Apologies, apologies. I really am falling behind with this thing, but I'm catching up today. I kept it up for the better part of a year, which is more than I've ever been able to keep any kind of journal-ish thing going, so that's an accomplishment. The last few weeks have been crazy busy, and I imagine the next few will be too, but I'll try to keep up. After the birthday bash was the demo at school, then Thanksgiving, the book fair at school, assorted craziness, and another birthday gauntlet, this time for Ezio, who's apparently been renamed "Stretch." And so many new guys too! We had ex-new guy, who's thankfully become Harnisfechten, then New Guy, New New Guy, and then Sunday, New New New Guy and New New New New Guy too. They will all be renamed shortly.
DEMO DAY!
I managed to convince my principal that a demonstration of sword fighting would be a good introduction for our 5th graders to this big Global Awareness Technology Project that they'll have to do. The idea of the project is that they have to study some piece of the past and illustrate how it still impacts us today. The book fair this fall had a Medieval theme too, so it seemed a perfect excuse to do a sword demo :)
I gave the Professor a copy of the project outline, and he put together a great presentation detailing the impact of swords back in the day until today. The kids loved it- history, castles and their defense, mathematics of sword construction, the impact of and on armor, even Batman & Iron Man got mentions, along with dancing and games too. The teachers were impressed as well, and more than one mentioned how much they enjoyed the language and literary terms that came from swordplay of different sorts. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to play too, but county regs said that "staff were discouraged from participating," so I got to run the PowerPoint. Woohoo. But it was cool- he brought in the mathematics behind longsword construction, pulled in the superheroes to explain about armor's maneuverability, and had a section on girls in combat- which brought a chorus of "YES!"s from the teachers in the audience. (Weeks after, I had trivia questions about the Middle Ages during our book fair, and most of the girls remembered everything the Professor said after that point.)
After delivering the background via lecture, the Professor and the guys broke out the swords. He had the guys fight Hollywood style to get the kids all riled up with great acting and fake grunting by Mr. Piccolo, New Guy, and Riceball. Then the Professor asked if they'd like to see how a real sword fight would go. The kids erupted into cheers and hoots. The Professor took the sword, turned, vorschlag-ed Riceball, and took a bow. WHOA! echoed across the audience. It was cute. He explained then about how the fight was about ending it quickly, and the rest being a lot of "if/then" situations. Cutting demo was next, with the Professor making short work of the tatami mat, slicing and dicing every which way. Best part? One oberhau sent a chunk of tatami skittering across the floor into a chatty bunch of girls who are regular pains in the... anyway, it sent them shrieking and scattering out of the way. It was awesome. Meanwhile, New Guy was narrating- "it slices, it dices, it makes julienne fries!" The pieces that went sailing near the kids were passed around, and when the Professor mentioned that the idea of the tatami was that it was the same thickness as a human neck, more than one pair of eyes looked shocked as hands went up to throats. He spoke a bit about the importance of footwork, had the guys all line up with swords and take a passing step, then a cross step, then a shuffle step, doing a little mini-flow drill. Then he had them drop the swords and do the same thing. Then he had the guys all turn to a partner, hold hands, and do it again. Laughs galore from the little ones and nods of understanding from the adults came when they realized the steps were the same basic steps of a folk dance. It was kind of cool to see it demonstrated so simply- I know I've mentioned before how it looks like dancing when I see some fighters fight.
Clink. Clank. Clink. Eyes went wide and delighted smiles and whispers rippled through the audience when Harnessfechten walked in. I can't imagine a bigger surprise for some of these kids. Some of my kids are big into the Middle Ages anyway, and I thought Ike & Zackaria were going to have heart attacks right there in the audience, they were so excited. At every question the Professor asked, their hands shot into the air. (Zack actually apparently nailed the girl in front of him on accident, I found out later.) Harness did a brief talk on his armor, talking about different developments, the need for change based on developing weaponry, the changes it demanded in fighting, how it actually weighed less than modern soldiers carry, and more. He and the Professor did a brief demo, with the Professor unable to do much damage because of all the plate. One of the kids asked about the fauld on Harness' kit, so Riceball got to pretend to be Harness' noble steed so that the kids could see what the fauld covered while mounted.
The talk continued, with the Professor pausing now and again; here to have Mr. Piccolo do a demonstration of quarterstaff, at another point for a sword and buckler show from New Guy and Riceball, then finally for a 'real' modern battle between Riceball and the Professor. They both got geared up in gambesons and masks, grabbed the feders, and went at it. When they'd been showing off a bit before, I'd heard a couple of the girls in one class talking about how they thought Riceball was cute. When he'd been playing horse for Harness, they were all "awwww"ing. Naturally then, when the fight began they started chanting his name, "ohhhh"ing when he got trounced in the end, but cheering for him all the while. Riceball has a fanclub. Of 5th grade girls. It was kind of adorable.
Overall, the demo was a huge hit, and I heard gripes for weeks afterward that I didn't invite everyone to the assembly. (With so much history, I figured the little guys wouldn't have been able to sit through it. But they all saw Harness walking through the halls, and were envious.) I've got half a dozen kids wanting to do something about the middle ages for their Global Awareness project, had requests from at least a dozen for books on knights, and have elicited awe from most of the 5th grade that I do this stuff too. The teachers seemed to really enjoy it too, which was great. The technology teacher was fascinated by the idioms the Professor mentioned, and loved all the wordplay. One of the history teachers caught me in the hall and said "All I can say is WOW." As one of the only male teachers- who hadn't wanted to come in the first place- put it, "Help, help! I'm being impressed!"
I'd say the day was a success :D
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