Being a teacher at a German Gymnasium (highschool plus college for the supposedly clever ones) for over twenty years now, I have always felt a nagging unease at making the pupils, especially the ten-year-olds sit still for such a big part of the day. They are simply not made for that and sometimes it felt close to abuse forcing them to act counter – intuitively to their nature and punish them, if they didn’t comply.
As a PE teacher, I have always known about the importance of movement and also need to move my own body a lot for my own wellbeing. Despite our school being rather progressive in that area and offering a lot of attractive outdoor options for movement to climb on, balance, swing, jump or play ball, I have never seen a way out of the dilemma beside offering them breaks with lots of movement.
I have started to slowly allow more freedom in the classroom, like if pupils wanted to stand up during a lesson and spend some time upright, I would allow them to. Additionally I have always felt the need to put a lot of plants in the classroom and to make it as cosy as possible.
Movement method finally offers me the freedom to not only allow them to move in the classroom, but even encourage them to do so. All scientifically approved and so withstanding criticism from colleagues who are afraid of losing control and thus a lowering of standards.
So far, I have fully implemented MM only in one tutor group of ten-year olds (yoga balls to sit on, a lot of nature suggesting material in the classroom, movement based exercises, a huge cuddly moose if they are in need of a hug or simply need to touch sth furry), but am slowly starting to get the hang of it in the older groups too, who are sometimes rather hard to motivate to get out of their lethargy and move their bodies.
I can already feel a change in the classes that are allowed to sit on the yoga balls, or rather use the balls as a base for their bodies, as quite often they rather lie on them or try out creative positions on them. Notoriously disruptive students suddenly go unnoticed through a lesson and the whole atmosphere is more relaxed, friendly and happier. Sometimes I even leave the classroom with more energy than when I entered it.
I have only started out with MM, but am already looking forward to implementing more and more of it in my lessons and already parents from my and other schools are asking for advice – not to mention the kids from other classes who want to have such a nice classroom too and want to sit on yoga balls.
I’d love to get the ball (s) rolling here in southern Germany and spread the method as far as possible.
Eva, Germany
