Drama class.
Simple activity to discuss body language, facial expression and voice.
Task: Imagine there was going to be a movie made about our class, what would an actor have to do to portray you properly?
The intention was to explore different types of body language, voice and subtle ways of being that convey how we come across differently as "characters".
To help the kiddos, I used myself as an example and got them to come up with key aspects of how I am in the classroom. I'm ready to write words like "chill" "calm" and "easy going" on the board, "relaxed shoulders" "calm voice"etc.
First answer:
Stressed
Then,
not really very funny (which hurt, but I clarified that they really meant I don't act silly... phew)
Wears the same 3 shirts
To be honest, my ego kicked in and felt the students were just taking advantage of a chance to say mean things they have wanted to say all year. I contracted thinking "Really? Those are the first 3 things that come to mind when they think of me?"
We continued and several attributes that I viewed more positively emerged:
respectful, listens to kids, doesn't intimidate with voice or body language, smiles a lot etc.
There is a social meditation practice called Circling, where two or more participants put their attention on one another with the intention of remaining present and sharing whatever they are noticing/experiencing. Then they 'circle' back the impact the other is having on them and the impact on the other person is then 'circled' and so on and so on. This practice often ends up opening a person's eyes to something about themself that they don't see but others do.
I felt I had just been circled by my class. Stressed was not a word I associated with my image of myself as a teacher.
There is a saying often associated with Circling that a fish can't see the water it is swimming in, it needs someone else to point it out.
It left me shaken, so the next day I took a moment as we were settling in to share the impact their response had and that I was curious about what they see about me that I don't.
Their answer (to my relief) was that it isn't everyday, but that they often feel I am stressed, and often I am good at expressing the fact I am having a yellow or reddish day (see my previous post about our behaviour monitoring self assessment system) but that my face often looks stressed even if my voice and words are calm.
This has me curious about all kinds of things we don't quite see because we are swimming in the water of our class rooms.
How might your image of yourself be different than what your student's pick up?
