I want to share about that time that brought me to where I am now: designing specialized shoes for people with unique needs.
~ words from Mike that keep us thinking and wondering ~
Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
Notice what you notice. Wonder what you wonder. There is no quiz, no right way. Read until something stays.
this film has no words. notice what you notice. notice what you wonder. wonder out loud. and don't forget to notice what you feel, too.
Functional Footwear
During my sophomore year of college at University of Oregon, I was randomly called up by a pretty well known guy: Bill Bowerman. He had coached many famous runners, like Pre, who I talk about more about in my story, "I am Mike". He had also been the coach of my running coach in high school! And, he happened to be the co-founder of a shoe company called Nike, which was still pretty small at the time. He liked to put athletes to work, I was available, and he heard about my history working with my dad, who was a stonemason. So, he asked me to build a water fountain at the track. Believe it or not, this was the beginning of my career as a shoemaker! Why? Well, because after that, Bowerman invited me to start working in his shoe shop. I think he was impressed by how well and quickly I built that water fountain. At first I’d go down there and just start sweeping the floors. Pretty quickly though, they started pulling me into chores and work with the shoes. Bowerman was a guy who liked to challenge you, so he would bring us ideas or concepts to work on that were often pretty absurd. I mean, sometimes we would work on a shoe for a dog! Can you imagine?
I had no idea at the time how accepting that job building a water fountain would influence my life.
Have you had an experience like that, where what seems like a random occurrence ends up leading you somewhere great?
Or maybe someone in your family has had this experience?
I’d love to hear about it!
I also never would have thought that the time I spent around my father and grandfather as stonemasons would help develop in me a passion for creating. My dad loved it when I went to work with him. He’d be building fireplaces or brick walls and challenge me to pick out a stone for him that would fit into the wall. The hole in the wall is a “negative space” and the pile of rocks are a “positive space.” It is kind of like a puzzle: I had to gauge the negative space and then go look at the positive space and approximate what could be plugged into the holes in the wall. I got pretty good at it as a child, and I developed what some people call a three-dimensional mindset.
Try thinking about some experiences in your life right now that seem kind of boring, or just very plain.
Nothing special.
Now, imagine yourself twenty years older.
How might these experiences influence what you’re good at or enjoy doing?
Try out an experiment with your classmates working with positive and negative spaces!
Individually, each of you can cut out polygon shapes in a pieces of paper.
Looking at the shape, your partner has to try to crumple a piece of paper into a similar shape so that it fits into the hole seamlessly.
Use this to practice naming those shapes!
I don’t want to bore you with the details of the 30 years I spent at Nike designing shoes. However, there are a few important things I want to share about that time that brought me to where I am now: designing specialized shoes for people with unique needs. For example, I got to work with the Shriners hospital, which treats kids with various health problems. We collaborated with them to find functional footwear for their patients. And that is what I’m really all about: functional footwear. My concept of a healthy shoe is a product that is good for us, meaning a product that will follow the human body and let the body dictate movement, not vice versa. Shoes these days are often “overbuilt,” so suddenly our body has to adapt to the shoe and that is when people start to have health problems. For example, have you seen women in shoes with really high heels? This shoe requires them to walk in ways that our feet are not built for; to me, it seems like abuse. And not just for the feet, it also has systemic problems. Think of your feet on the ground as your roots, your base. If there are problems there, there are probably problems everywhere. You might not see it yet, but once people get older, they really start to feel it.
What are your shoes like?
Try this exercise: Stand up and close your eyes, imagining your feet as roots.
Visualize those roots going deep down into the ground.
Do you feel balanced?
Which direction do you lean?
Now, open your eyes and take off your shoes.
Then do the exercise again.
What differences do you notice?
