What’s in a name?

Who are we as a group? What do we represent? What is our purpose? What face do we want to show the world?

LIGHTNING STRIKE says it all.

Spending four weeks getting to know one another has given rise to a host of amazing metaphors that led us to determine our company name.

We began this process thinking about our common experiences, the books we have read, the team exercises and challenges we have worked through and the songs we have sung. The idea of who we are began to surface as we thought of ourselves through metaphor.

The most powerful metaphors were a mirror, presented our first day of school while thinking about what we see, a dot, coming directly from Peter Reynold’s inspirational children’s book, and lightning, an idea generated through an experience with a Congolese fishing song.

[Read more…] about LIGHTNING STRIKE Kids Opera Company

We cannot design, create, produce and stage an original opera without collaboration, without teamwork. We must acquire these skills in order to apply them FOR REAL.

Working to accomplish a collective goal with twenty-four students is no easy feat, especially when the teacher steps away, leaving the kids to work through the trials and tribulations that accompany a group challenge.

A large plastic tarp lay on the floor, a magic carpet. The company has been flying for quite some time on this filthy, reeking, germ infested rug and can stand it no longer. The company challenge . . . to turn the carpet over, revealing its clean, fragrant side, without stepping off. If someone steps off or touches the floor in any way, the company must start the challenge again.

[Read more…] about The Magic Carpet…No Joy Ride

In order to become true mathematicians and critical thinkers, we must first understand that not every problem has only one correct answer and there are multiple ways to arrive at a solution. In the process of creating an original opera, students encounter daily opportunities to apply their math thinking in authentic contexts.

The first day of school we posed an open-ended question to initiate the process of solving multi-step problems and to introduce the concept of the opera. We presented a problem that would naturally and logically incorporate the skills and strategies of our first quarter math curriculum.

How much time do we have to prepare for our opera?

Having this information is imperative in order to plan for the opera. Our purpose was clear. We needed this information FOR REAL.

[Read more…] about Mark Your Calendars