I Do DI

Our Destination Imagination tournament was a couple of weeks ago.  When I tell people that I manage the team from Tyler's junior high, I'm often asked, "What is DI?"  I still don't have a good answer.  I know what it is and what they do, but I have a hard time explaining it to others.  The best explanation I can find is that it is a mental Olympics.  Teams of kids select one challenge from a list of five that they can compete in.  They meet to research, plan, build and rehearse.  Then they compete against other teams in their age range that have prepared for the same challenge.  Ty's team chose "D"- the improv challenge.  (Click here to see the link from the challenges.)  And it was tough!  They had to choose 6 detectives from a pool of 20, then research those six.  They chose six film genres from a pool of 12.  They had to design a "device" that their detective could use to solve their unknown mystery.  On tournament day, they randomly selected one of their detectives and three film genres.  They had 30 minutes to plan a skit using those elements to discover the origin of a superstition and build their device.  Confused?  Me, too.  And I was there!  And that was just step one!

Step two was called an Instant Challenge.  They were given 6 minutes to come up with a two minute skit.  We had to swear secrecy about the details of the Instant Challenge, because there are still tournaments going on around the country.  The kids did so well and had so much fun.  I am so impressed their creativity.  I think they all want to try again next year.  I hope so.  Because as busy as I am, and as painful as all those meetings could be, we all had tons of fun and I loved being part of their group.  

GOOD JOB, PEOPLE!