GLXi Teacher Workshops: Through a Kid's Eyes
With the occasional giggle and delighted smiles, the group of learners worked to find hidden objects, read words backwards and draw letter strokes with their eyes closed. They went through relaxation exercises, solved problems, and played other games.
The goal was to demonstrate that learning can be FUN. But this wasn’t your typical educational setting.
Brain Gym is one of the latest in monthly workshops that GLXi teachers have participated in.
The students, in this instance, were the teachers. And the lessons are ones that they can now bring back to their classrooms in Guatemala.
It’s all part of GLXi’s new effort to host monthly workshops for its participating teachers.
When we last updated you on this initiative, GLXi teachers had completed three workshops: Curricular Adaptations, Detection of Learning Disorders, and Playful Strategies for Writing Development.
The exercise described above was part of the "Brain Gym" workshop that was held with 68 GLXi teachers in April.
Workshops have also since been held Emotional Intelligence Development and Playful Strategies for Reading Instruction.
On average, 70 teachers have been regularly participating in the workshops, either in live classes or through recorded workshops.
“The most interesting thing about these recent workshops is that the games and activities have not only been presented to the teachers but also experienced together,” says Jaime Vielman, GLXi Executive Director – Guatemala. “This allows them to have the firsthand experience and feel like children during the workshops.”
This ability to experience learning through their students’ eyes has benefited the teachers in many ways already.
Teacher Miriam Choxin mentioned a student of hers who has learning difficulties that affect her ability to speak and perform certain tasks. She didn’t have a curriculum adaptation to use, so focused on working on the student’s fine motor skills — how to hold a pencil, coloring, and gluing small pieces of paper together, for example.
This year, the student is repeating first grade with a curriculum adaptation.
“Thanks to this workshop, I gained a better understanding of many things, especially how to adapt activities for my students,” Choxin says. “This way, I can help them improve their reading every day."
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RECENT TEACHER WORKSHOPS:
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Through movements, breathing exercises, and specific activities, the goal was to connect with emotions, facilitating the formation of neural networks, which in turn enhance the assimilation of learning, particularly in literacy.
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Both teachers and children often experience high levels of stress and struggle to manage it, as well as their own emotions. The objective of this workshop was to provide concrete activities that teachers can apply in their personal lives and with their students.
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The workshop focused on specific games and activities aimed at developing skills necessary for students to develop a love for reading based on their interests. The goal was for teachers to have a repertoire of 25 broad activities or games to incorporate into their classes.