As my interest in all this grew, I got inspired to go into the library at the hospital and do a little bit of research on my own. I would sit in the plump chairs, the huge glass windows all around, and browse articles. I found historical articles talking about problems created by shoes in the 1930s, 40s and 50s! Even back then, they were talking about how modern footwear was really detrimental and how people who walked barefoot, or in simple sandals, were much healthier. I went way back in my research and found awesome ancient structures and beautiful designs and textiles. Footwear then was very simple, very functional, very healthy. Some of these ancient techniques are actually more sophisticated than what we do today, and I draw a lot of inspiration from them!
What type of things do you think we can learn from the past, from ancient cultures?
Maybe you have already learned things from history - can you tell me about those things?
Maybe you can do a class experiment looking into Japanese culture and paper folding!
When I get an idea for a shoe, I just go directly to paper and start creating a pattern. Maybe you saw it in the video? If I take the time to draw it out, as most designers do, I probably could be done building the shoe! I prefer working in 3-dimensional form instead of flat, 2-dimensional drawings. I think I can do it because of those days working as a stonemason with my dad. With paper, you can start folding and play with shape and contour until a model forms. And then that becomes the shoe!
Let’s say that for someone who draws out the design first, they spend 18 hours making a new pair of shoes by hand. 10 of those are spent on the design. For me, it takes a total of 10 hours to make the shoe, 2 of which are spent on folding paper and making the 3-D design. We each make 3 pairs of shoes. What fraction of our times were spent on design? How many hours total did we each spend on design?
A lot of my clients are athletes and I have to make shoes based on their ideas. While this is good, because it is what they need, I hope that someday I can use my talent for my own ideas. I would like to spend more time on shoe projects for people with disabilities. I really enjoy that. I mean, it is really fulfilling to help someone that has a life-long need! And I have noticed that these clients are also really appreciative of my work, probably because it is something that helps them every day.
What do you think about this idea of “meaningful” work?
What other type of work might be meaningful?
I bet it varies from person to person.
Why might that be?
Put on some relaxing classical music in the background and observe how it helps control the class’ energy
“Why do we wear shoes?” This may seem like a silly question to students, but still encourage them to think critically. You can do an idea brainstorm, throwing out ideas, or you could prompt them with some questions.
“When you were a little kid, did you like to wear shoes? Who first makes you wear shoes? How do they help you? How might they inhibit you? What might be different if you had a foot deformity? How would you wear shoes then?” In this lesson you’ll guide students toward being more tuned into their body, think critically about societal norms like shoe-wearing, and learn about an individual who makes shoes for a living.
Begin by showing the video, I am Mike. “Pay attention to the different types of shoes you see here!” “Do you notice him wearing different types of shoes, depending on what he is doing?
What other types of shoes do you notice? What is the point of having different shoes? What types of shoes do you wear? Why?” After watching the video and chatting about shoes, delve right into Mike’s story, Mike on Functional Footwear. Mike tells the story of how he came to be a shoe maker and why he feels functional footwear is important. You could use this lesson to discuss anatomy, the different parts of the foot, and how our shoes influence our anatomy. You could also do some yoga or mindfulness exercises to help students think of their feet as their “roots.” It can also be used to talk about the importance of self-care and what that might look like for students. On the board, show a picture of a human skeleton as well as a tree, side by side. “What similarities do you see here? What parts of your body are your roots? Trunk? Branches? Let’s do an exercise where we imagine ourselves as a tree!” As prompted on page 3, ask students to close their eyes and first imagine their feet as roots that reach way down into the ground. Then, invite them to grow tall, as tall as can be, stretching their arms up above their head. They can raise up on their toes to be even taller. Can they lift one leg up to touch the inside of their knee? This is called “tree pose” in yoga; you can find videos online that describe the pose. “Are you balanced? Do you lean one way or another? Could the wind blow you down?” Do the same exercise but switching feet, and encourage them to observe whether there is a difference. After, you could discuss what external factors impact the health of trees. “How does that translate into what we need to be healthy? And what affects our health? According to Mike, how do our shoes influence our health?”
Explore how knowing shapes like polygons are important in Mike’s line of work. Also, help Mike think about work efficiency by multiplying whole numbers and fractions.
