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Showing posts from February, 2020

Why Teach Improv in the ESL Classroom: The Expert and the Interpreter

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Why teach improvisation in the ESL classroom? I combine both typical improvisation activities and my expertise in InterPlay, which is an active creative improvisational system that unlocks the wisdom of the body, allows the trained educator to do the following: -tap students’ creativity -implement students’ personal material -request a different level of student investment which can be powerful and playful. -involve students in the creative process which is stimulating and health promoting. -allow students to respond to information immediately (current issues, interests, and concerns) -impact students’ lives beyond the classroom by building confidence and personal sense of power and providing skills to deal with the unexpected Here, in this activity,  "The Expert and the Interpreter," international students are engaged in listening to each other - really listening. They are asked to read and attempt to understand the body language of the experts who are speaking in t

What is GLOBAL SIS: INTERPLAY?

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What is GLOBAL SIS: INTERPLAY? Global SIS: InterPlay is a two-hour online “playshop” using the Zoom platform. Global SIS began in November 2019 to stay connected with sisters around the world once they leave Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and our community of Sustaining International Sisters (SIS).  The BEGINNING! Sustaining International Sisters, October 2018, Little Five Points Community Center, Atlanta, Georgia,  USA. SIS has been bringing together international and American women living in the Metro-Atlanta area since October 2018 for four hours of "play and potluck" on the first Saturday of each month. Canan Arikan and I, Ruth Schowalter, are the InterPlay facilitators. We use the forms and tools of InterPlay during our gatherings which allow women to connect, share, inspire and learn from one another.  We discovered after a solid year of InterPlaying and meal sharing with Georgia Tech Visiting Scholars Yue and Tianqi from China, that we couldn’t just say “good-by