Brainstorm!

Wow, it's been hard to post lately between all the teaching -- but it's yielding some great insights!

For example:

Brainstorming. I know, it's a word we're used to hearing in Corporate America - but it's a wonderful thing to do with kids. I use brainstorming to create lots of ideas that kids can then use, steal from, borrow, or ignore.

Today we brainstormed a bunch of adjectives, then a bunch of nouns. Then we picked from the lists to create things to draw. Weird things. Like, a gigantic metal banana.

Then, we brainstormed lists of superpowers, types of sidekicks, parts of a superhero costume, and other stuff. I left it on the board for people to use -- if they wanted to. A lot of them did something totally different, but having lots of ideas flying around really got the pencils going.

I did this in a room of 18 kids... so it was loud, and funny, and chaotic. I happen to think these are signs of success in a class. I always figure I'm doing things right if I'm having to calm the kids down periodically.

Anyway, you can brainstorm with just a couple of people, or by yourself, or in a big group. Just please don't break into discussion groups or do a mission statement or anything like that. For kids, it's a terrific way to get them talking, yelling, and getting ideas.