He struggles with instructions and sticking to a task, I was told, after the fact.
And yet, he’d come and sat next to me, this 10 year old, then went ahead and made a paper crane without reference to instructions. He talked the whole time: Where was I from? Did I have kids? What do I like to do? The folding was intuitive, automatic.
There was so much care and precision in what he did. So much focus.
‘Here, this is for you,’ he said when it was done.
He told me he spends as much of his time as possible watching origami videos on YouTube. He watches and folds along with them; eventually he doesn’t need the video.
So many tiny clues that revealed his strengths and hinted at his potential.
And I wondered …
What is it about school that means he’s seen as a kid who can’t follow instructions and stick to a task?
What’s valuable in the interest he has and what he can do with it?
Does his interest in and gift to me, a stranger in the classroom, matter when it comes to schooling?
Is this kid’s potential something school should concern itself with?
What do you think?
The Smata app allows you to capture moments like this and turn them into curriculum linked evidence of learning you can analyse, interpret and act on.