No matter where I am in the world, nature has always been my source of solace. It’s where I go to recharge and it brings a sense of complete joy. Perhaps deep down I’m a deer… 🙂 I can’t quite pinpoint why I feel drawn to the beautiful canopy of endless trees deep in the woods, or the calming sound of water gently crashing against a shore. But I know that it soothes my soul and I could be in the midst of nature and feel at home even when I’m miles away from my own backyard.

Just after the sun sets and with ambient music playing I start my practice alone in the room. Lights off, blinds and windows open I feel the night breeze on my face and imagine I’m on a beach or in the woods lost in the sound of serenity. Eyes closed I start to practice with no particular flow just moving with my body.

Yoga has played an important role in my life for about 10 years. I first embraced the practice right after my son was born in hopes of relieving the pain of multiple seizures. I had had seizures since adolescence but never to that crippling degree. I was physically and mentally exhausted and incapable completing routine task. Simply taking deep intentional breaths and meticulously moving my body helped me slowly feel grounded again. Eventually, my muscles relaxed, I embraced the practice and I fell in love with the calming and healing power of yoga.  Over the years, I’ve found ways to adjust my practice to suit my mood and the needs of my body. However, I think my initial introduction to the practice has influenced my preference towards slower and intentional sequences.

Movement, on the other hand has been an integral part of my journey through life since childhood. It has taken several forms ballet, modern dance and finally yoga. I have found that movement significantly impacts the mind for it serves as a calming force, ignition for creativity and a path to clarity. It’s a gateway into another part of your being which is often hidden and blocked by life’s constant distractions and noise. However, movement calls for focus and presence in your body.

I find that movement has a beautiful healing power and I’m excited to embrace it with you!

Allowing myself to be vulnerable is something that I choose not to do very often and by partaking in this interview I opened up to an individual that I don’t truly know. Initially I felt fine and I really wasn’t concerned about her thoughts or feelings towards my words. However, later that evening I had this unshakeable feeling of exposure as if someone had opened a window to my heart, gazed in and saw a small portion of my emotional pain. My sense of security was shaken and I needed to re establish it, I needed my people, my confidants, my lifelines so I called them and I began to lick my open wounds. I feel like this process of vulnerability, insecurity and repair is something I often do and it is nice to recognize it for what it is. The final step is a sigh of relief and this takes awhile. In this case it took about a week for me to feel a sense of peace about everything in fact it felt nice to just get it off my chest and let it blow away with the wind.

Being the interviewer was cumbersome. I had my idea of what was really happening in her situation but that was not what she expressed. I really struggled with relaying the information in a manner in which I thought was truthful and telling her story. This was difficult for me because it touched on so many subjects which are near and dear to my heart things that my mother has talked to me about for years. In the end I tried to minimize my voice and interpretations and only enter the story when I could truly expand her words with my own.  As someone who enjoys expressing myself through writing this process was interesting and I was constantly re-examining my words.

Our group was able to find so many similarities with ourselves and the author of, Lost in Translation Eva Hoffman. She had an amazing way of telling a uniquely human story despite her ever-changing circumstances. But it was a story about family, friends, growing up, conflict, identity and the subtle yet overwhelming role that language plays in shaping our encounters, emotions, interactions and demeanor. I think she moves in stages throughout the book from arrival in a new country, to adjustment, assistance, ascent and assimilation. Each stage is paired with strong emotions and individuals with strong opinions about her actions or lack of actions.

Exploring cultural conflicts and misunderstandings is like running through dense woods without a path to a street. It is a long, tiring journey both mentally and physically with hills, plateaus rain storms and sun shine. Although I was literally exhausted at the end of the day, I think it was worth it. I am used to stepping out of my comfort zone for many things but I rarely do it on an emotional or personal level. I think the root of so many cultural conflicts is miscommunication, tone, body language, facial expression, preconceived judgments and inner thoughts. Tackling my own inner thoughts is hard and it will take time. But just saying how I feel out loud is even more difficult. I remember saying how I felt during the discussion and then wishing I could disappear so I didn’t have to make eye contact with anyone. Then, after a few moments of staring at my hands I decided nope it’s ok even if not ok it’s still ok. In the end it was it was refreshing to be in a different space and just talk to my group members about life.

Hello there. I see that you’re reading my blog again, welcome and thanks. Come with me as we go on a short journey through the tides of teaching.

I have considered my time at SIT as an integral part in a wide vast ocean of teaching. As I continue to navigate a smooth path towards deeper waters,  I imagine myself holding a floating device very closely and every once a while losing grip as the water slips between my fingers. But just as I start to fall, I quickly regain my grip. Eventually, the tides calm and I stop fighting with the floating device and just sink into it. I let my body take the form of the plastic and I move with the waves like a bird gliding in the sky. As I move my mind drifts and I fall into a state of suspended calm. Then something brushes against my foot and I am immediately startled. I almost jump out of my skin as I scramble to survey my surroundings but I all I see is water, calm water. So I continue to glide through the water until I see the waves forming ahead. My heart starts beating faster. I swim towards the waves. I’m going to catch them. When I see the wave approaching and growing taller and taller, I stop look right at it and wait. I smile, get ready and laugh and as the wave propels my body forward. There is something about the water that sooths my soul and excites every inch of my body all at once. Hours could pass with me and the ocean and I would feel completely content. Peace

