I was just reminiscing about the first time Invisibles happened in my classroom in New Delhi. I actually went back and found them, the very first ones. It’s so much fun to reminisce. You will know one day, if you don’t already, about the power in these things. Here they are:
Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could
I got a question: “Hi Ben, I am preparing some documents that support CI teaching to show my administrators. I looked through the blog and
A teacher contacted me awhile back. She had been attacked about using CI from a team leader. I told her to get some research from
We don’t need any more research. In academia that would be a frivolous comment, but as a classroom teacher in languages I support it. Yes,
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2 thoughts on “The First Invisibles”
As I look back on my 40 year career in the profession, I realize that, of all the strategies I ever tried in a classroom, nothing brought me more joy than these drawings. It wasn’t even close. Remembering the characters created in India – Mint Green Tea (a teacup) Lintus P. Lint (a lint ball), Sheldon (not sure what he was, combination of a devil and an angel I think), Bob Le Blob (a blob), and all the rest – I realize now that then I was really alive teaching my classes, not just pretending to be a teacher.
For anyone interested, here is a link to the very first Invisibles that my sixth graders in India created. I remember the first story we ever created with Lintus P. Lint (a lint ball: his 500 children, all girls, were in despair because their dad had been swept up in a vacuum cleaner. They couldn’t do much because, well, they were small lint balls themselves, only smaller. So they waited until night time when the vacuum wouldn’t be turned on and went in and pulled him out, none the worse for the wear.
There is a psychological parallel here. At the American Embassy School in New Delhi, my students’ dads were in the diplomatic corps of their various countries, assigned to India, riding around in huge cars with flags on them, “vacuumed up” in what the kids probably saw as a big dusty machine, taken away from their children by their work.
One thing that I have noticed about individually created characters – I have never forgotten many of them, even after four year now, whereas I can’t say that about one word images.
The first Invisible caught on video can be found by visiting YouTube and searching Pringle Man.
So much fun! I find it’s very worthwhile to look back on things when I’m in the middle of “stuff”. It helps to reflect and show me where I started and where I am right now.