ShadyStump
Imperial Masterpiece
So, I work as an academic coach/para/teachers aid at a hybrid online high school in Colorado. All the classes are online, but we do one-on-one in person tutoring, and part of it is planning in person group activities for the students to get out some. Our main demographic is mostly under served impoverished types, and the idea is to get them out experiencing something more than the streets they roam. Last spring I was going to have them plant flowers and herbs to take home with them, but then the quarantines and lock downs happened cancelling it.
We're not completely opened up, and most of our "activities" are virtual and inactive right now, but more people than ever in these communities are planting gardens and getting outdoors because everything was closed for so long. I want to build on that by spinning it into introducing my students to bonsai and/or related interests as another way of encouraging them to see the world they live in a little differently, more creatively. I want to, effectively, use bonsai to get them to see the trees in their neighborhoods differently (we're all familiar with that phenomenon, right) which, theoretically, should get them looking at other things around them differently, and eventually spotting opportunities where they thought there were none.
Problem is, it needs to be relatable to adolescent gang-banger-wannabes, suitable for a 90% virtual experience, and I hardly have a clue what I'm doing with bonsai myself. My first thought was to start out with a weird tree scavenger hunt. Just find a funny looking tree in your neighborhood and post a pic. Winner gets a free school t-shirt or extra credit or whatnot. No clue where to go from there, though.
Any suggestions?
We're not completely opened up, and most of our "activities" are virtual and inactive right now, but more people than ever in these communities are planting gardens and getting outdoors because everything was closed for so long. I want to build on that by spinning it into introducing my students to bonsai and/or related interests as another way of encouraging them to see the world they live in a little differently, more creatively. I want to, effectively, use bonsai to get them to see the trees in their neighborhoods differently (we're all familiar with that phenomenon, right) which, theoretically, should get them looking at other things around them differently, and eventually spotting opportunities where they thought there were none.
Problem is, it needs to be relatable to adolescent gang-banger-wannabes, suitable for a 90% virtual experience, and I hardly have a clue what I'm doing with bonsai myself. My first thought was to start out with a weird tree scavenger hunt. Just find a funny looking tree in your neighborhood and post a pic. Winner gets a free school t-shirt or extra credit or whatnot. No clue where to go from there, though.
Any suggestions?