Moving To Change

A year long teacher training project on facilitating embodied spaces in classrooms for socio-emotional ethical learning and content

During the course of my fellowship, this was a "Be The Change Project" that I led for 10 different teachers impacting 15 classrooms and approximately 150-200 students.

What is it?

The BTCP is a track that allows you to do projects beyond the classroom. And I chose to go where my heart, feet and body leads me : embodied pedagogies. This project involved 2 phases - workshopping and training and executing.

It involves 7 workshops held virtually for fellows who signed up. These workshops started from setting the context to then see how embodied pedagogies can be contextualised to different classrooms and different topics: socio-emotional learning, math, science, social studies and english.

The workshops included Masterclasses, time to design lesson plans and also space for the participants to facilitate and practice the skills of design and facilitation.

The subsequent phases involve the participants executing their own lesson plans in their classrooms with bi-weekly check-ins and monthly meetings to discuss progress as a network.

What I wanted to do?

I wanted participants to see the value in viewing their students and themselves as embodied beings and therefore providing the classrooms with structures and lessons that facilitate embodied learning.

The project intended on bringing together a network of participants driven by this conception that will eventually allow more classrooms to see this practice in their lives and educational spaces.

The workshops therefore were meant to let the participants delve into their own socio-emotional and ethical learning via embodied practices such that they build awareness and humility that democratises classrooms in their learning.

The goals I set were to see at least 4 lesson plans being designed for various classrooms, the documentation of a complete curriculum to train fellows and teachers within 7 workshops and a collection of resources for teachers to incorporate lesson plans in their class.

"This Workshop opened perspectives to me that I never explored. Embodied pedagogies especially in content rewrote the concept of learning and teaching for me. The workshop was a process for me where first it was about I being comfortable and expressive with my body, later coming to a stage where I am comfortable hoisting the same for my kids."

"The realisation that the dialogue you have with your body is ongoing was liberating. This workshop helped me address things that I have always been intimidated and uncomfortable even thinking about. I now also know how important it is to create safe spaces for kids to feel comfortable in and has helped me think about ways in which I can go about doing this in my own classroom."

- Testimonials From Participants

Challenges

Many.

There are benefits of having more people participating without having to travel. However in an embodied workshop, a virtual space is E.X.H.A.U.S.T.I.N.G.

As a facilitator I have to put in a lot more energy to keep the energy levels up. The physical connection and intimacy of the non-verbal space does not exist in this virtual world and therefore the embodied learning is obviously restricted in its reach. Thereby dampening the experience of relating to one another's bodies and subsequently the way in which one can sell embodied pedagogies to a person. But all credit to current global pandemic that has set in motion the building of relationships via this virtual world.

What is has done to our bodies, the communication and intimacy while valid has not been completely destroyed. Albeit slowly, a sense of solidarity has been built within the group of participants but nowhere near to the kinds of relationships that were build in the previous project.

The emotional impact of the pandemic was also viscerally integrated in my project. I saw participants burning out and the support that I had to give as a coordinator was a delicate balance of accountability and care. It pushed me to learn the balance of inter-personal relationships in meeting goals and practicing empathy.

The challenges were less ideological and more logistical. Seeking evidence for the value of embodied learning was strewn with these other complications that take precedence but is still not disconnected from the practice of embodied pedagogies. Practice of empathy and learned habits of care are inherent to the pedagogy (in my eyes) and so was clear that acting from that perspective was enabling for my learning and growth in the pedagogy.

"Feel kind of robbed of the opportunity to have been able to try out these activities in person with the kids. This year has sucked! But I feel like I've up-skilled myself and now have something better to add to my classroom apart from my already existing knowledge base. Thank you for that!!! I think I have a long way to go with respect to my relationship with my body and being kind to it and loving it but I think I'm on the right track now :)"

"It added a different perspective to pedagogy and class room learning methods to me. Using the awareness of the body to depart knowledge is simple and beautiful connection which makes a class even more engaging"

More Testimonials From Participants

What was eventually achieved?

The workshopping was a success!

The workshop was rated 4.67/5 along strands of relevance, effectivity and diversity.

The curriculum was given 3.75/4 for alignment, rigour and adaptability.

The fellows who completed all workshops went from beings seeds of embodied education to trees.

These three aspects had qualitative analytic and holistic rubrics along which this assessment was made.

My fellows found difficulty in executed all their lessons due to lack of in-person lessons. But still managed to atleast design 4 lesson plans, with the hope of executing them all at some point. We have a resource bank of nearly 40-42 lessons and structures.

The most valuable achievement was the perspective and behavioural shifts in the participants. They articulated the shifts in confidence, perspective, creativity and energy towards themselves, students and classrooms. They saw students offering new perspectives, behaving with empathy and care towards each other and being able to regulate attention, retention and emotions better.

So overall, very happy with the project outcomes but maybe not the absence of human bodies in person.