On page 2, Mike talks about “positive and negative space” and how experiences in his youth helped cultivate a mindset that helps him design shoes. Use this discussion of space to create a game with polygon and quadrilateral shapes. In pairs, students can each cut polygon/quadrilateral shaped holes in pieces of paper. The other student then has to gauge the space from a distance, name it, and create a paper shape that fits into the hole. You could make it a competition between sets of partners if you’d like. On page 4, Mike describes the fraction of hours spent designing shoes with two different approaches: typically 2-D design, and his 3-D version. Students can practice multiplying fractions with whole numbers to compare the two approaches, which spends a higher fraction of time on designing, and how many hours that is total.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Innovators!
Think about my definition of being an innovator. In what ways are you an innovator? What type of things have you invented? This could be stories, or games, or anything really! What ideas do you have for other inventions?
Let’s say each shelf in my workshop holds 10 pairs of shoes. And I organize each shelf by style of weaving. I have 3 full shelves of shoes. How many pairs of shoes do I have total? How many types of weaving have I used total?
I’d love to hear about your own experiences merging unique things to create something new. Cooking is a way in which people do this often! Maybe you could even do a class project.
One way you can practice this is in solving math problems. Relating addition and subtraction shows us how there are different routes toward the same result! Explore which one is more simple for you, the addition or the subtraction:
4 - 3 = ____ because 1 + 3 = 4
7 - 5 = ______ because 2 + 5 = 7
In my profession, when might I need to do this math?
When weaving, we sometimes need to think about the shapes of the designs and the fabrics. Let’s say I’m working on a rectangle-shaped weaving, and I first want to think of it in halves. Which shape below shows the rectangle in half? And then in quarters?
Do you ever practice visualization? They say it can help athletes train for a race, or musicians play better music, or in my case, artists to learn how to create something new. Maybe you can try it out and then let me know how it goes.
Begin class by asking students to silently help you rearrange the chairs in a circle.
“Let’s pretend we are innovators working on a new project - where do we even begin?!” Let students guide the conversation, prompting them with questions where it seems necessary.
“First, we should probably come up with what type of thing we want to invent!” Once the energy feels high and excited around this, move on to part 2. In this lesson you’ll be learning about an innovative shoemaker and some of what goes into his process. You can use it to encourage critical and creative thinking in your students!
First, watch the video “I am Mike” and ask students to pay attention to the processes they notice. “What did you notice going into his shoemaking?
What surprised you? What did you expect? What creative things did he include?” Once students start sharing observations of Mike’s creativity, move on to reading aloud his story, Mike the Innovator. “What did we learn from Mike that we could apply to our process of invention?” As a class, come up with an idea for something you want to invent that incorporates creative elements that do not typically ‘go together.’ At the bottom of page 2, Mike mentions something called “upcycling.” Discuss with your students this concept, considering related topics like recycling and resourcefulness. “Why might upcycling be important?” Tie this into a discussion about protecting the environment. Then, split into small groups and encourage them to start innovating! “What do we have a lot of? What is lying around that we don’t use much anymore? How might we be able to use it in a different way?” Encourage students to try out different versions of their invention to continue its improvement. You can relate this to their own growth and improvement. Pay close attention to how your students approach ‘problem solving’ and encourage patience, as does Mike, when you see them getting frustrated.
Practice problem solving while writing expressions and working with coordinate planes. On page 2, Mike provides data that students can use to plot on a coordinate plane.
Consider doing this as a class, or draw it out ahead of time if you want them to practice identifying points on a coordinate plane. Relate this to the lesson by asking something like, “How might thinking about how much of something you use in your invention help you improve the invention?” At the top of page 3, you’ll find data students can use to practice writing expressions. Feel free to change the data around to continue the practice. This type of math provides a great opportunity to practice problem solving and looking for the simplest route!
To wrap up the lesson, consider inviting the students to share the innovations/inventions they made or planned in their small groups. If you did the project as a class, consider presenting it to another class.
