Peer Facillitation, March Entry, MS3

This is my lesson plan that I delivered during my peer facilitation class. I will also explore my findings and comment on what I learnt from my peers presentations.

Peer Facilitation Lesson Plan

 

My curiosity for this exploration

 

I am curious about how the spine feels in relation to the elements that make up bone when moving solo. This will be explored through a hands on exercise paying attention to the spine, then moving into solo work and witnessing. We will be returning back to about half way into the creature ladder arriving at the Fish, with reference to the introduction of a skeleton and spine (SHOW IMAGE OF FISH).

 

I am interested in how the fish uses its structure in order to move through water. From the diagram here we can see a rather bony harsh structure, yet if we observe a fish move, it is fluid and agile. (SHOW VIDEO OF FISH).This is what we will be exploring with our own bodies today. I will also explore this spinal connection through a Feldenkrais method that enables us to notice the spines movement from the start to the end of the exploration.

                                                                                                                    

Documentary, Secrets of Bones, Size Matters (2014) BBC 4, (6:00-7:45 mins)

 

This documentary really interested me as I am fascinated with the structure of the body, with the skeleton and bone. Bone is made up of a composite material made up of Collagen- which gives bone flexibility and Calcium Phosphate- which gives bone structure and strength. I will now show you a short extract from the documentary where it is explored what will happen if we didn’t have a mixture of both of these compounds. (SHOW DOCUMENTARY CLIP).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bone entirely made of Calcium Phosphate

 

 

 

Bone entirely made of Collagen

 

This led me to wonder how a mover’s spine would feel when attention is paid to it. I question would it feel hard and fragile (Calcium Phosphate)? or would it feel much more loose and fluid (Collagen)? Or even if there is a mixture of the two.

 

So this is my exploration, I want to find out how elements of bone can aid us as movers. Just how bone aids fish both in agility/ flexibility and strength.

 

Spinal Check In

 

We are just going to stand up with our feet in parallel and like how we have done in previous Feldenkrais lessons, we are just going to bend from the waist allowing our arms to fall towards the ground side to side. Just noticing how this feels, just moving side to side that feel comfortable for you.

 

Does your spine feel Stiff? Soft? Hard? Fluid?

 

Returning to an upright position now and we are just going to turn our head round are far as it will go staying comfortable again. The aim is to look behind you and to just notice how the spine feels.

 

Can you feel the rotation? Stiff? Soft? Hard? Fluid?

 

 

Hands on exercise

 

We are going to move onto a hands on exercise focussing on the spine. Working together in partners decide who wants to go first, and the receiver is just going to kneel down on the floor, you can use a yoga matt is you wish. We won’t be in this position for too long. The receiver is going to just find an easy prayer position resting your hands and arms on the floor. To begin with the person experiencing giving the hands on we are just going to place our hands on our partners spine offering cellular touch. When the connection feels strong the receiver is just going to begin to un curl their spine and will being to roll up until their skull is the last thing that arrives in an upright position, whilst our partners gently walk up their spine with their fingers, reminding their partner of each vertebrae. We should all be in a kneeling position. Once the receiver is upright our partner is going to float the skull gently. We will now reverse the process so the receiver will now being to slowly curl the spine to resume the prayer position. The giver will also walk their fingers down the spine until our partner has settled in the prayer position. Returning again to cellular touch.

 

The person giving cellular touch will now move away from our partner and witness and be responsible for our partner. The receiver will now begin to move gently with the echoes of your partners hands on your spine. It is also ok to move quickly or not at all if that is how your body feels. Finding a place to rest.

 

Whole process again switching partners.

 

Useful teaching phrases:

• It is ok not be touched today if you do not want to.
• Listen to your partner through the palm of your hand.
• Always remember that the receiver is also touching their partner through the point of contact.

 

Spinal Check In

We will now just return back to our spinal check in that we did at the beginning of the session. Standing, feet in parallel. Again we are just going to drop to one side, sending our arms down to the ground. Bending side to side slowly. How does this feel now? Does the spine feel different to how it did at the start? Is your spine more or less mobile? Returning to the centre again and just turning our skulls round looking behind us. Does the spinal twist feel any different to how it did earlier?

 

To finish I just want you to notice how you spine feels in relation to the clip that I showed you. Which element of bone did you feel during this exploration? Perhaps you felt both? Just notice now.

 

Bibliography

 

Secrets of Bones, Size Matters (2014) BBC 4 [18^th February 2014, 20:30]

 

Youtube (2012) Fish relaxation scene -- real life fish swimming to their delight [online], available from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR8UqnwYKo8 [1 march 2014]

 

On reflection I feel that my subject topic and content was a lot to explain and understand in just 15 mins. I felt that to begin with nerves played a factor and maybe my deliverance of the information may have been hindered. However I enjoyed exploring my interests through a group of people as I found that although I was exploring one thing, it actually opened up more questions and was about other things too. For example my focus was the fish and their skeleton. However when they began exploring through the spine hands on I found that they resembles the mammal catlike stage instead. So that was interesting to see. Maybe had I positioned the hands on in a different way, for example the receiver could have lay down on their side, it would resemble a fish like state which is what I wanted in the first place.

My feedback from my peers are as follows in this image, which I agree with and will take this through for when I explore this again.

 

There is something interesting on my self reflection that I would like to go back to and explore this further. It's the notion of the group as a whole evolved throughout the session, beginning with creature early in the ladder and then becoming mammals at the end of the ladder. There is something in this that I find interesting. Maybe because for me I like to understand what comes before and what comes after in order to fully understand what I am in the present. It is key to understand this for me in my moving as it gives each exploration context. It can revert back or can move forwards. I would like to explore this further and may be interesting to explore in my FMP with my partner. I imagine that in order to perform with pogo sticks in our FMP we need to understand each bounce as an individual and as a whole. A bounce before, a bounce now, a bounce after.

One final note is to say that although the session didn't go accordingly to plan I did thin I learnt more than what I expected with my area of interest. The documentary in particular interested me greatly and I learnt just how magnificent we are as humans.