What I Learned About Teaching by Being a Wild Creature in the Woods All Summer
THE EXPERIENCE OF AN IMMERSIVE LEADER
Incredible local artists and musicians have long been a part of the School of Wonder team as Wonder Magicians - fantastic characters who open new pathways of creative expression for Wonder Kids, but this year with Adventurers, they added to the story in a new way - as immersive leaders! Check out actress and educator Madi Zins’s experience as Qiqi - a living being in the forest, the embodiment of wildness and outdoor knowledge, who finds the kids and invites them to follow her on missions!
Picture this: a hot July morning in Brooklyn, careening around Grand Army Plaza on bicycle en route to Prospect Park, wearing a pair of oversized poofy pants, three layers of different shirts and vests, a leather fanny pack with a crystal inlaid in it, flowers pinned in hair and crumpling under a bike helmet, and a backpack full of whimsical items like ancient-looking medallions, flower crowns, and rolls of fabric that look like the night sky. The bike must be stashed as it’s time to rush into the shadows of the forest for cover, hiding from the Wonder Kids so that they don’t see their wild friend riding a bike. Follow the Google Maps pin to some unknown spot in the park, look for the hidden bag of items, and hide, waiting for the kids to arrive. While hiding, rehearse the script to explain what mission for the Earth Gaia is sending them on today.
This is how I started many days of my summer this year, and from there, the magic really began.
As a kid, I really believed in magic. I remember feeling it most viscerally when I stepped out into the forests behind my house where I grew up in Maryland–the sense that mystery and fantasy and storytelling were all waiting for me just behind the trees or on the other side of the creek. Roaming freely in forests is what gave me a sense of wonder from when I was very little, well into my teenage years, and now.
Since I started working in education in NYC, I have wanted to give city kids a nature-based experience that sparked the same curiosity in them that I had in the countryside growing up. I’ve been an educator for over 15 years, mostly in Brooklyn, taking kids out into the city to explore the nature that exists here and within the nature just beyond New York.
This year, I had the great opportunity to be an Immersive Leader with School of Wonder where I felt firsthand how much city kids crave fantasy and nature together and how impactful it can be when adults embrace the story and play along with them.
As an immersive leader, I was in character with the Wonder Kids all day. I played a forest dweller the kids knew as QiQi. If you sent your kid to summer camp with School of Wonder this year, you might recognize me as the blonde lady in the strange costumes some days at pick up at the end of the day, but often I would mysteriously sneak away into the forest just before we left to head back to the pick up location and keep the sense of mystery going.
QiQi was a character I made up to suit our adventures. She is a fun-loving adventurous spirit who was human, but with a pretty different life than the kids. She lived in the park and was wild: often barefoot, didn’t use a cell phone, and was probably covered in flowers. The kids would often ask where Qiqi slept the night before, and I would create these stories that transfixed them about listening to the owls sing in the meadow under the stars.
The stories made it real to them just as much as my knowledge of plants and animals did–I used to be a park ranger, and I thought a person who lives in the woods would have learned so much about the beings that live there. It was like a magic trick when I had them sniff a certain leaf, as if they really believed that QiQi was imparting secret wisdom to them that other humans didn’t know and which they would recall and share over and over again.
I knew QiQi felt real to them when I saw their enthusiastic excitement and involvement in these adventures we went on. I would guide them on wild adventures– crossing and howling at waterfalls, making potions, discovering animals– and they wanted to do it even more because they believed that a person who lived in the woods and also went on fantastical adventures from Gaia was teaching them how to do it. They wanted to do it because they believed in the magic of the imagined reality the team had created and in this character I was existing as.
The best part of all was that I got to build relationships with them as QiQi and help them problem-solve as a wild creature. The perspective I created of QiQi’s view of common challenges such as fairness or fear of getting stung by a bee was so different than most adults in their life. QiQi was like an ancient being who had done it all and lived a million lives to them, so just her acknowledgement of “Oh yes, the bees can sting, but they often don’t if you move slowly and hold hands with your friends and breathe” was enough for them to feel trust in something bigger than their fears because the mystical QiQi had said it.
This experience overall taught me that as an educator, kids learn immensely from the opportunity to play out a story with a trusted adult who is there to support them, inspire them with a new outlook on normal things, and allow them to believe in the magic by believing and making it alongside them.
