My Final Project Steps

    My WISE presentation will be Tuesday June 14th at 2:30 in Ms. Lord's room. I've spent this past week reading through my journal and blog, gathering up all my project materials and reflecting on my experience. Mr. Heurich helped me scan my paper journal and flyer and emailed me those materials on Thursday in the library. I've been finding it hard to sit down and write my final pieces because there is so much of my project that I want to share with you all but it's difficult to write it all down and express everything clearly in 6 pages.
    I think I've done a good job summarizing my experience though and it's definitely been a positive one. In fact I'm clowning this coming Tuesday at my old elementary school classroom after all of my project materials have already been turned in. I'll update my blog about that experience after this "good-bye" post. I'm clowning even after I have to because I think I'll continue clowning my whole life. Marigold the Clown definitely won't be my profession but I've enjoyed the connections I've made throughout this process and want to continue "spreading joy and laughter to others" for the rest of my lief as Cross Roads the Clown would say.
    Please come to my final presentation next Tuesday, I would love to have you all! I will be reflecting on all of the life lessons I've learned and perhaps telling a few jokes throughout the presentation, all of course in my clown costume. Thank you for following me on my WISE journey and I sincerely hope you've been entertained somewhere along the way!

Clowning at ICS 6/7

I just emailed Mrs. Case to confirm that I will be clowning for her classroom on Tuesday at 1pm. I'm really excited to go back to my elementary school and hangout in my old classroom. I'm planning on baking cupcakes tomorrow evening and using my clown cupcake toppers so I can bring them in for the class. All of my clowning gear is functioning and ready to go! I will definitely bring my camera this time! Even though my project materials are being turned in on Tuesday I will be posting pictures and reflecting on my experience after I clown for Mrs. Case, so stay tuned, the journey isn't over yet!

A quick summary...

      I have a few odds and ends to report from my WISE journey this week. I found Ms Gergly on Tuesday and gave her the flyer I made that advertises Marigold the Clown (I still can't figure out how to show you all but it still looks awesome) She is planning on scanning it and sending it to her friends with small children. She also asked me if I would clown at her daughters birthday party but unfortunately its the same night as senior prom and I had to say no, I was so disappointed! Hopefully, thanks to Ms. Gergly's generous publicity efforts I will have more opportunities to clown around town at another time.
    Also, I have been working on my juggling. Looking back to March when I set my project outline I have to laugh. I thought by April I would be doing four and five ball juggling! No one told me at the time that that goal was very ambitious. This week I've continued to practice my two ball in one hand juggling in an attempt to start four balls, but I've also been working on an outside cascade with three balls. I will post a video to show you what that looks like soon, but basically its an inside out version of your classic three ball cascade or weave. Instead of coming under, the balls go over each other. I've been hitting balls together a lot but its amazing how naturally this new trick is improving!

Carrie's Sample Presentation

     At my mentor meeting last week (oops, haven't blogged about that yet but better late than never), Mr. Holl and I discussed what a WISE presentation should be like, or maybe I shouldn't say should, but what my presentation could be like. Since he has mentored two people in the past Mr. Holl has some experience in the area of presentations. We discussed powerpoints and what your presentation should be communicating. I decided after hearing examples of past presentations that I wanted a slide show of pictures running in the background of my presentation, but other than that I just want to be talking to my audience about my experiences. Of course I will also be doing my presentation in my clown costume.
    While Mr Holl and I made some great progress the other week on what I envisioned my project presentation to be, attending Carrie Haas' sample presentation was the most helpful of all. First of all, her presentation was very moving. I have never seen someone that confident about sharing their emotions with a crowd of people and her passion for her project was amazingly visible and uplifting. While I don't know Carrie very well, I was so proud of her and what the WISE program teaches kids who really take advantage of it.
     Her presentation made me think about what I learned about myself in my project and what skills I would like to share with my evaluators. I really enjoyed how she actually shared her poetry with us, it was a true testament to her projects journey. I want to be able to show my evaluators what I've learned as well, in both the physical tricks as well as the mental discoveries. I made a list of the core things I want to communicate that I learned during my presentation while I was listening to Carrie's.
1. I learned to be okay with being goofy.
2. I found a way to connect with kids that I really enjoy, I've never really liked them before now.
3. As a professional stresser, my WISE project and my whole clowning mindset has given me an outlet to step back and take a chill pill every once and a while.
      Also listening to her evaluators talk about the other parts of her project like the research commentary and the narrative I realized that I need to get my butt in gear because all of my materials are due on June 7th and I have a lot of work to do before then.

