Women's Day workshop on teacher empowerment

Ms Sandhya Batheja from the Department of Mathematics and Ms Darshana Srivastava from the Department of Science of The Indian School attended an online workshop organised by SIP Abacus on the occasion of Womens Day on 8 March 2021. The workshop which aimed at the empowerment of teachers, was conducted by resource persons Ms Roma Nihalani and Dr Rashmi Jain. The workshop dealt with Stress Management with some Brain Gym exercises.

The title of the workshop, Pampering Teachers on Womens Day made everyone curious and excited at the same time! The session commenced with an introduction of the various types of stress, its causes and some natural ways to overcome it.

Resource person, Dr Jain, talked about Naturopathy which is getting increasingly popular worldwide, for people who prefer to choose this treatment as it has no side effects and focuses on effective therapies based on traditional systems of healing. Naturopathy focuses on the bodys capacity to heal itself, prevents health problems, encourages a personal responsibility to optimise health and stress management.

She also offered a few tips on dietary and lifestyle changes, exercise therapy, practitioner-guided detoxification, psychotherapy and counselling. She talked about stress reduction, beneficial herbs and provided information on dietary supplement, She ended by stating that a small amount of stress, such as meeting a challenge or deadline are often helpful. It can lead to increased alertness, energy and productivity. A complete lack of stress can lead to reduced motivation and performance. Stress triggers off the 'fight or flight' response, preparing the body to take action against it.

The second part of the workshop talked about Brain Gym which is a part of the Educational Kinesiology programme. Educational Kinesiology means to draw out learning using movement. It helps improve the neurological function so that areas of the brain are better connected and accessible for any given task, using simple movements to integrate the entire brain, the senses and the body. The brain gym prepares persons for physical skills that they need effectively. It can be used to improve a wide range of learning, attention and behaviour skills.

The following are some simple exercises which help to activate both sides of the brain.

Brain Gym Activity 1: Brain Buttons 1. Place one hand over your stomach. 2. Use the thumb, index finger and middle finger of your other hand to gently press the slight indentations below the collar bone on each side of your sternum. 3. Rub the soft spots back and forth, using a pressure that is comfortable yet stimulating.

Brain Gym Activity 2: Cross crawl

Cross crawl refers to movements such as crawling, walking, running, and swimming. Therapeutically, cross crawl refers to any intentional cross-lateral activity in which you cross the mid-line of the body, such as touching the opposite hand and knee or foot.

Brain Gym Activity 3: Positive thinking

1. Lightly touch the point above each eye half way between the hairline and the eyebrow with the fingertips of each hand. 2. Focus on a more positive attitude, incident or feeling. 3. Close your eyes and feel the stress of your body slowly vanish.

The best method to activate the brain is gulping of water in small quantities, she said.

Resource person, Ms Roma Nihalani, energised the participants by making them practice the techniques to feel the results of the simple exercises and also to add a fun element to the workshop.

It was an informative session and left all the teachers feeling pampered in the true sense!