You could also role-play: half the group presents to an “audience” of the other half of the class. The “audience” pretends to have no idea about the invention and can ask questions. “What did we learn from Mike today? How can we apply these learnings in class? In our life?” Even with young kids, such debrief type questions can prove powerful and provoke reflection and sharing that may surprise you.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Sticking With It
I see that the photo of the runner over in the corner of my workshop has caught your attention! Would you ever guess that's me? Why don't you take a seat – just scoot those shoes out of the way – and I'll tell you about my story. Let me set the scene: It is the 1970s in Eugene, Oregon, USA. A famous runner, Steve Prefontaine otherwise known as “Pre,” has hit the scene breaking records all over the country. At that time, he held every single record from 2,000 meters to 10k! And, he went to the same university as me! So while the rest of the world was not paying much attention to Olympic runners, in Eugene, they were like superstars. Pre was all over television and in the newspapers. People wore t-shirts that read, “Go Pre!” There was a lot of energy and excitement around the sport, so it was a really fun time to be there. Everyone in my city looked up to runners. So, I tried it out and I happened to become pretty good at it!
In what ways have you noticed famous people or the media influence what people in your community like to do?
Is there something you’ve been inspired to do by a trend like running, such as what I described above?
What are some examples you can think of from your community or country?
Hey there, my name is Mike. I’m from Oregon, USA where I had a running career for 12 years and have been making shoes for over 30 years. When I ran at the University of Oregon, where Pre also studied and ran, I did an event called the steeplechase. In this race you jump over five hurdles and a water jump!
So, if there are 5 hurdles and 1 water jump, which equation tells us how many obstacles there are total?
5 +1 = 65 - 1 = 33 + 2 = 7
Now, let’s say a different type of race has three more obstacles than the steeplechase races in Oregon.
How many obstacles would the new one have in total?
When you run a lot like I used to, you can develop something called a “runner’s high,” which basically just means that it makes you feel really good! It is strong motivation to keep going, and it also means that when you can no longer run...you look for other sports to get the same feeling. For me, sadly, after running for 12 years I had all sorts of injuries. We would wear these special shoes with little spikes on the bottom for traction on the track, but these shoes caused scar tissue and tendon damage because they force your feet to do things that are not natural, like elevate your toes too much. So, my knees and my tendons were very unhappy with me. At first I tried to just take time off and let myself heal, but eventually I had to admit that I just couldn’t run anymore.
Have you ever been held back physically from something you really wanted it to do?
How did it feel?
How do you imagine I may have felt at this time?
Luckily, while trying to heal, I found that my muscles could work in other ways for different sports, like cycling and rowing! People will ask how I became a pretty good runner or athlete in general. I say, because I stuck with it! Running is more of an individual effort that team sport, and it takes a unique personality. You don’t always have the support of a team. You have to want to be out there “pounding the pavement” alone. You have to have a lot of self-discipline.
Have you heard the saying, “pounding the pavement” before?
What might it mean?
For me, it means being out there everyday practicing or working hard toward something you really want and believe in.
Have you ever “pounded the pavement?
” What could you imagine yourself “pounding the pavement” for?
I’ve found determination play an important role in all parts of my life, not just in sports. For example, I stuck with my job making and designing shoes at Nike for 30 years. You know, there are times when you get bored and want to move on, but staying with it pays off. I learned so much about making shoes in my old job, and sticking with it is what helped me find new avenues and places I wanted to explore. That is how I ended up with my own custom shoe store, where I’m able to do meaningful work like design shoes for people with lifelong disabilities. Nike has a saying, maybe you’ve heard it: “There is no finish line.” And it is true, especially when training for a race or designing a new product. Let’s say someone runs a mile in six minutes. Next time, they might push themselves to run it faster!
What do you think about that saying, “There is no finish line?
” Can you think of any times in your life where you finished something, and later realized a way you could improve upon what you previously completed, so you tried again?
