Mover Monday | A Sudden Display of Vulnerability

Happy Monday, MTDubberz! This week's Mover Monday features three great PeaceMovers and their classroom experiences. Take a snapshot look into three different classrooms spread out across the east coast! Enjoy!   

PeaceMover Paula Olson has a successful Share Out with her third and fourth graders at Center City PCS, Shaw Campus! 

Before the Share Out, my students came to me very nervous to perform in front of their peers and families. A normally seemingly overconfident group, I was taken aback by their sudden display of vulnerability. My students normally take any opportunity in class to "rush their youth" by expressing actualities or opinions beyond their years. This reminded me that indeed they were all still children, going through periods in which they question their self-confidence. It also reminded me why I choose to do this, reinforcing the importance of Move This World and the need to foster this sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem in children while creating opportunities for kids to be kids.  Before the performance began, I was able to speak to my students and encourage them to be confident in themselves. They decided they were able to do their speaking parts, and they ended up performing amazingly. I was really proud of the students and ended the semester on a great note.

PeaceMover Alejandra Paucar reflects on her experiences working with seventh and eighth graders at New World Prep Charter School in New York.

The boys were really killing it today with the dances! We were going over the hub dances and after a while of running those dances, they asked if we could do some free-style dancing. When I put on a favorite song, they all got in a circle and started to take turns dancing. Some of the boys were incredible, and all boys were confident in their abilities. All of them cheered on and laughed with each other, regardless of skill level. It was a really great session. 

PeaceMover Tim Webster finds a way to make an impact on his students' everyday actions. Check out these kindergarteners and first graders of Staten Island Community Charter School applying MTW concepts beyond their MTW sessions!  

Several weeks ago I introduced a "time-out" gesture as a way for one student to stop another from talking to him or her at an inappropriate time.  It is a way of saying, "I'm not ignoring you, but let's talk later." The teacher of this class said the students were using the gesture last week during their state testing.  It's nice to hear that what we do is branching out beyond our sessions.

Thumpin' Thursday | We Are Young

Hey MTDubberz! Hope everyone has been having a wonderful week! Here's a few songs that keep us upbeat all week long! Hopefully these bumpin' tunes brighten your day :) What songs make you smile? We would love to hear what songs you groove to and add them to our playlist!

Fall Out Boy - Save Rock and Roll 

PUT3SKA - Manila Girl

Fun. - We Are Young 

Mover Monday | Creating a Common Vision

Earlier this month, PeaceMover Amanda Munroe attended the 3^rd International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development at the UN headquarters in New York. “Creating a Common Vision” was the theme of the forum, and it was co-organized by the United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This week’s Mover Monday features Amanda’s great experiences while in attendance at this forum! Enjoy!    

I jumped at the opportunity to attend the conference, what with the prospect of rubbing shoulders with former Olympic athletes, royalty, politicians, and other celebrity figures in attendance (UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon shared opening remarks), but if you’ll believe me, I was even more interested in learning from other practitioners and academics in the field of sport for peace and development (or SDP). I’ve grown deeply interested in the field since becoming a PeaceMover with Move This World over three years ago, and through my graduate research on sport and peace education in 2011 and 2012.  

Panel presentations over the course of the two day forum covered themes such as “creating a culture of peace through sport,” “sport and social inclusion,” and “sport and social development legacies,” woven together by persistent inquiry and speculation about how to integrate physical activity into sustainable development initiatives as they relate to health, education, and post-conflict reconstruction.

By this point, some of you may be wondering what this blog post really has to do with Mover Monday, and I can imagine others of you protesting, “But I thought MTW was a creative arts endeavor…what’s all this talk about sport?!”

Bear with me. MTW has been present in the SDP community for a few years now – MTW was shortlisted in 2011 at the Beyond Sport Awards for Best New Project and again in 2012 for Best Project for Conflict Resolution. Not to mention the fact that the program satisfies physical education requirements in its U.S. locations. (If you’re a PeaceMover like me, you understand there is good reason to wear the black stretchy pants that have become our standard uniform – some of the moves our participants develop bring out more of the athlete in me than the dancer).

MTW sits at a unique intersection between the world of sport and the world of art. Think of a Venn diagram. MTW would be right at the sweet spot where the two circles intersect, to put it simply, or to complicate things, not only at the intersection of those two spheres but blending also with education, social inclusion, creative and critical thinking, peacebuilding, sustainable economic development, leadership development, and…you get the point.

