Chicken Lips

Two members of an improvisational group called "Chicken Lips" presented at our inaugural 2008 professional development meeting today. They were posing as Department of Ed stuffed shirts there to present about CSAP testing. Instead their purpose was to inspire and bring humor to our meeting. Their message was simple and powerful:

• Laughter is important and productive.

• "Yes, and..." is a game we played in groups of four. One person starts talking about a subject, the next person takes over their thought by saying, "yes, and..." It is what you say when you are improvising in a group to validate what the previous person has just presented and continue the thought. It validates their work and makes them look good, which makes the group look good. This is what we should be saying to students and colleagues as an alternative to "yes, but" or just "NO".

• Improvisation is about LISTENING and COLLABORATING... so is education.

Thanks to Chicken Lips, we ended our winter break and began our new year with laughter and positive energy. Great stuff!! Now just to continue the momentum into the coming months.