So, what I love about this Substack is that I can work on creating a “presence” for two things I’ve been passionate about for decades: the arts and words, past, present and future.
I’m going to keep posting about the new incentive projects my little online school in Cbina is doing. Each month the TESOL students in my classes are offered an opportunity to create a video with images and spoken words (in English, since that’s what they’re studying).
February’s challenge was to make something for loved ones: two or four legged.
What gave me the idea was how fun and easy it is to make cookies for my dogs and other human friends’ fur family members!
So, I made the video (yes, it’s made with young kids in mind, not adults, so it sounds cheesy!); printed up instructions with recipes, and then put it out there.
It’s difficult to express how exciting it is to watch otherwise shy students accept the challenge and excel at it! Once again, “Dove” hits a home run (in my opinion) at making these videos!
She took my dog cookie recipe, subbed butter for peanut butter, and made buttery oatmeal-banana cookies for her friends!
I may have mentioned this already, but Dove was struggling in my classes before this. Some people naturally come alive in front of a camera and she’s one of them. Her success with these raised her grade and her overall performance during class time as well! She’s relaxed and confident now! That’s a MAJOR win, yeah???
Not everyone feels at home doing something like this, but I remember what performing choirs and drama classes, plays, did for ultra-shy me in high school. I want to do more of this! Find links between inner, innate creativity and academic learning. They naturally go together—they’re not separate issues!
The other kiddo who submitted over the weekend was “Jason.” Younger than Dove, with his grandmother coaching his cooking, he made a 2 part video. There are very few words spoken by him—pretty sure his 祖母 (grandma) doesn’t speak any English at all, so the guy was 100% on his own for the narration!
As a mom and grammie, I’m amazed by what this little guy did on his own!
He 100% did this! No one reached over and helped him, just a teensy bit of coaching on the sidelines! Watch, here’s part ONE, “put water in”:
He takes a brief break to continue and wraps it all up with “yummy!” as he sits down to eat the traditional dumpling soup he’s made all by himself!
Whether we’re young or old, confidence comes as we try, do, create, and repeat the process, whether or not anyone applauds our efforts.
But doesn’t it help to hear a “way to go?”
We show these videos during our classes, clap, and shout “yay!” and I give them extra stars for their efforts.
This is my Monday and it’s pretty great!