This was a very inspirational session especially because of the rich discussions we had in our groups.

I was partnered with P. to discuss how care can be integrated into a particular session or aspect of our practice. I found it very fitting that throughout the discussion about care he was rocking his weeks-old baby on his shoulder. Working or joining a session online from home sometimes means having divided attention or added responsibilities so this was a good example of recognising the individual needs in the moment and accepting that one can only do their best at any given time.

We talked about how care on the side of the teacher is very important but equally important is mutual student care – bonding and caring for each other. Some cohorts may never have met in real-life at this point and it can be hard to express emotions through technology. Some students even seem to enjoy the anonymity these online sessions can bring. 

A lot of the exterior circumstances have been put on us without choice during the pandemic and wether we enjoy learning/teaching from home or not that’s what we have to accept at the moment. We thought that maybe a good way of giving some control back to the students and foster mutual care could be to break them up into groups of 3 of their own choice, not at random. That way we might get similar groupings like we get in class and they’d be more comfortable being open and sharing within their comfort zone groups.

All groups shared afterwards and I learned a lot from everything they said.
These are a few things from the other groups that I found most memorable:

– Make students feel like professionals (“When they walk into my theatre they are treated like professionals and they ‘get to learn on the job’ “)

– Embrace failure – you don’t have to produce a Mona Lisa every session

– Make things more participatory, otherwise students just sit there and ‘wait’ to learn something

– Make things joyful and fun so that students feel comfortable revealing things about themselves

– Create a classroom / Whatsapp group for students to talk amongst themselves without any tutors present
(See also “The Cafe” below)

For the second group I was in a group of three to discuss Love in the classroom. We summed up our discussion in a short PDF. The main thing for me is to be there fully as myself, with all my glorious differences and vulnerabilities, to not just be a teacher but be human and be open to share about myself just like I am asking my students to share about themselves (either directly or through their design).

The Cafe

I can’t remember if it was before or after this session but I asked Lindsey to create an online space for this PG Cert so we can meet socially and “The Cafe” was born. This was an idea that came out of a discussion with Frankie who is my teaching observation partner. It was so nice to catch up with her about the experience after the observations and it made me realise that we won’t be able to have those exchanges unless there is a space for anyone in the course to meet outside of classes.

I’ve since had really nice chats with other PGCert’ers after the sessions to discuss the course and exchange ideas. It’s a beautiful space!