5 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2019
    1. This requires me to lay aside my aca-demic neurosis of attempting to control, ignore or transcend my body for the sake of identifying myself solely with my mind.

      There was a yoga session led by a friend of mine before the Friday sessions at ICTE and it was such a great way to begin the day. It quieted the thought spirals and worries. I felt the way I feel after a chiropractor appointment. Calm and awake.

    2. I continue to learn acceptance of my body while not reducing myself to it.

      This reminds me of a quote from Looking for Alaska that goes something like, "She was more than the sum of all of her parts." I love that line and it reminds me to not equate my value and worth as a person with my physical body.

    3. The goal of pratyahara is not to ignore everything or to tune it out but to develop calm awareness and concen-tration in the midst of a distracting world.

      This is a lovely way of thinking.

    4. an anxious teacher isn’t the most convincing, so I try to swallow my nerves and to smile confidently at them as they enter the room.

      I took Ashlee's idea about playing freeze tag after students gave one another feedback on their initial creative nonfiction drafts yesterday. I shy away from doing stuff like that usually because I give in if some of them start to groan about having to get up/not wanting to. Yesterday I basically just said we're doing it, and they had SO much fun. I wonder if sometimes I approach these practices that help students to get out their own heads with tentativeness that allows them to resist.

    5. What if they start to view me as some “crunchy,” new-age hippie wasting their time?

      This is how I feel with several practices I've incorporated into my teaching. Some I've kept, while others I've trashed because I can't figure out how to garner buy-in. With some students, or classes, it feels impossible to gain their respect unless I go a more traditional route.