InterPlay with Ruth Schowalter

 Sustaining International Sisters Share “What They Know” After spending time in breakout rooms naming the different women in their lives who were mentors to them, international sisters told a story about one of their mentors. Then we spent time writing in the chat box what we know about being strong women. We are changing the way people perceive the strength of women one assertion at a time! Happy International Women’s Day! This what we know…   I know that   I know that kindness and generosity can change the world. I know that this time together is important. I know that spending time together makes a difference. I know that being strong makes a difference. I know that making new friends makes a difference. I know that listening to our bodies - goes a long, long way.... I know that every bad thing in your life looks a bit better after you've shared it with someone. I know that patience is important. I know that laughing together makes a difference. I know that nature has ...

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...

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? 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 “goo...

What gifts did 2019 bring you? What do you want to savor and remember from this past year? What do you want to release? Sustaining International Sisters (SIS) of InterPlay Atlanta played with these questions at their December "play and potluck."  "PRESENCE-ING" OURSELVES. Having our potluck first instead of our InterPlay playshop as we normally do posed us with the challenge of getting "our body spirits" into the room after driving in Georgia traffic and then relaxing into connecting with one another. So we had a mini-InterPlay warm up before diving into our feast! We did two rounds of saying our names, the first with our names and the place or country we identify with. I love it when someone surprises us with multiple countries or "Planet Earth." More than 30 women from around the world came together for an evening of connection, learning, and inspiration in the home of a Turkish SISter, Guldane, in Alpharetta, Georgia, USA. We had wo...