Awareness Through Movement® in the Public Schools

Lindy Ost

In 2005 I initiated a pilot program to introduce Awareness Through Movement in three public school classrooms in my community with the expectation that the new information about their movements would make it easier for students to participate in their classroom activities of sitting, writing, walking and attending to school lessons. None of the teachers and students had experienced Awareness Through Movement lessons prior to the classes. This project evolved from a volunteer opportunity within one class to teach Debbie Aston’s “Alertness Breaks”, to teaching monthly in three classes, two fifth grade classes and one special education class. I was curious to see if AwarenessThrough Movement lessons would make it easier for students to learn and for teachers to teach more effectively in their classrooms.

Eight Awareness Through Movement lessons were taught to the two fifth grade classes within their own classrooms. Each class had nineteen students and one teacher. Six Awareness Through Movement lessons were taught to special education class of ten students in their self-contained junior high classroom. Lessons consisted of teaching positions, functions and related vocabulary, and class discussion. (See Lessons sidebar for details.)

During lessons, students and teachers comments were recorded, and observations on how students’ movements and orientations changed were noted. Following the last class 41 of 48 students completed a survey, and students wrote letters describing the relevance of the lessons for them. (See students’ comments sidebar.)

As the school year progressed, students took less time to notice their sensory experiences and were able to organize themselves more readily in preparation for the lessons. They were better supported in sitting with most of them being able to sit in their chairs with both feet on the floor and their backs supported by the back of the chair with less slouching. Students were eager to volunteer for demonstrations and interested in sharing their experiences after the lessons. In the fifth grade classes we often had to end the session before students were finished with discussion.

Teachers integrated aspects of relevant lessons such as hand movements into their daily classroom routines. They appreciated the self-adapting nature of the lessons, especially for the special needs students, which allowed students to participate at their own comfort levels. One teacher’s comments summed up the experience well: “I am more aware of the children’s need for all types of movement and I am better at really listening to their comments on how things affect them. I learned a great deal about individual children. I am trying to listen to them better with [both] my ears and my eyes.”

As a pilot program Awareness Through Movement in the classroom proved fruitful to students and teachers. Learning about sensations and discriminating differences in effort with movement enable them to sit more comfortably, use less effort with writing and have a clearer organizational sense navigating the classroom. Surveys indicated that 95% of students felt they learned something useful that was beneficial to them during the course of the school day, 78% wanted more lessons incorporated into their class schedules, 7% were undecided about having more lessons, and only 15% were not interested in having more lessons.

This pilot program was an initial attempt to gage the response of three different classes to Awareness Through Movement and to assess if enough changes and benefit occurred to consider further research and education of school administrations about the benefits of Feldenkrais Method® in the classroom. Although a number of practitioners have taught in a school setting there is little published information about the feasibility of continued success and willingness of schools to pay for such programs. Other practitioners may use this model and the results of this program to initiate similar learning experiences in their schools. I would be most interested to learn of any experiences other practitioners have had in their communities.
  Student comments

“I think the exercise calmed down everyone. After your class it felt sort of peaceful. I hope we can do this more.”

“This may sound crazy, but I think your movement helped my writing.”

“I think you should come in more often because it makes us relaxed and ready to start a new day.”

“Your movement stuff helps me think clearly.”

“This morning I felt tired and didn’t want to get out of bed. During your lesson I felt like you were waking me up. I felt like I could run, run, run!!!!”

“I’m in a better mood after doing the exercises.”

“You inspired me to do more than I do, and that’s awesome.”

 
  Teacher comments

“Asking the students to do the hand lessons throughout the day helped the students to transition from frustration to a refreshed tackling of frustration.”

“I highly value these theories of movement and have witnessed first hand the effects of being in touch with one’s energy, breathing and posture in student academic well-being.”

“[My special needs] students felt comfortable participating in parts, but not all, of the program if it was too much for them. It was beneficial to the students in understanding a bit more about the way they move in space and how they think about themselves.”
Web layout by Josh Schreiber Shalem
  Lessons

Lesson 1 Use of hands: Alertness Breaks, Deb Ashton

Lesson 2 Sitting: Turning and Differentiation of neck, shoulders, and spine in chair, Alertness Breaks, Deb Ashton. (5th grade only)

Lesson 3 Sitting: Spiral shoulders with weight shifting in chair, Alertness Breaks, Deb Ashton and walking shoulders up and down on wall and floor.

Lesson 4 Observation: Internal/External. Walking.

Lesson 5 “Activating the Imagination”. Frank Wildman, The Intelligent Body, Vol. I & II.

Lesson 6 Differentiation of lips, tongue and teeth with M&M’s. (BJHS class only)

Lesson 7 Skeletal Support. Spiral roll on back towards side and prone (5th grade only).

Lesson 8 Nervous System: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic, Sleep/Action. Breathing (5th grade only).

Lesson 9 Use of balls and rollers.