The following message is posted on behalf of Bonnita Solberg, please
read on! Best...Jackie Taylor

 

________________________________

From: Bonnita Solberg [mailto:bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:48 PM
To: Taylor, Jackie
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1892] Re: Exercises that accessTeacher
learning styles

 

	Hi Bonnie and list members:  I am wondering if, in the absence
of a "labyrinth in reality", a "mind trip" that would take participants
on the path of a labyrinth by visualizing it, perhaps having them place
their own candles and memorials along the way, could be substituted.  At
retreats, this activity may actually fulfill what a number of teachers
would like in addition to more academic exercises--something
non-stressful, pleasant, a guided exercise, inspirational, low key,
social, etc. while filling the objective of "looking in."  

	 

	Bonnita Solberg

	ESL Teacher On Special Assignment

	Oakland Adult and Career Education (OACE)\

	Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)

	Neighborhood Centers Adult School

	750 International Blvd.

	Oakland CA 94606

	(510) 879-4020

	(510) 693-7313

	
	
	Bonnie Odiorne <bonniesophia at sbcglobal.net> wrote: 

	Dear colleagues,

	Thanks, Jackie, for the follow-up question.

	A wonderful way of provoking reflection, in any area, is a
facilitated labyrinth walk, which can easily be adapted  and
contextualized for any purpose, educational or meditative. I am certain
that it would be understandable to conference participants in the
context of multiple intelligences, learning styles, finding creativity,
motivation, purpose and intention. The labyrinth is a circular path with
one entrance, a center, and one exitis by the same circuitous paths by
which one entered. It is not a maze: just follow the path. The center
has 6 petals, which one could associate with learning styles, multiple
intelligences, or whatever categories of mindfulness the participant
decides is important. Since the turns reverse directions as one follows
the circuit, it is believed that right and left brain functions are
fully engaged by the walk. It is certainly a multisensory-multimodality
experience, involving kinesthetic (movement), auditory (optional music),
visual (the path itself, an ambience of labyrinth-related objects,
candles, flowers, scarves, whatever). It can lend itself to verbal
processing; while one doesn't want a "paper and pencil" exercise,
participants are encouraged to journal their experience after and share
it if they wish. Gardiner wished to have added a "spiritual/creative"
intelligence, (and sometimes he wishes he'd never invented the idea of
multiple intelligences!) so the meditation can contribute to that aspect
as well. I wonder if the "mindfulness" as a reflection on multiple
intelligences or learning styles would come from the teacher's own
experiential learning from the activity, as well as reflecting on the
experience of students who, as the teachers would in a labyrinth walk,
potentially experience sensory overload, as do ELLs coming to a new
language and culture, with a whole set of multiple inputs where learning
is in every daily activity: nothing can be taken for granted. 

	    I published an article in Changes (don't have the reference
offhand) on a peace walk in an elementary school adult  education/family
literacy setting, including ESL students. Participants could reflect on
the 'strangeness' of the labyrinth experience if they're not familiar
with it, associate "peace" with silence and meditation, and equate it to
the experience of new English Language Learners trying to walk a path
set out for them they've never seen before, feeling lost.... Or, in the
context of the Peace walk, which was just after 9/11, participants could
imagine alternative pathways for themselves, their students, the world.

	Warmest regards, and many thanks for presenting this fascinating
and thought-provoking process,

	Bonnie Odiorne, Ph.D.

	Adjunct Professor in English, French, and Freshman Studies

	Writing Center Director

	Post University

	Waterbury, CT

	 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/professionaldevelopment/attachments/20080125/0e720d27/attachment.html