[Ailist] working with children in schools

[Virginia McKendry]

Dear List,

I have been contracted to lead a school-wide summit with a K-8 school  
in Southern Ontario, this coming fall semester. The principal and  
superintendent are very excited about using AI as are many of the  
parents. The principal is committed to taking one or even two days to  
involve everyone in the school in this exciting undertaking. I'm not  
sure what specifically we will be inquiring into, but likely  
something like "incredible readers" or "a caring, friendly place to  
learn" or "the best school in the whole county", etc.

We are just in the planning stages, and by the end of this month I  
would like to be able to propose a couple of ways of doing a summit  
in such a way that all parts of the system contribute to the inquiry.  
This means engaging all of the students, including the youngest, many  
of whom, of course, do not yet read or write. Teachers, support  
staff, parents, some social entrepreneurs, and the school  
superintendent will also be involved.

Have any of the list members worked successfully with children this  
young, and with children of varying ages? How did you do it? Did you  
have the little kids interviewing big people? What if they are too  
shy, etc.? And what kinds of questions work best for these very young  
participants?Would it work better to have classes doing interviews  
before the summit? Or is it more fruitful to have students from one  
grade interviewing kids from another grade? If the child is not yet  
literate, does working with pictures work best, or does it help to  
have a scribe to support the interview?

Also, there are some concerns about how we are going to manage a  
successful AI summit with so many children participating. There is a  
worry that having all of the students in the gym together will result  
in nothing but mayhem, given that their teachers will not be in pure  
supervisory roles, but taking part in the AI process themselves. Kids  
in gyms tend to go a bit bonkers, at least this is the experience of  
some teachers I've talked to about what we are planning to do.

Again, has anyone on the list dealt with this issue? Any creative  
ways of "herding cats" so that everyone gets to participate without  
getting distracted by the presence of their buddies, and proximity to  
other kids from other grades?

I'll leave this to simmer with the group mind. Thank you very much in  
advance for any and all of your wisdom!

Best wishes,
Virginia


Virginia McKendry, PhD
Brantford, Ontario, Canada