Lines began to move rapidly from one place to another, offering the\nextension of a line from one being to another, waiting for the line of travels\nto connect to the feet of one\u2019s body. Charcoal moved with the bodies in fast\npace, with gentle pressure to the paper. Slowing down was not offered through\nthe children\u2019s bodies, but from the noticing of the marks left behind as the\ncharcoal travelled across the paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fingers pushed tiny pieces of charcoal, but the creation of dark,\nthick lines moving from beneath fingers was noticed. How could such a small\nfragment offer such darkness? Intricate and thoughtful up and down movements\nwith our hands invited other children to move or transfer the \u201cimprinted\ncharcoal\u201d from the initial space of contact to another, pulling, smoothing, and\nrubbing with fingers to create connections between each child. The children\nmoved with the charcoal and took up ideas of connecting lines to bodies and\nmaking tracks from one space to another. Children moved or strayed from the charcoal\nspace presented, and multiple attempts to bring our attention back to the\ncharcoal were accepted by many, but there remained smaller struggles to regain\nfocus and be with the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A declaration emerged from some of the children – \u201cthat is the forest\u201d;\n\u201cwe go there\u201d\u2014 and the encounters shifted yet again away from the charcoal but\nto the forest, and movements of our bodies across the paper, around the room, eventually\nending the encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understanding the importance of bringing back not only the children\nbut myself to focus on one experience by drawing out and engaging together differently\nthan before has left me wondering: What are the complexities within our role\nand our confidence as an educator to allow us to venture with the children into\nthe forest time after time? How do we\nneed to adapt to slowing down, noticing, and paying attention, and to focus?\nWhat do these things mean for us in our work?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lines began to move rapidly from one place to another, offering the extension of a line from one being to another, waiting for the line of travels to connect to the feet of one\u2019s body. Charcoal moved with the bodies in fast pace, with gentle pressure to the paper. Slowing down was not offered through the children\u2019s bodies, but from the noticing of the marks left behind as the charcoal travelled across the paper. Fingers pushed tiny pieces of charcoal, but the creation of dark, thick lines moving from beneath fingers was noticed. How could such a small fragment offer such darkness? Intricate and thoughtful up and down movements with our hands invited other children to move or transfer the \u201cimprinted charcoal\u201d from the initial space of contact to another, pulling, smoothing, and rubbing with fingers to create connections between each child. The children moved with the charcoal and took up ideas of connecting lines to bodies and making tracks from one space to another. Children moved or strayed from the charcoal space presented, and multiple attempts to bring our attention back to the charcoal were accepted by many, but there remained smaller struggles to regain focus and be with the material. A declaration emerged from some of the children – \u201cthat is the forest\u201d; \u201cwe go there\u201d\u2014 and the encounters shifted yet again away from the charcoal but to the forest, and movements of our bodies across the paper, around the room, eventually ending the encounter. Understanding the importance of bringing back not only the children but myself to focus on one experience by drawing out and engaging together differently than before has left me wondering: What are the complexities within our role and our confidence as an educator to allow us to venture with the children into the forest time after time? How do we need to adapt to slowing down, noticing, and paying attention, and to focus? What do these things mean for us in our work?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[16,5,13,10],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fooding-and-foraging","category-materials","tag-charcoal","tag-materiality","tag-paying-attention","tag-slowing-down"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/witnessingruinsofprogress.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}