The classroom is my haven. I’m always nervous or anxious when I first enter and dip my foot in waiting to observe my students behavior, attitudes and level of engagement. This time around I have let go of my floating device and swam towards the wave. I have used my active listening skills to adjust my lessons midway through and have been mindful of the ever changing flow within the classroom. I have learned to adjust without losing balance or focus of the overall objective. I have allowed myself to enjoy the process and thus my classroom has become a bit more like a learning community. I let myself sink into my teaching style and thus I can smile when things go awry. A challenge in the classroom makes it more dynamic and alive it makes my interaction with my students real and not scripted or checks from my lesson plan. I am scratching the surface on deeper learning and using suggestopedia in the classroom. I have a much better understanding of the idea and now I am putting it into practice. I love my classroom and the calm water and waves that encompass it!

The past year I have really dedicated my time to improving my French in particular my listening, reading and writing skills. I have found a multitude of activities that will keep me engaged and lead to measurable improvement. However, in the midst of my learning I have noticed quite a bit about my learning preferences.  Although I enjoy learning about social justice and geopolitics in my L1, it is a strain to focus on these topics in French. Despite my ability to listen to the news and understand the gist, I truly struggle with comprehension questions. I also feel that the questions and the directions are vague and unclear. Thus, I find myself confused and discouraged from the start of the listening or reading comprehension exercises. These are the types of exercises that I do two or three times a week, right after I feel completely relaxed. When I work on my listening skills and want to be entertained, I watch a YouTube actress named Natoo, Le Petit Nicolas and a Netflix series called Au Service de la France. In all of these scenarios the environment and my general mindset plays a large role in my ability to focus, hear and understand the words. When I attempt to watch or listen to French and I am under distress it’s as if I am a student in a classroom on Charlie Brown. I literally hear “womp womp womp”. I think the environment and clarity is even more important when learners are taking exams. Recently, I took a proficiency test to assess my reading and listening skills. Although I felt prepared and thoroughly relaxed, I was still tense and drained by the last 45 minutes of the exam.  After completing these two separate two hour exams I felt like my head was going to explode, I was extremely tense and I found it difficult to concentrate.

All of these experiences have helped me put things into perspective. I understand a bit more when my upper intermediate students say they understand the news but they find it hard to articulate their response in an intelligent manner. There have been several instances when students have noted that they feel like different people based on the language they are speaking. And despite their ability to understand English, there is still something blocking them from simply being able to engage in a conversation (fluency). Students have told me that being in an environment which requires them to communicate in their L2 leads to a sense of limitation and a stifled sense of self. Regardless of where I teach, I have noticed that students seem to turn into zombies after an hour of class and about twenty five minutes before the class ends. It’s as if I am watching mannequins stare at me and wait for me to give them the answer that I pose to the class. However, I think it’s the natural response to stress and exercise of the “brain muscles” in a language class.

Therefore, I have tried to implement very small but hopefully helpful changes to my lesson. I try to start or end my class with a song that the students have selected. I attempt to play this song throughout the week so the students can notice the rhythm and stress of the words and sentences. In addition, students can hear intonation and pronunciation and eventually (with upper intermediate or advanced learners) we can have a larger discussion about the meaning of the song or the feeling that it evokes in the students. I think that music is a nice way to appeal to multiple senses and inadvertently help students focus. I also like to play funny clips from different shows. These clips are easy ways to review idioms, phrasal verbs, tag questions, common expressions, greetings etc. In addition, it’s a nice segue into a writing or speaking activity. Another activity I have added is the use of ambient music or other instrumental music and drawing activities via desuggestopedia . I tend to incorporate this about halfway through the class or after we complete a more intensive grammar/listening activity it really seems to help the students relax.

I think that the day to day hustle and bustle of life barely leaves time for reflection and noticing the small but truly significant things. Once the alarm rings on Monday morning most people jump out of bed and start a non-stop routine which continues until Friday or Saturday afternoon.  This leaves virtually no time to reflect on one’s day or simply inhale and exhale deeply just long enough to feel the warmth of the sun. We scatter through the morning, to tensely sit in rush hour traffic and start the workday being mindful of the laborious and elaborate schedule. However, in the midst of this mad hatter routine I often forget to listen, notice and reflect. These are the elements of this program which I appreciate the most.  Over time I have slowly found ways to practice these skills in the classroom and include them in the lessons. I am more attuned to the students’ level of fluency, pronunciation errors, areas of interest and interaction patterns within the classroom; thus, I am able to adjust the flow of the class accordingly.  I think my students appreciate these periods of the lessons when they are not required to speak but simply slow down the learning process. As a result they can observe their classmates or their surrounding, they can write about the listening process in their L2 or close their eyes sink into their seat and actively listen to a story in their L2.  As I learn techniques and find ways to use them, I incorporate them in my lessons and encourage my students to use them as well.  Overall, these simple ideas have made me feel more relaxed, confident and grounded in the classroom. In a sense any classroom becomes my classroom because I have moved from the well rehearsed actress to the producer of my own series.