B’s Micro-teaching session utilised the chat function. Our group was asked to imagine a room and describe it. He prompted us to think about particular elements in the room such as a cube, a horse, a ladder and even a storm. Each of us were given a minute or so to describe each element in our imagined rooms. We shared at the same time.
While typing out my answers to the questions, I found myself in a very imaginative and introspective state of mind. The task asked of the imagination which is a place I personally like to live inside of and entertain a respite from reality helps with coming to terms with it. The task brought pleasant feelings and I really enjoyed it. After sharing each of our imagined rooms, Babak mentioned that each of the prompts symbolised different things.
The meanings of these symbols are as follows: The room is your lifeworld; the cube is your ego; the flowers are your friends; the ladder is your ambition; the horse is your lover and the storm question is how you respond to a crisis.
Unpacking the symbols revealed alot of meaning and helped me recognise some personal truths. The process and its revelatory nature helped me reimagine reality and instilled hope in my spirit. I want to incorporate more of these methods of introspection and mindfulness within my teaching practice as I think they provide a teachable moment as well as one of healing. I liked the silence of the task and how the prompts in the chat forced us to think on or feet and engaged us in real time. The task could be improved if we had time to share and talk about each of our rooms in more depth extracting and exchanging more meaning.
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Reflection on My session: I began the session by asking the group to focus on one point on the screen for a minute. We played a game of word association using the chat starting with the word ‘Orb’. The game went on for four cycles. After the game ended, I asked each group member to make a sentence for each of the words they specifically mentioned and to post in the chat at the same time. Then I instructed each member of the group to read another specific member of the group’s words in a particular order. This happened two times. The second reading was done with an image of refracted light in the sky.
Feedback from group members:
“Easy to follow along, words association, first thing comes to mind, then the words once read back are unrecognisable in the voice of another for me, took me a while to be jolted that those were my words!”
“The use of the image to focus on made me search for an “answer” that may not have been there which informed my approach subliminally to my responses.”
“I enjoyed this session, that is important. I’m a fan of free association anyway, but I find it frees up rigidity, but also sparks new connections. I think, also like free association, despite the surface absurdity each of us uses it to express direct things, which happened when you prompted making sentences of our words. The initial mindfulness focus also felt good to me, partly to set a tone and atmosphere that is different, partly for calm. Generally it felt peaceful and a ‘safe’ environment. Poetry emerged. Gently. The second reading out of another’s words felt important, like it solidified the words and sentences, committed to them. As far as ‘learning’, I’m not sure yet, but I don’t expect learning to happen instantly anyway.”
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U asked us to look for items around our household and instructed us to take 2-3 objects randomly from our desks. The objects became characters and the desk became the background. We were then instructed to take 4 photographs to document 4 moments in the story which was prescribed as follows:
- presentation
- development of story
- something happens
- conclusion
The task allowed me to utilise whatever I as my disposal and offered a new way of indulging the creative imagination. It was simple and direct in its instruction and delivery which helps take the pressure of students. I think this is important because the pandemic has meant that many students are working from home with limited resources and an increase in mental health struggles so it’s up to educators to encourage and engage students in the online class environment.
I think there was too much time given to the making part and not enough time given to sharing and discussing our stories with one another. Moving forward, it would better is more time was given at the end to share.
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I.I’s session involved the group in a realtime drawing tutorial. We began with a loose grip warm up. We were asked to draw an object in it most simplest form using the loose grip technique. All the tasks were set out step by step in real time as I.I went along. We were then asked to redraw it with one change. I.I’s iterations were “keep it simple” and “it shouldn’t take much time to do” and “we’re not being very precious” which I found quite comforting and reassuring while taking part. These prompts took away the anxieties around wanting to get it right and immersed my in the active process of drawing. Automatic drawing. The drawing felt less cerebral and more embodied which was a tactile way of sharing space.
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D’s session was centred around the psychological phenomenon of Paredolia. Which is when people see faces in objects around them. We were shown a series of pictures of inanimate objects (such as a door, buildings, postbox) attached to the whiteboard functions and asked to write down the emotions we associate with what we see. After this task we were then asked to take photos of examples of facial compositions in our surroundings and then share them on a the file section on bb. D asked us “What are the minimum gestures that communicate the idea of a face?” and to draw this out quickly.
I enjoyed content of the session and how it was centred around a phenomenon that is shared amongst many people. It felt sublime and gave insight into what is noticed and how learning can happen in the mind on a neurological bass level.
Overall the micro teaching experience, both delivering and partaking, was a great learning experience. It was interesting how, given the time, technological and social constraints, all members of the group responded to the tasks. It showed me that alot of quality learning can happen in a short amount of time depending on what tasks are designed. The use of interactivity and play in each task was really engaging. I felt that there were similarities between my approach and B’s approach when it comes to mindfulness and reflexivity.