Introduce Yourself

Applied groovology is a group effort!

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:40:24 PST

by becky.

Thank you, Charlie, Pat, Carl and all the others who have (or will) share and inspire us in the field of Applied Groovology!

We are in our 6th year of working with public school teachers (some classroom teachers, some music teachers) in building small rhythm and dance ensembles in the south Puget Sound area. We have catalyzed over 25 of them, most performing in our community's springtime Procession of the Species, seen by 20,000 folk. We draw mainly upon Brazilian and Afro-Cuban rhythms and moves.

This year we are going narrower and deeper, working with fewer schools (4), all of whom have been with us for several years. We hope to make a video that any teacher could use, from the point of view of our teachers. It will be our public school teachers basically demonstrating other would-be teachers watching the video, "This is what I do on day one" and go through about 6 sessions, in the classrooms, with their kids.

If we can pull this off, we would love to offer it to Born to Groove's tool box for applied groovologists!

Can you veterans of Applied Groovology think of particular questions you'd like us to think about?

Again, thanks so much for adding cheer and sustenance to all of us who know this is important.

Becky Liebman, Olympia, WA

each one teach one

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 06:11:25 PST

by Charles.

Probably throughout prehistory, when we were still evolving both biologically and culturally, most of the life skills, the skills required for both survival and pleasure, were passed along from one person to another, parent to child, or older child to younger child, or child to child as when one three year old invents a skill and passes it to another a few seconds or a few minutes or a few days later.
Since this person to person, face to face, hand to hand process has been shrinking over recent generations as more people are self-taught or taught by technology, I'd like to hear about how skills are transmitted.
Two quick examples:
Last week I watched in a class of adults as someone spontaneously taught a rhythm to the person next to them by taking my way of teaching (steady alternation of hands) and separating the right hand pattern out as a rhythm of its own.
If I name a rhythm after one of the kids, "Here's 'Sophie's Samba" --here's how she likes to do it." Then Sophie is eager to show someone else how it goes. Taking turns inventing rhythms evolves into all kinds of skill transmissions.
What else is working for some teacher, or student, or student becoming a teacher?

Please introduce yourself...

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 00:14:06 PDT

by Carl.

What did you think of the introduction?
Did it pique your interest?
Do you intend to read the whole book and participate in an online community dedicated to the ideas espoused in the book?
Why or why not?