Task 2

Task 2

I have used what Juan called “breathe and relax”, though I call it “Relaxing time”. I learnt this activity in Neurolinguistic Programming with Jane Revel. Before my one of my classes starts, students have Physical Education and when they come to me, they are really “energetic and talkative”. So I usually take 5/10 minutes to do “relaxing”. First of tall, I give them the chance to do or not to do the activity.
Then, those who want to do the activity lie on the floor as if they were on their beds. I tell them to be comfortable and be silent so as to listen to my voice. I start speaking very slowly and in a different tone of voice. I start telling them to relax the feet, then the arms and hands and so on. As the activity goes on, I create a different context so they can image themselves in that situation. When I see they are all relaxed, I start telling them to go back to “reality” by moving their bodies.
When they are all “up” again, they tell their experiences and write about them in simple sentences.
I see they have great imaginations and sometimes their sentences pave the way to great stories.

Comments

  1. Juan UribeMay 7, 2016 at 5:46 AM

    Hey Maria!

    I have taken a course with Jane Revell and she is a super affective teacher. I like very much your activity as it allows children to have an experience to write about. They do not have to invent the content as they have just lived it and it is very fresh in their minds. Another thing here is that as all of them have lived the same experience, there is a natural interest in reading what others have written and then discuss about it.

    I remember that when I started teaching at Seven here in São Paulo, my trainer asked the group to go to the street and give three pieces of candy to people who were walking. It was a strong experience as many people would find it very odd and give us looks. It took most of us some ten minutes, but there was one person that ended up needing thirty minutes. We all had a strong experience to write about!

    Lovely activity, Maria!

    Juan

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