The Flow? Hintern runter! It is a Rush! Day 4

Today we left the college at about a quarter to ten - perfect sunshine and a high blue sky...ideal conditions for our free climbing activities.The destination was a not too far section of the city forest near Haus Salem.The spot was again quite unique - almost mystical....who knows what our ancestors were doing in this magnificient rock formation one thousand years ago.

When we arrived most of the ropes had already been put into place by Christian and our early-hour volonteer team! Thank you guys - great job.

Christian taught us the first basic steps of how to lower oneself from a not so high up position and once we had gotten the knack of it he moved us way up to the highest spot...roughly 60 feet straight down.

We took turns and then another rope was secured and two of us could descend at the same time...some even managed to do it in large "jumps" and reached the button quite fast.

Finally it was time to experience the flow in and through the body....Christian had created a sixty yard or longer Seilbahn - straight down from the top and onto a tree in the distance...the "falling" speed was quite high and it took two people plus a third emergency rope to break the downward rush.The patterns were the same at each launch:once a student was ready to let go - the rest of us fell silent..one second,two seconds and maybe even a short third second....and then bang! a loud metallic click had abruptly stopped the happy traveller and sure enough laughter and chatter erupted once again - until the next launch,and the next etc. until almost all of us had experienced this drug free kick - the ultimate FLOW!!

We broke out into thankful applause for Jenny,Till and Christian...packed the gear into the vans and headed straight to Mac Donalds!

Project 19: "The Flow reloaded" was a wonderful experience for most or should I say all of us and we look forward to our live presentation this coming Monday Feb. 2,2009

The Flow reloaded. www.parkour.de Day 3

Jenny invited the group to join her at the gym....I had never been inside that building before and it was a pleasant surprise to have so much light flood through the huge windows...we left one exit door wide open for fresh air and Jenny introduced our "trasseur" Dimi to the group...after a few warm up rounds he gave us some background about this relatively new art of displacement and started us out on easy and yet modified roll-overs....

I knew right away that my body was not getting involved in any of these exercises - some other group members joined me and we took delight in watching the many stunts that followed.The above photo showing Dimi on what in Germany is called: The Horse is deliberately upside down to show the "drama" and the muscular strength that is a prerequisite for these exercises.

Most of "the boys" tried their skills as well and Dimi's teaching style was cheerful and never patronizing."Our" Jenny tried and showed her talents as well - she even managed to climb up the rope - without much assistance from her feet...I was greatly impressed. We finished the morning by watching two well done short Parkour movies and discussed how we would create our group's presentation to the rest of the student body this coming Monday morning.

Tomorrow will be our final work - out day.We plan to use climbing gear and Jenny mentioned that we will get a felt-sense of what the FLOW is all about.

The Flow reloaded.Pattern Interrupt.Day 2

The day started out poorly with a severe headache.Maybe it was caused by some unconscious second thoughts about todays canoe adventure...? This time the students had to travel some distance while I had just a few miles to reach our destination at the Lippesee.....we had fun dressing up in our wetsuits,socks and shoes - great gear! thank you Christian and thank you Till - in no time the boats were in the water and we were ready to take off....not really knowing what to expect...it was freezing cold but there was a sense that the sun may just break through - and about 25 minutes later it did.....changing the mood and the landscape with its watery winter colors..for us the real question was who would be the leading boat? - as if it mattered.

As we drifted and paddled downstream we would get a feeling of our light canoes - some carried a crew of three,some of just two people and one boat held two female students and Luna,Jenny's pretty and well behaved Husky typ dog...just as everything seemed to work out my boat suddenly got entangled into low hanging tree branches and in less than three seconds Katharina,Sebastian and I flipped over and found ourselves in cold fast flowing water!

Till's boat came to our rescue - we pulled ours ashore a bit,let the water gush out and climbed back in again - soaking wet but smiling bravely.There wasn't the great discomfort I had expected and tried so hard to avoid. The wet suits insulated us perfectly and the initial loss of control activated a nice adrenalin rush - with red cheeks and all.

Another mile or so down river we heard someone yelling...another boat had just flipped - this time Alex and Ari had their patterns interrupted and they too had to find a way to get back on board...so for the five of us this outing surely wasn't a Kaffeefahrt but a memorable adventure.Tomorrow - Jenny tells us - there will be yet another challenge: this time we will be indoors.

The Flow reloaded.Project week.Day 1

.......................................................... We began the first day of the second semester this morning with an early meeting at the college...it was bitter cold outside when we drove off to our first project destination: an ideal spot in the not too distant forest region...we unloaded the gears,the goodies and enjoyed a nice open - air breakfast with warm coffee and tea ( the water was boiled on a bottled gas powered stove )..Mel took the trouble to bring fresh sliced cucumbers,sliced green and red peppers and even freshly peeled oranges were put onto the table...great fresh buns with honey,cheese,salami etc. the complete range - yummy...something nice for everyone - so to speak.Thank you Mel.

Then came the flow part: first we learned how to use a compass and were given the task to roam through the forest in order to find our way back to the campground while using our new compass tool....the hike warmed us up and it was fun to decide which paths to follow....once back Till and Ralf taught us how to use a modern bow effectively and how to aim the arrows so that they would indeed hit the desired spot on the target....once we had improved - we increased the distance.....and paid attention to our inner state...some students were very eager and fired off as many as up to fifty shots...I was more hesitant - but when it came to my very final try I managed to hit the bull's eye! Nice shot...what inner alignment made it possible?Tomorrow it will be an even tougher project day: we will be out on the Lippe - a cold and barely unfrozen river in real canoes.....

That One - or This One

Why is it that almost no-one would pick the "plumb" one?Do you get what they are selling?

The number 44 - twice

Yesterday BHO ( Barack Hussein Obama ) was sworn in as number 44 - the 44th President of the USA - and I wonder how many of these 43 names my students would be able to recall - and today we had a live call to a Bed and Breakfast place in Bath in the United Kingdom - we dialed the number on a cell phone in the classroom and it started with a + 44 as well....Ergün was courageous enough to handle the call.We will place more of these calls - and one of them will reach an operator at the switch board of the Obama White House before the coming semester will have ended....

Being Graded versus The Flow Experience

As we are nearing the end of the first semester there are two different worlds awaiting my students. 1: they will receive a numerical grade from me for their past performance and 2: there will be several interesting student-organized final week projects..some of my students opted for the one called : "The Flow reloaded"

I am very interested to see how alive and motivated my students will be during their multiple Flow related activities:climbing;canoeing;parcouring and archery...if I had to give them a grade for how they did during this one week - would they be satisfied with receiving just a simple numerical grade( like a 3 as befriedigend or a C )? Or would it not be much more appropriate and helpful if I gave them narrative and very specific oral or written comments - just as any trainer would do with his team members?

So why then does "the system" require me to grade a student's performance over some 130 contact hours with a simple number instead of a written evaluation?

One reason could be that the numeric grading system is simply more convenient and manageable.But isn't it also stifling because it does NOT really help to invite a student to assume ownership of his or her learning process.....and isn't that the meta-goal in our role as a caring teacher?

How NOT to use the imperative: The Mom song

Today is the last day of our Christmas break and the thermometer outside the kitchen window indicates 13 degrees Celsius below zero....in America this would be about 10 degrees Fahrenheit! Quite a shock for the body because three days ago I was still swimming in the Atlantic Ocean on a warm beach off the coast of Fuerteventura.

The attached mom song video was sent to me this morning from Claudia a good friend in California who got remarried a few months ago - I guess she was hearing her own Jewish mother's voice when she listened to this funny tune....