It was clear from conference attendees and presenters at the forum that sport and physical activity initiatives are being increasingly valued throughout the world for their contributions to social welfare. Formal and informal discussions revolved around how sport can be integrated more deeply into or better complement other fields of practice. This particular audience was especially interested in sport’s potential to further achievement of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. 

Leaving the conference, I felt proud to contribute to Move This World for a number of reasons. Among them: Forum attendees and presenters voiced a deep respect for organizations like MTW working “in the trenches” of sport for social change. Those who have committed themselves to the practice (rather than just the promotion) of SPD are viewed as pioneers exploring a frontier fraught with conceptual and very practical challenges.

Also, my experience is that MTW is highly conversant, if not in fact taking the lead, on many of the lessons learned and new ideas and discussed at the conference, including social inclusion (at this forum, the term referred to cultural diversity, gender, and inclusion of persons with disabilities); a culture of peace as the outcome of playing together; the creation of sustainable funding structures for social profit organizations; and the primacy of effective program design, measurement, and evaluation.

One particular example of how MTW is blazing the trail in this field is the recent name change from Dance 4 Peace to Move This World. In her letter introducing the organization’s rebranding, MTW Founder and CEO Sara Potler LaHayne made clear that the change did not signify a shift in identity, but rather a widening of the family: “We feel as though we have grown beyond the Dance 4 Peace name to an organization that truly has a global impact,” said Sara. Moving away from preconceptions associated with “dance” and “peace” feels consistent with the organization’s mission to increase inclusion, diversity, and international connections. Practically, it avoids causing misconceptions before a PeaceMover or MTW supporter has a chance to explain what we do.

Consistency – across hubs and in MTW’s identity – feels reinforced by the name change, which communicates an honest and reflective awareness of MTW’s mission, vision, and real impact.  To me the name change represents MTW’s leadership in the emerging field of sport for development and peace, demonstrating the organization’s consistent use of monitoring and evaluation structures in every aspect of program planning and implementation. It represents an awareness of purpose, a clearly articulated theory of change and follow-up on that theory.

Coming back round to our starting point, I was pleased to represent MTW at the 3^rd International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development despite needing to introduce the organization as “the artist formerly known as Dance 4 Peace.” I have come to the conclusion that the transformation reflects those hallmarks in program design and growth that set MTW apart, and my hunches were confirmed by practitioners and academics alike. MTW possesses organizational awareness and flexibility, a considered theory of change, strong and consistent structures for monitoring and evaluation that effectively impact organizational growth, and finally, a mission-consistent value for inclusion echoed in the vision to move not just one corner of, but this whole world.

Thumpin' Thursday | Daylight

Hey MTDubberz! Check out what we've been thumpin' to this week! What songs do you have on repeat? Feel free to leave a comment; we would love to know! Have a great rest of the week, MTDubberz! 

Bingo Players - Rattle 

Harry Belafonte - Day-O

Quincy Jones - Ai No Corrida 

Maroon 5 - Daylight 

Mover Monday | Self-Awareness

Hey MTDubberz! Today's Mover Monday features PeaceMover, Alejandra Paucar and her experiences with our talented and passionate group of Junior PeaceMovers. With the help of Alejandra, these Junior PeaceMovers are on their way to make powerful impacts on their communities! 

One of my students, Sara, expressed how she understood the importance of empathy, but she also believed that people who are empathetic and seek to understand others can sometimes unintentionally make excuses for others in the event of unfavorable behavior. By making these excuses, this unfavorable behavior becomes a continuous cycle. She used a romantic relationship as an example: "Oh, he is probably stressed because of work" or "Oh, he is acting this way because he is under a lot of pressure.” She described empathy as a "slippery slope" that can end up hurting both parties.  

I was taken aback by her insight. It was a great point to explore as a group. I asked what the rest of the group thought and they agreed. I then asked the group what they thought was the purpose of empathy. They described empathy as the means to strengthen a community by putting yourself in one another's shoes and seeking to understand where the other person is coming from. I then added that empathy should not only be seen as a way to strengthen a community through compassion but also as a way to strengthen an individual through self-awareness. Empathy empowers a community to work together harmoniously and individuals to express themselves considerately - including speaking up for yourself if you feel your feelings are not being acknowledged even after you seek to understand another's feelings and circumstances. I was so happy that Sara shared her insight because it seemed to be an unspoken topic that all the girls had in mind.