What's that Smell?

What’s that Smell?

This is a story of many things, but mostly it is a story about smells.

As you may know, this is my first time back teaching middle school in a few years. A few years (plus 2 years of COVID lockdown time) in Roughton time is like 4 decades. I update and make tweaks to lessons constantly. So nearly 5 years without updates has meant that I’ve made a ton of new stuff this year. Right now, I’m teaching Japan, and it has undergone nearly a complete overhaul.

And that’s why today was about smells.

Okay, maybe you need a bit more of the story.

When I sat down to start looking at my old Japan materials, I was greeted with the following message from my past self:

“THIS IS BAD. REDO IT ALL. WHAT IS MY STORY?!”

Well, okay man, chill out. I’ve always loved my Japan unit. Ninjas, samurais, sumos, etc. Kids liked it too. 

But apparently 5 years ago me did not.

I’ve learned to listen to my past self, so I began a full rebuild. (Well, more technically the rebuild began back in December when my brother-in-law told me to watch Shogun - which, I am now telling you to watch. It’s really good and definitely got me thinking about Feudal Japan.)

Step one was to cut the lectures down from three to two. I am a firm defender of storytelling/lecturing as an educational tool, but in the last few years I’ve learned how to directly integrate those stories into lessons more directly. 

Which is where the smells come in… but not yet.

I went around and around with what my story for the two lectures would be. I settled on China’s influence and then Japan’s warrior culture. I realized that I needed a transition. I remembered that I used to talk about the Japanese concept of miyabi - which very loosely translates into “an appreciation of smallness.”  If I taught about that as a way of showing Japan moving away from Chinese influence, it would make more sense for the next lecture to be strictly Japanese.

So, then the question became, “How do I teach an abstract concept like miyabi to my 7th graders?” And by question I mean, “thing I typed into ChatGPT.” It gave me some good explanations, but we’re in state testing time - I don’t want more wordy explanations. I want some hands-on examples. So, I asked how it manifested in court culture.

Tea ceremonies. Yep, knew that.

Flower arranging. Knew that too.

Kodo (The Way of the Fragrance)

Okay, that one was definitely new to me. Turns out, they had smelling competitions. It makes sense (I guess…) since discerning one flowery incense from another would absolutely require one to appreciate small details, which is the core of miyabi as I understand it. 

I knew I had to bring this one into my classroom. I already had built a new Culture Shock for the unit, and now I wanted this to be part of it. I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a bunch of differently scented candles. I then teased the activity in the lecture the day before while discussing the Heian court. 

“And the last game they played is one I’ve seen you guys play in the hall. You know those times when you walk down the hall, crinkle up your nose and go, “What is that SMELL?!” Yep, that's what they played - and you’ll be playing tomorrow!”

That’s all I told them. I let their minds run wild with all the awful smells I might bring in. They were definitely interested when they arrived today.

I was ready to go when I lucked into running into one of my colleagues who had played the game with his students the day before. He told me that he had ChatGPT write up a series of poetic descriptions of the scents he used and made it into a matching activity. That was brilliant. I wanted my students to answer in the same poetic language the Japanese used, but I doubted they could pull it off - or honestly that they’d even try.

I stole his idea and made the matching activity. 

The students absolutely loved it. They couldn’t wait to smell every single candle. They put real effort into deciphering the poetic descriptions. They did a terrible job, but who cares? They had fun and I guarantee they’ll never forget “What’s that Smell?!”

It took about 15 minutes of class time for a memory that will last so much longer. Plus, they did learn something (other than smells) as they deepened their understanding of how cushy court life was in Japan. This will make the transition to the chaos outside the palace and the need for the samurai so much stronger tomorrow. 

The unit is going really well thus far. I do not foresee myself writing notes to future me about lacking a story or needing to change up everything. It’s not very strong and I just added two more days to it because I, and the students, are enjoying it so much.

I’ll be sharing all the new stuff once I figure out how to shrink it enough to fit into a more reasonable file size.

Until then, go ask ChatGPT how to make your next abstract topic interactive. Who knows? You might find your own version of “What’s that Smell?”!