Once I finish something, I’m excited by the idea of doing it again and trying to make it even better next time. If we embrace that mindset, our possibilities are endless! This reminds me of the first shoe I ever really worked on by myself. When I was running steeplechase events, your shoes would fill up with water after the water jump and slow us down. They were probably a whole pound heavier! So, I started modifying my own shoes. I made holes in them in a way that wouldn’t damage the structure of the shoe. It definitely took a few trials and errors and some of my shoes failed. But those failures led me to find what worked!
If I ran for 12 years and then worked at Nike for 30, how many years total did I spend doing those two things? Wow, that is really sticking with it! What can you imagine yourself sticking with?
How could you use bar graphs to track your own growth and progress in something you want to keep getting better at?
This could be something fun to do as a class!
Begin class with a 3-minute silent mindfulness exercise, encouraging students to ‘stick with it’ even when it feels long.
“What does it take to ‘stick with’ something for a long time?” Facilitate a brainstorm activity with students wherein everyone shares ideas of qualities or traits a person who sticks with something for a long time may hold.
This could be used to introduce the concept of perseverance. “Do you think people are born with these traits or develop them? Could you and I have some of these traits?” Save your brainstorm ideas for later on in the lesson. In this lesson, you’ll be learning about a competitive runner-turned-shoe-maker and his idea on the importance of “sticking with” things even when they get tough.
Watch the video, I am Mike. “In what ways does Mike demonstrate some of the qualities we just brainstormed?” You could chat as a class about Mike’s own “sticking with it” qualities, or just dive right into reading his story, I am Mike.
“Let’s learn more about his life!” In the story, Mike shares about his running career and the motivation found in inspiring famous runners and self-discipline. To check for reading comprehension and to practice application of students’ understanding of “sticking with it,” share examples from Mike’s life where he has “stuck with it.” “Has sticking with it been a positive thing for Mike? In what way?” Now, zoom out to explore ideas about how students can persevere in their own lives. “I’d love to hear examples from your own life from times you or people you know have stuck with something even when it got challenging!” If students are not sharing much, or you notice a student feeling “down” about not sticking with something, consider pointing out academic challenges they have stuck with. Focus on the end of the story, where Mike shares the metaphor from Nike, “There is no finish line.” “What do you think he means?” Guide them toward recognizing that we always can keep improving and learning!
Now let’s practice sticking with it as we practice math! On page 2, Mike presents a couple math challenges to practice word problems with “more” as well as understanding the equal sign.
Before you start, address the class by saying, “Now, these math problems may be tricky, but I know we can do it! What can we do to support each other in sticking with it?” At the end of the story, students can try out addition with 2-digit numbers by calculating how many years Mike has spent making shoes and running. After solving the math challenges, come up with a fun way to congratulate each other on sticking with it - perhaps a silly a dance, or high-fives for everyone. An optional activity is suggested at the end that would give students a chance to practice applying bar graphs to their own growth and progress. You could come up with a class goal, such as reading comprehension, and each week or month track how you have improved as a class on a bar graph. This can be a fun way for students to visually see how their growth can be continuous. There is no finite end goal; the goal is to keep improving!
To wrap up the lesson, consider creating small signs displaying one of the traits or qualities you brainstormed at the beginning and after reading Mike’s story.
Create a new tradition of pasting these traits to a student’s desk when you notice them demonstrating the trait. Another version is for students to give them to each other. Create a certain time of day or week in which this activity happens.
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Functional footwear
During my sophomore year of college at University of Oregon, I was randomly called up by a pretty well known guy: Bill Bowerman. He had coached many famous runners, like Pre, who you can learn more about in my story, "I am Mike". He had also been the coach of my running coach in high school! And, he happened to be the co-founder of a shoe company called Nike, which was still pretty small at the time. He liked to put athletes to work, I was available, and he heard about my history working with my dad, who was a stonemason. So, he asked me to build a water fountain at the track. Believe it or not, this was the beginning of my career as a shoemaker! Why? Well, because after that, Bowerman invited me to start working in his shop. I think he was impressed by how well and quickly I built that water fountain. At first I’d go down there and just start sweeping the floors. But pretty quickly they started pulling me into chores and work with the shoes. Bowerman was a guy who liked to challenge you, so he would bring us ideas or concepts to work on that were often pretty funny. I mean, sometimes we would be working on a shoe for a dog! Can you imagine?
