“Are you all ready?”
Kru Noi asked with enthusiasm from across the courtyard.
The 6 students all huddled together under a huge umbrella. Some with nervous faces and tensed up bodies. Others wiggling with excitement!
It was a surprisingly sunny July morning in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Pi Bowling helped the kids balance the umbrella to make sure everyone stayed covered— they were all in kindergarten, afterall.
And then, there was “rain”! (Well, water from Kru Noi’s hose.)
“Are you all wet?” — “No!”
“Now, put hands outside!”
The students slowly tested out the water.
The “rain” must have felt so refreshing. The kids had the biggest smiles on their faces! They had just experienced that in a shaded area, they would not feel the sun — the same way they did not get wet underneath the umbrella.
With my very beginner level in Thai, I can only imagine the kind of follow-up conversation Kru Noi must have had with them. She wanted her students with visual impairments to experience a shadow— a concept that’s relatively easy to understand for those with typical vision.
For these students with, at most light perception, they are often living in the shadow of their severe low vision. This was the ‘learning by doing’ that their teacher believed in and designed for them to show them otherwise.
My own learning from doing.
Honestly, I’ve told this story so many times, it’s been filtered and romanticized… But I fall in love with this moment I got to share with this kindy class every time I tell it.
I love the creativity of the lesson design.
I love the invitation for these kids to collaborate and work out how to share one umbrella amongst 6 students.
I love the huge smiles that cracked across most of their faces… ones that could cope with the sensory-induced moment.
Revisiting gave me another chance to learn.
12 years later in 2019, I revisited the Northern School for the Blind where I was placed to assist Kru Noi and Pi Bowling and their 6 kindergarten students for 4 weeks.
Reuniting with teachers at the school made me realize that this shadow lesson was where it all started for me— my ‘why’ and ‘how’ I strive to work and learn with the special needs community.
It’s the best feeling in the world to see universally designed learning moments come to life. To crack big smiles across people’s faces because it’s in shared moments like this where people of all walks of life connect and experience inclusion.
Now it’s your turn to share.
What has been your favorite learning-by-doing moment?
Do you have an aha moment that you can return to time and time again and find new takeaways?
Your response could be exactly what another reader is looking for to connect and feel understood 😉
(Tokyo, Japan)
