Ever wonder why in movies like Speed it always seems like the man and woman who are about to die in some horrific way manage to 1) survive and 2) fall madly in love in the end, even though they had no idea who each other were just a few hours before? The bus won’t stop, it’s crashing into things, lives hang in the balance and Keanu Reeves notices how beautiful Sandra Bullock is behind the wheel. Really? Hollywood drama aside, intense situations, or extended periods of time together in unique environments bring people closer, and make them more willing to share and work together. It’s the kind of environment teachers and improv gurus Dan Ryder (Mt. Blue RSU EA) and Jeff Bailey (Western Foothills EA) work to create in their classrooms to better engage their students. “There is greatness in going through something together, so why not create an experience like that, and if it can be built around laughter and a little bit of discomfort then you can share something that may be uncomfortable because you’ve all had a common laugh,” said Ryder an English teacher at Mt Blue high school. Ryder and Bailey are part of “The Teachers’ Lounge Mafia,” an improv group that shares how the art of improv can both lead to more effective communication, dynamic problem solving and overall enhanced student learning. Ryder and Baliey both believe educators should have an improvisation mindset, working off three basic ideas: accept, trust and communicate. “The biggest chunk of communicating is listening. You have to be able to listen fully to what the other person is saying,” said Bailey. “The improv mindset, when you watch people perform, they’re taking what they have and they’re working with it—you can have these moments where you say ‘I just have to accept what I have and let go of what I don’t,’” said Ryder. And it’s in the moments of acceptance where the duo says you can learn as an educator and better teach students. Dozens of MEA members came together to understand the process at the Fall Conference, working to become better listeners and cultivate an understanding around the importance of removing the word ‘but’ from their vocabulary.
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3 Principles of Improv Accept: the status quo so you may change it, build with what you have, let go of what you don’t Communicate: Listen with your whole self, 90% receiving, 10% reacting Trust: Yourself, others and the process. “One of the most well-known ideas about improv is you ‘yes and everything.’ So, we would say our school is having difficulty dealing with proficiency-based education and there are a lot of ways to determine how to figure this out as opposed to ‘yeah but’— which is what we tend to do. The ‘but’ makes it seem like the first part is not important,” said Ryder.
together. The group then found their own creative ways to use a human machine with their students in the classroom, sharing these ideas: • You can use people as physical models to show the breakdown of a cell. • You can build a de-grumping machine that at the end of the day students go through and they feel better. • I’m starting an industrialization unit and using that machine would be great! And since it’s improv, the possibilities are endless, and as Ryder and Bailey say, no answer is ever wrong.
With the acceptance mindset, members worked together, to among other things create a human machine that built green M&Ms. Each person who was part of the human machine had a role—things like shine and paint the candy. In the end, each realized by simply “going with it” they could work better December 2015 • www.maineea.org
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