I had no idea at the time how accepting that job building a water fountain would influence my life.
Have you had an experience like that, where what seems like a random occurrence ends up leading you somewhere great?
Or maybe someone in your family has had this experience?
I’d love to hear about it!
I also never would have thought that the time I spent around my father and grandfather as stonemasons would help develop my passion for creation someday. My dad loved it when I went to work with him. He’d be building fireplaces or brick walls and ask me to go pick out a stone for him, then he would place it in the wall. The hole in the wall is a “negative space” and the pile of rocks are a “positive space.” It is kind of like a puzzle: I had to look at the negative space and then go look at the positive space and recognize what could be plugged into the holes in the wall. I got pretty good at it as a child, and I developed what some people call a three-dimensional mindset.
Try thinking about some experiences in your life right now that seem kind of boring, or just very plain.
Nothing special.
Now, imagine yourself twenty years older.
How might these experiences influence what you’re good at or enjoy doing?
Sometimes when building these walls with my dad, we had to keep track of the number of rocks we placed.
Can you help me?
100, 101, 102, ____, 104, 105, 106...
I don’t want to bore you with the details of the 30 years I spent at Nike designing shoes. However, there are a few important things I want to share about that time that brought me to where I am now: designing specialized shoes for people with unique needs. For example, I got to work with the Shriners hospital, which treats kids with various health problems. We collaborated with them to find functional footwear for their patients. And that is what I’m really all about: functional footwear. My concept of a healthy shoe is a product that is good for us, a product that will follow the human body and let the body dictate movement, not vice versa. Shoes these days are often “overbuilt,” so suddenly our body has to adapt to the shoe and that is when people start to have health problems. For example, have you seen women in shoes with really high heels? This is so bad for them! And not just for the feet, it also has systemic problems. Think of your feet on the ground as your roots, your base. If there are problems there, there are probably problems everywhere. You might not see it yet, but once people get older they really start to feel it.
What are your shoes like?
Try this exercise: Stand up and close your eyes, imagining your feet as roots.
Visualize those roots going deep down into the ground.
Do you feel balanced?
Which direction do you lean?
Now, open your eyes and take off your shoes.
Then do the exercise again.
What differences do you notice?
My interest in all this grew, I got inspired to go into the library at the hospital and do a little bit of research on my own. I would sit in the plump chairs, the huge glass windows all around, and browse articles. I found historical articles talking about problems created by shoes in the 1930s, 40s and 50s! Even back then they were talking about how modern footwear was really detrimental and how people who walked barefoot, or in simple sandals, were much healthier. I went way back in my research and found awesome ancient structures and beautiful designs and textiles. And footwear then was very simple, very functional, very healthy. Some of these ancient techniques are actually more sophisticated than what we do today and I draw a lot of inspiration from them!
What type of things do you think we can learn from the past, from ancient cultures?
Maybe you have already learned things from history - can you tell me about those things?
Maybe you can do a class experiment looking into Japanese culture and paper folding!
When I get an idea for a shoe, I just go directly to paper and start creating a pattern. Maybe you saw it in the video? If I take the time to draw it out, as most designers do, I probably could be done building the shoe! I prefer working in 3-dimensional form instead of flat, 2-dimensional drawings. I think I can do it because of those days working as a stonemason with my dad. With paper, you can start folding and play with shape and contour until a model forms. And then that becomes the shoe!
Let’s say that it would take 8 hours to design the shoe if I were drawing it out, and then 10 more hours to actually make it. How many hours is that total? Now, let’s say that it takes me 1 hour to create the 3-dimensional form and then 10 hours to make the shoe. How many hours is that? Which is quicker? Can you write it out using <, >, or = signs?
