MAPP 2019 -2020

Embodied Learning....... Last week I used some dance movement to teach my son the cardinal points. He is only five years of age and I thought that using some steps through creative dance would be nice for him, and give him an outlet to release some pent up energy. He reached up north, melted south, skipped to the east and rolled to the west. At story time that night, while I was reading one of his favourtie dinosaur stories he interuppted me by saying "mommy when my hands go up it's what again?" I stopped reading and looked at him and smiled. "It's North" I replied. "yes and when I go down that's south!" I smiled and told him well done. I was amazed that he was still thinking about those movements in his head long after we were finished with the exercise. But that's embodied learning isn't it? The movement was tangible and free and I allowed him to choose some of the movements as well. He laughed a lot especially when doing the warm up ...

 Feeling and experiencing movement is something that creative dance allows us to focus on. I believe that this is the perfect platform to assist students who are differently- abled. My research will be on the benefits of creative dance for special needs students. It is interesting to note that I have learnt that there is so much more being done by the disabled community about their own challenges. They are fighting for the right to be heard. There are more disabled activists even where I live and they are making their voice known. One disabled person in her TED talk mentioned the fact that we are all dealing with disability in one way or another.' We are either aging with disability or aging into disability.' This young woman was in a horrible accident that left her paralyzed and now facing a  new reality. I found that her perspective was quite interesting as things that she took for granted like getting into a car and going to run errands became an event rather than a simple ...

 Module Three Research For the last two weeks I have been gathering info through semi structured interviews and also looking at several ted talks as it relates to my topic. I find that I am also reviewing my feedback from module two regularly and sometimes I find that I'm a bit confused again!!! I keep however pressing the refresh button in my mind when I start to feel overwhelmed. The whole idea of the definition of disability and what is disability culture has been at the forefront of my mind. The definition keeps changing...or adjusting...or expanding??... for me as I review my interview info and listen to ted talks. Also the importance of communication stood out for me this week. How do we communicate to our students? Are we paying attention to non verbal communication in the classroom and the power that this given to the dancer when they use it.