Clowning for Mrs. Case

Mrs. Case, a teacher at my old elementary school, called me back about clowning in her classroom this past Friday. She said she would love to have me but didn't think she had any kids who would fit the specifications I was looking for and offered to have me come and do a birthday party for the summer birthdays in her class or as the special treat the kids usually get after completing their "good job chart." I gathered up a few dates and she told me which worked best for her. We've finally decided on Tuesday June 7th at 1:15 and I am coming as a special treat for their good behavior. Basically it will still be a birthday party because I'll use all the supplies from my basket and make cupcakes so I can use my clown cupcake toppers but it won't be celebrating any ones birthday. I'm really excited to be going back to the same classroom I was in when I was for and making kids laugh there!

What's next?

This week I've been working on a different angles of my project. The first being that I tracked down Ms. Gergly in the hallway and explained my whole problem about not being able to attach and send the flyer I made for advertising. She came about with the fantastic idea of scanning! She suggested printing out the flyer at home, bring it into her and she would scan it for me so she could send out to her friends with kids. Wow, I never thought of that! So I just printed my flyer (its still looks awesome) and am ready to bring it to her tomorrow.
 The second thing I've been working on is another opportunity to clown. This past Saturday night my parents went to my elementary school's annual auction and my dad brought home a "Circus Party Basket" for me.
The basket has all the fixings for a clown themed birthday party! It includes:
1 Ringmaster giant party banner
1 Circus photo opportunity banner
1 Happy Birthday circus train banner
1 Circus train centerpiece
1 Circus tablecloth
24 big top dinner plates
32 big top circus dinner napkins
24 clown dessert plates
32 clown beverage napkins
24 clown loot bags
24 clown cupcake toppers
I called an old teacher of mine at the school and left her a voicemail today explaining about my wise project and I asked if there were any kids in the school from any of the younger classes that had a birthday around this time and wouldn't normally be having a birthday party thrown by their family. I would come into school and throw them a birthday party with my kit, Marigold the Clown being the entertainment for the day. I am still waiting to hear back from her but hopefully she will have some helpful suggestions.

Unicycling

My first attempts at unicycling!!
I'll be very honest with all of you. I most likely won't be the world's best unicyclist. In fact I'm kind of terrified of the whole idea, but on Saturday afternoon I asked my dad to help me fish out the family unicycle from the garage and teach me how to ride it. My dad has been able to ride a unicycle for years and is still pretty good at it. I've done some preliminary research on the basic skills needed, like getting on and balancing but putting them into practice is easier said than done. Thankfully we have a long fence at my house next to a flat sidewalk, so I am able to cling to that as I slowly get used to the feeling of balancing on one wheel. This first day I spent about half an hour practicing getting on the unicycle (next time I will be wearing shin guards because the pedals come up and smack my shins) and figuring out how to balance. Most of my sources suggest holding on to something and rocking slowly back and forth to find your center of balance and get used to the motion of your body and the unicycle together. After I gained some confidence I slowly rolled my way down our sidewalk, still clutching at our fence for dear life. Falling off isn't as bad as it would seem because the unicycle simply slides out forward or backwards and you land on your feet, but I will admit screaming a few times. Hopefully in the next week I'll find some days when it isn't pouring rain to keep up my practice!