A lot of my clients are athletes and I have to make shoes based on their ideas. Which is good, it is what they need. But I hope that someday I can use my talent for my own ideas, especially in projects for people with disabilities. I really enjoy that. I mean, it is really fulfilling to help someone that has a life-long need! And I have noticed that these clients are also really appreciative of my work, probably because it is something that helps them every day.
What do you think about this idea of “meaningful” work?
What other type of work might be meaningful?
I bet it varies from person to person.
Why might that be?
Put on some relaxing classical music in the background and observe how it helps control the class’ energy
“How do your shoes influence how you feel?” This may be something your students have never thought about, so encourage them to think creatively.
You can do an idea brainstorm, throwing out ideas, or you could prompt them with some questions. “Do you notice a difference in how you feel if you are barefoot versus if you are wearing shoes? Which do you prefer? What might be different if you had a foot deformity? How would you wear shoes then?” In this lesson you’ll guide students to be more tuned into their body while learning about an individual who makes shoes for a living.
Begin by showing the video, I am Mike. “Pay attention to the different types of shoes you see here!” “Do you notice him wearing different types of shoes, depending on what he is doing?
What other types of shoes do you notice? What is the point of having different shoes?” After watching the video and chatting about shoes, delve right into Mike’s story, Mike on Functional Footwear. Mike tells the story of how he came to be a shoe maker and why he feels functional footwear is important. You could use this lesson to discuss anatomy, showing or drawing a skeleton on the board. You could also do some yoga or mindfulness exercises to help students think of their feet as their “roots.” It can also be used to talk about the importance of taking care of yourself and treating your body kindly. On the board, show a picture of a human skeleton as well as a tree, side by side. “What similarities do you see here? What parts of your body are your roots? Trunk? Branches? Let’s do an exercise where we imagine ourselves as a tree!” As prompted on page 3, ask students to close their eyes and first imagine their feet as roots that reach way down into the ground. Then, invite them to grow tall, as tall as can be, stretching their arms up above their head. They can raise up on their toes to be even taller. Can they lift one leg up to touch the inside of their knee? This is called “tree pose” in yoga; you can find videos online that describe the pose. “Are you balanced? Do you lean one way or another? Could the wind blow you down?” After, you could ask students what trees need to be healthy. “How does that translate into what we need to be healthy? According to Mike, how do our shoes influence our health?”
See how numbers 0-120, adding 1s and 10s, and comparing 2-digit numbers show up in Mike’s life! On page 2, students can practice identifying the missing number between 0-120 in the form of helping Mike count the number of rocks he helps place in a wall his dad is building.
Feel free to change up the numbers per student, or per group of students. You could also work through this as a class. At the top of page 4, students can practice adding 1s and 10s and comparing 2-digit numbers by helping Mike think about the quickest approach to making a shoe. Mike’s approach, as seen in the video, is similar to origami. Consider doing an origami project with the students to try out Mike’s approach. As suggested on the bottom of page 3, you could do a little research project about ancient Japanese culture and origami, to tie it into learning from ancient cultures as Mike does when making his shoes.
To wrap up the lesson, consider doing an art project with the kids where they make a picture of themselves with a tree, labeling all the things they need to be healthy. You could also make origami trees (2.5 minute demonstration video).
This is one way to teach this story. You could also weave your own way, threading two or three other people the AI finds for you alongside.
Want to weave a full lesson around this story?
The weaver finds 3-4 real people whose stories thread together with this one.
Weave a lesson →Not hers. Not yours. People are always more than the chapters anyone could share. Hold what is here gently. Approach with curiosity, before judgment.
If a moment stayed, follow it. If a question rose up, hold it. The quiet teaching is still teaching.
Three or four real stories woven into one lesson, your topic, your time. Mike is one. The weaver finds the others, threads the math, the literacy, the values, the reflection.
Open the weaver →