• Where can I get more information to face a similar situation again?
• How can I modify my practice if a similar situation arises again?
• How will I notice that I am any different in clinical practice?

the process of drawing inspiration from collection, prototyping activity and delivering activity will happen each week.

as well as developing ideas to connect and engage with external groups of people.

as well as making things inspired by the collection.

as well as being an active member of the maker corps programme by maker ed.

the implications are there is a lot of work to do in 14  weeks and over thinking it will lead to build up of stress, which is not required.

the process is curiosity led with a systematic approach to answering questions.

i love that through our potential we will inform the prototype of the museum of making.