smell your past!

Our classroom exercise was great. It worked exactly how I wanted it to go. I think it worked because of all the crazy different smells people tried to guess and all the feelings people wrote down for each smell. The smells were intended to strike a nerve that was embedded in the students brain and to bring that thought and feeling to the attention and expand on it. It worked because everyone connected to the smells differently and really came up with a creative way to tie their past feelings to the smell.

If I was to do the exercise again I would probably mix up the smells a little bit and be a little more clear on how the students were to connect their two emotions with writing. I would probably write down my instructions clearly on a piece of paper so there wouldn't be any confusion. Also, I would use the empty cup again but weight it down with something to simulate the existence of a smell and see what students come up with...but this would just be for my entertainment.

I think this exercise taught the students how smells have so much material and thought behind them. I think smells are one of the most important aspects to a memory and even feeling and they should be mentioned almost every time. To go even further, I would stress mentioning more then one smell within the memory or feeling.