VISHANNA PHAGOO

Sharlene George Calliste has been teaching dance and theatre for the last 14 years and continues to do so at the Tunapuna Secondary School and her Tehilah Training Centre, Tunapuna. Now, some of her teachings can be shared throughout TT with her book, The Movement Alphabet.

Earlier this year, her book won the National Library and Information System Authority's (Nalis) First Time Authors programme award. Winning came as a shock to her as she applied to the programme in 2021 with no set expectations.

"Achieving the award was never a goal, but I am thankful for this achievement and the experience. The event was most enjoyable and I even got the opportunity to meet other authors."

The Movement Alphabet incorporates her love for teaching dance and theatre so the activities in the book requires students to follow the instructions and shape their bodies into the letters of the alphabet. She said the idea for her book came as she saw the effects the transition from face-to-face classes to online classes had on her son. Expanding on his fascination for dance, Calliste decided to test her theory of merging education and dance.

[caption id="attachment_968624" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Sharlene George Calliste makes sounds and movements with students at Tehilah Training Centre. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

"I saw how challenging it was for him to adjust to online learning. I thought to myself how can I bring movement into the lesson to keep him engaged? This is how 'edu-dance' was born."

Calliste explained that using the method "edu-dance" can solidify students' learning experiences as it gives them the opportunity to associate what they have learned with a movement which will prompt them to remember more. She said children generally have more energy and are unlikely to sit still for too long so this method of teaching can help them exert that energy productively.

"For example, a force is a push, pull, twist or squeeze and all of these can be shown through movement. So the teacher can get the students to push or pull an object, twist their bodies into a shape or pretend to squeeze an orange. These movement will help them to remember the types of forces," she explained.

She said with edu-dance, students can find their way of learning since many do not learn with the traditional paper and pencil. She added that introducing this method could pave the way to seeing it included in the schools' curriculum. Calliste said it would also allow the teacher to expose the students to the three main domains of learning – cognitive, affective and psychomotor.

"Cognitive learning deals with the information that is learned in the classroom while affective learning is developing the students' emotions and empathy. Psychomotor deals with the body in terms of developing gross and fine motor skills by controlling movement. For example, how fast or slow the student moves."

[caption id="attachment_968625" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Children do movement exercises with Sharlene George Calliste at Tehila