I open the door to 'The Learning Space', the name I've given what used to be my master bedroom, and my girls bounce in energetically, squeals of delight fill the air, and the girls spin around the room touching, feeling, rolling, dancing, spinning... jeez ...all but ricocheting their little noggins of energy off the pale pink walls. Normal Tuesday, normal start to class. Bring. It. On Younglings.
I've been working with these girls for a while now, so we're close enough for them to clamber all over me, pulling off my hat, poking my belly, sitting on my shoulders as I bring us into the starting circle to kick off another learning session.
The main focus of our class is basically talking; working on English conversation and fluency, employing all my drama training and presentation/broadcasting experience to get them speaking (and sometimes trying to keep them quiet) as comfortably as possible while i flail and wriggle and interpretative dance my way into their brains.
It's a good time, and like a duck on water, I've paddled frantically to plan the lesson to the T.
No shade.
I've been paddling frantically all over for a while now, but I feel...rather successfully. Perhaps then paddling frantically is the wrong expression...
I've been using my experience, employing newly learned techniques and developing my own techniques in mindfulness, drama, social emotional learning and approaching each moment with love, to bring these little brainiacs a fresh and thought provoking lesson each week.
Sometimes I hit the nail on the head. Sometimes it feels like nails scratching down a chalk board when I'm confrinted with confused faces and I know I've missed the mark. But each time, each technique, and with each new lesson, I see these girls blossoming before me. And it's, as Richard Dawkins would say, "poetic magic". The kind of magic that comes from something so amazing, so beautiful, that it can ONLY be described as magic.
The learning space is exactly what I hoped. Suuuuure I've been in there learning and facilitating for a while, meditating, running relaxation class...but this is different. I see these girls, I see them taking these ideas of mindfulness, of thinking and evaluating, of delving deeper than the surface, and going deeper still, into the questions that we often never ask. All the questions, any questions. Just keep asking questions.
I plan to share some of my techniques and lesson plans soon, but for now let me share a little of what I've been doing.
There are only 2 rules in the Learning Space:
(1) Speak, Play, Engage and Question only in English~
(2) Never say the word 'STUDY'!
To me, as an adult, as a student and a teacher in Korea and as a mother, that word is the dirtiest word indeed. I hate it. Or rather, I hate the use of the word study in a setting where I am encouraging my students to open their minds and think about everything. To learn, engage, feel, think, focus, enjoy, interpret, hell even confusion is ok with me, for a short while. But no saying Study. Study. Do I seem dramatic? Maybe, but hear me out...
'Study' is a total buzzkill.
It's the fart in the elevator, the sour milk in the coffee, a wet lips kiss from my Auntie Jean with the moustache. *names have been changed to protect my family relationships*
'Study' is forbidden in my class.
Why? As soon as the students (I suspect all, but my reference is Korea) hear the word 'study' they automatically go into shutdown. They switch off. They melt into the floor the same way I do when I hear the words 'math' or 'low fat cheese'. Study is an automatic stressor. These kids are subject to academy after academy, 5 hours of homework nightly, years of pressure to perform and conform. The last thing they want to hear, or should hear IMO, is 'let's study'.
It suggests that what's to follow is going to be neither fun nor engaging, and that's like taking two steps back before you even cross the start line. The idea is to bring them into the circle and engage, so we don't say 'study' in the learning room.
I also use many different ocus techniques that utilize our senses, specifically the kids senses of taste, touch, smell, sight and sound. Audio and visual cues couples with taste tests, blindfolded sensory awareness tasks and many more I won't go into here. We use TTT and TTR methods of evaluation, and the results have been inspiring to see.
Personally, despite however many hours I've spent in focused practice, whether meditating or just practicing mindfulness, I react to sound. Radio broadcasting woman likes sound? No way.
ITS TRUE! Ha! I always feel more grounded while using audio to take me there. I watch my 3 year old son touch and feel and taste and spit out (way too much) food and toys and the rest.
So the Learning Space floor is covered in soft and textured mats. We use those, squeezy gel slime ball things, chocolate (and other consumables) meditation (mindfulness practice based on the raisin), scented oils and colour images projected onto the side of my pale pink ex-master-bedroom walls.
Every lesson, every minute I spend with my girls, helping them to speak more fluently, to improve their English, is another chance for me to not only help them develop a sense of 'thinking smart' (what I call mindfulness practice in our class) but a chance for me to develop my skills, my understanding and ultimately become better at being mindful myself.
And that's my thought for today. More will come when I'm rested.
I'd love to hear your feedback, or if you are interested in any of my lesson plans or techniques please let me know.
Until next time...
