Name: Neerja Yadav-Dulalchan ID#: 04729122 Date: Sth, August, 2015 Topic: Arts in Action 1* session Location: Rm 325/326 (spill over room) and SOE auditorium Journal entry #5 Today was our first Arts in Action class. At the start of the class I had no idea how interactive it would be. I thought the class would be in a lecture format. There were two facilitators who asked us to stand. In the spill over room some teachers were apprehensive and remained seated. One facilitator began to drum rhythmically while the other sang loudly “people to people.... people to people” over and over again. She instructed everyone to move around and sing along. I honestly felt a bit awkward doing this but never the less moved around and had fun with my colleagues. Next, in an effort to get to know our colleagues, we were instructed to greet each other with whatever body part the facilitator shouted out. For example if she shouted ‘elbow’, we had to go around the room touching elbows with colleagues. This time I felt more relaxed and noticed that some of those who shied away from participation before became involved in the activities. At this point all the teachers in the spill over room felt that we were not getting the full experience and so we went to the main auditorium. In another bonding exercise we had to be ‘atoms’ and when the facilitator shouted a number we had to find ourselves in groups of that number. In these groups of ‘atoms’ we found out our members names and favourite foods and artistes. We also had to create a dance, with our group members, with seven steps and perform it. This was quite interesting for me and was excited to see what ‘moves’ each group came up with.‘The most fun and comical activity was the ‘touch d back’ game, where ten teachers were asked to come on stage. Each had to place one hand behind their backs and try to touch the backs of others. Once your back was touched you were ‘dead’ and had to lie down. The last teacher standing would be the winner. After the game, the players were asked to explain their strategies in playing the game. I was intrigued to lear of the different strategies that each player had. Some players said they ‘took out’ the more shy players first. Some said they were intimidated by players that were larger in size and so conceded and some of the women said they wanted to target the men first. I never imagined that such a seemingly comical exercise could be used to teach the skills of observation and anaifsis. . During the class the facilitator kept urging teachers to put their phones down, but some teachers seemed to be obsessed with taking phitos for their portfolios. This session was very significant because I learned the power of using arts in the ~~ classroom. It made me inspired and excited to use activities like these to make my classes more interesting. [ have learnt some techniques to make students feel more comfortable and have a newfound appreciation for the Arts.