InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter

Wait! What? Why am I teaching English language communication online? And, really, is it becoming the new normal? Yes! After teaching almost 200 hours online (150 academic & 50 InterPlay), I can proclaim a resounding Yessssssssssssssss.... It’s the 2020 Pandemic. I’m an educator. I teach international students advanced oral English communications at the Georgia Tech Language Institute (GTLI). Hop on the rollercoaster! Suddenly in the spring, I went from teaching students face-to-face sharing a physical classroom space together to conducting classes with them from my laptop, the etherspace whooshing around us. The New Normal. Seeing students in square tiles across my computer screen. I was teaching Advanced Academic Speaking to undergraduates at the GTLI. The students came from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Yemen, and the Congo. That etherspace managed through Bluejeans (Georgia Tech’s online platform for classes) sometimes connected us beautifully. Other times, students...

Sustaining International Sisters (Global SIS : InterPlay) met on April 24th to celebrate Chiara Pilloton's birthday and wish our Muslim SISters Ramadan Mubarak! Chiara is a SISter living in Rome, Italy, alone and is in her 3rd month of quarantine because of the 2020 Pandemic. In the photo below is Chiara with the "crostata" she baked for herself. Happy Birthday to  Chiara Pilloton  quarantined in Rome, Italy,  on ZOOM!  In attendance for  Chiara's  SIS birthday party were SISters from Turkey, the Philippines, Pakistan, Mexico, Venezuela, China, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, England, Laos/Thailand and the United States. InterPlay is an amazing way to bring international women together in an environment that is nurturing, supportive and FUN.  And the FUN we had! Yay! We InterPlay "babbled" about birthday related words - cake, cards, ice cream, and parties. We did "I - could - talk -  abouts" on anything related to birthdays pa...

What animal left those tracks in the mud outside your backdoor, or next to the stream where you walk your dog? Atlanta may be a large urban city, but more than just people and their pets live among us. What stories can we tell from animal tracks once we understand how to identify and interpret them? This fun interactive workshop teaches participants about some of Atlanta’s wild animals how to recognize and interpret their tracks and sign, while using improvisational movement and storytelling. (This was our ASF teaser) Dear Readers!   Forgive me for posting this announcement here of my CANCELLED (sigh) collaborative workshop with the Atlanta Festival and two Emory University professors - Tony Martin from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Lori Teague from the Emory Dance Department. Our dream workshop that we had been brewing up for the past several years was cancelled because of the 2020 Pandemic. However, I couldn't resist sharing our flyer, teaser and workshop ...

In life, "we are not asked if we will play. That is not an option. Play we must. The option is how." -Anthony De Mello  How will we “play” the ins-and-outs of our lives? We have choices. Daily, I repeat this mantra – WE HAVE CHOICES –   to the international students in my class, "Speaking English Improvisationally," at the Georgia Tech Language Institute. During our 36 hours of class time over a two-month period, we explore how to communicate authentically through improvisation activities. We have within our reach at any moment a vast range of communication options available when speaking in English.  As literally and figuratively “players” on a world stage, I invite these international professionals and students to "play" around with both their physical and vocal range to see what they can discover about who they “might be” when they are speaking English while living and participating in American culture. As most of us know, each language an...

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...

EMBODYING THE PLANT OR ANIMAL. Participants were invited to become seaweed moving in the ocean current.   Alligators, dolphins, ghost crabs, pelicans, live oaks, and wasps - oh my! InterPlay Atlanta, Emory University, and the Georgia Coast Atlas all partnered to offer “Communicating the Science of the Georgia Coast,” a  fun- and facts-filled event as part of the 2019 Atlanta Science Festival.   This two-hour “playshop” took place on Friday, March 15 th  at the Little Five Points Community Center Café. From 7:00 to 9:00 PM, Certified InterPlay Leader Ruth Schowalter co-facilitated this highly interactive and energetic science communication workshop for adult and teen participants with her husband — scientist and author Dr. Anthony J. Martin. As a Georgia coast expert, Tony offered “micro-lectures” about its animals, plants, and ecosystems, while Ruth engaged participants in improvisational storytelling and movement-oriented activities that reinforced ...

Using InterPlay in the English Language Classroom A license to play in the classroom! Imagine these teaching objectives for an elementary English as a Second Language class called “Talk More”: 1) Help students find more comfort and ease when speaking in English. 2) Increase students’ sense of English language efficacy and communication confidence. This past May, being given the permission to use “pure”  InterPlay  in a 3-week intensive English “Talk More 1” course consisting of 18 hours of instruction, thrilled me! I would engage the “whole student body” – body, mind, and heart! This kind of “whole body” engagement was going to be especially important in this unique class comprised of students from two distinctly different cultures – six Panamanians and six Japanese! I expected the students from Panama to have more expressive ease than students from Japan, but I didn’t know how this 50/50 combination would blend the differences, allowing the students a give-and-take ...