Just My Cup of Tea
This was a brilliant session… albeit nerve wracking when it came to my turn!…
Experiencing the thought and planning that had gone into my groups sessions was inspiring. I think it was invaluable having the session from archives on object based learning, earlier in the year I had had an idea whilst teaching a session, which I attempted but I had not approached it correctly. The lecture gave me the idea to revisit this concept for my microteach…
On MA Global 2023, students Natasha and Disha were working on their final major project, How do you take your tea? A lovely project that used a cup of tea to chat with migrant communities about home. They were leading a session, supported by me to guide the cohort on planning and meeting deadlines. This made me think about about tea, my love if it and how it is something I have shared with many different communities all over the world to make things happen.
With Patrick Curry “Enchantment of Learning” playing on repeat in my head, the brave space created by John and the support of the group… I very tentatively put My Cup of Tea in front of the group and thought Fuck it….
I introduced My Cup of Tea, my favourite cup, why it was my favourite cup and my preferred choice of tea and how I liked to make it.
I then asked the group to make a cup of tea with me… I got the post it notes and asked the first person to write down the first action required to make a cup of tea. I asked them to pass it on to the second person to write the next action and then the third…
The tension started to mount… as we got to the final member of the group there was not yet any signs of a cup of tea…
toast was needed with tea…
the tension mounted… the post it notes were going around faster, there were a lot of action that needed to be completed for a cup of tea to be made
We had forgotten to feed the cat…
the post it notes went around for the third time… the tension palpable… the excitement was real
I got a cup of tea!… pictured in a long orange post it note ACTION PLAN
By working together as a team on a simple task it became evident that sharing and delivering a simple idea took many more actions than first thought.
Feedback at the time was that it had been a really thought provoking, useful and fun…. Fo me the real feedback cam at the next workshop when one of my group had actually used it in class and another one wanted to but had not been allowed the budget for post it notes.
As I left the classroom John said “Liz that was meta” which I was really pleased about but had to confess that my cup of tea had actually been a cup of coffee because I was disorganised and hadn’t found my flask the night before. Which meant that for my teaching observation my bag of magic was ready a week before!
