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PODCAST

Teaching With The Body In Mind

Teaching With The Body In Mind

Each week, Mike, Tom, Ross, and Joey reflect on the connection between moving and thinking. The discussions remind us that teachers should be supporting children"s bodies as well as their minds.

education education for kids

All Episodes

20:59

ENCORE EPISODE Hanging Out

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2026/01/06

Ease into the new year, with a relaxing conversation about hanging out. Tom asks the group to define hanging out--a social act of "being with" with no agenda, a relaxed feeling, open, and freeform. He wonders, is it worthwhile in the classroom? (Resounding YES) Ross points out that you don't have to set your plans aside to allow for moments to hang out, you can make space for both. Tom's wish is that we can slow down and appreciate moments of hanging out in our daily practice.

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24:16

TWTBIM_0358 Joining In

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/12/30

As Joey was reminded while crawling through cattails, joining in to children's physical play can give us insight, understanding, and joy. Mike recently learned the tricky balance spots in a playground obstacle course. And we all remember how much fun the kids had when Tom "fell" off the balance beam. Ross cautions—yes, but it shouldn't become about us. When do we join into children's play and how do we phase out?

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22:29

TWTBIM_0357 Relationships Foster Physical Learning

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/12/23

After watching a toddler scoot to wave goodbye to a classmate, Mike reflects on how social relationships provide motivation for physical learning. Prosocial connection is a powerful internal motivator. When we lose sight of that, our judgements and interference can become an impediment to learning.

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23:12

TWTBIM_0356 No Really, Let Them Move Inside

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/12/16

Ross does a check in with the ongoing conversation about creating the conditions to support physical play--indoors and ALWAYS. How do we get comfortable with this, plan for it, make the time, and make the space? We know that physical play is needed for healthy development so let's include it in our plans. Where might you find the cat mat and mouse house in your classroom?

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18:16

ENCORE EPISODE Sit Still!

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/12/02

We reached way back in the vault to September 2018: Are stillness and silence required to meet the goals of Circle Time? Mike leads a discussion about times that children are asked to sit still. Does the expectation that children "sit still" create a distraction from our true learning goals?

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19:48

TWTBIM ENCORE EPISODE Give Grandma A Kiss

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/11/25

While we're on a short break for the holiday, enjoy an episode from the early days about consent. There's more to talk about related to consent. During our day to day routines, how can we model respect for children's bodies and teach them about setting boundaries that make them feel comfortable?

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21:08

TWBIM_0355 Let's Rumble

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/11/18

Inspired by the new picture book, Let's Rumble, Mike leads the group back to their roots with a conversation about roughhousing with children. What does it look like and why is it so important?

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TWBIM_0354 Body Boundaries

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/11/11

The group has a big conversation about the complex topic of children's body autonomy in the school setting. There are so many different contexts in which physical contact takes place. It's hard (impossible?) to find just one "rule" to govern them all. (Here's a link to the book Mike references: Essential Touch: Meeting the Needs of Young Children by Frances M. Carlson)

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22:19

TWTBIM_0353 I Like Your Sweatshirt

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/11/04

One of Tom's pet peeves is when grownups greet children with compliments centered on their appearance. Mike sees it as similar to relfexively saying "good job." Ross points out that attempts to build self-esteem could actually wind up undermining self-worth. Joey wonders about the child who plans their outfits and initiates the interactions about clothing. The conversation leads Tom to an insight about the importance of helping children reflect on their strengths and accomplishments.

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21:06

TWTBIM_0352 Teaching Helplessness

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/10/28

Ross worries about children who can't find their autonomy because adults are always helping them do things (like zippers, of course). Tom shares a recent experience of his grandson learning to shuffle while he patiently waited. Mike proposes a model of "learned coorperation" instead of learned helplessness. Joey can't find the term she is looking for, but it's the thing that Ross is talking about.

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20:57

TWTBIM_0351 Unintentional Races

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/10/22

Joey turns to Tom and Mike to help sort out some logistical challenges related to running. Children love to run, but in some conditions it can lead to hyper-competitive racing, pushing, and crashing. Together they brainstorm ideas to help make room for everyone and allow the children to continue to find joy in running.

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20:43

TWTBIM_0350 Mike Makes Paper Airplanes

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/10/13

A recent experience at a children's museum has Mike thinking about the conditions for play. What invites us into a flow state? How is it different for adults than for children? Can we find flow in both work and play? Mike talks about how he gets the ideas flowing when he has writer's block. Tom remembers how fun it was to play with boxes and table when he built sensory apparatus.

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23:33

TWTBIM_0349 Tom Gets Help With His Fence

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/10/07

Tom's grandson came over to help fix his fence last weekend. This got Tom thinking about children doing real work. How can experiences with real work be successful for the child AND the adult? What about when the job has to be done right? Mike remembers working with pie crust scraps as his mom made the real pies. Joey looks for jobs that are helpful even when they're not done perfectly. Intent and approximation are what we need.

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18:59

TWTBIM_0348 We'll Get There

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/09/30

Ross reflects on the value of slowing down as we build relationships at the beginning of the school year. Joey knows the FOMO feeling that can happen as teachers want to try out all their good ideas. Tom suggests that we "live the routine" with flexibility as we figure out what everyone needs. If we charge through everything, we might miss the beautiful moment where a child offers an injured bee a flower blossom.

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21:37

TWTBIM_0347 It All Goes Better With Action

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/09/23

Joey's gathering ideas for building relationships with children in a way that doesn't rely exclusively on language. The list gets started: sharing their perspective, connecting children with other children, taking the "temperature" during greetings, playing near them, narrating not interrogating, and making faces. Tom points out how barriers can actually invite interraction and Joey brainstorms a box door that she wants to prototype.

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21:14

TWTBIM_0346 Dance to the Beat of the Drum

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/09/16

All the talk of danicng in the last episode has Mike thinking about drumming. He suggests the metaphor of teacher as drummer, setting the foundation for the group. (We can't resist a good metaphor!) When things are flowing nicely, the drummer can even drop out and the group keeps playing along.

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21:31

TWTBIM_0345 Correspondence

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/09/09

Refreshed from a summer break, the group is ready to dive into deep thinking with Tom. He's brought some light reading to decipher. What does it mean to correspond with children versus interact? Ross's school dance analogy is just the thing to help everyone understand.

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18:48

ENCORE EPISODE: Creating the Conditions

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/08/27

Tom's parking cars at the State Fair, Joey and Ross are busy setting up classrooms, and Mike is prepping for another possible podcast (more later). Enjoy this encore eposide in the meantime! What happens if you create the conditions where children know they can try things vs. run a classroom where children are allowed to do things? It's a subtle difference that can lead to a stance of curiosity and appreciation. It can be as simple as the set up for how children access paint or having towels easily

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21:47

TWTBIM_0344 Effort and Attention

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/08/19

A recent experience with new glasses has Joey thinking about executive function and how effort drains attention. Adults often forget the effort involved in tasks that seem like they should be automatic such as walking down a hallway in a line, sitting in a group for storytime, washing hands or unzipping a backpack. If we watch for signs of effort, perhaps we can lighten the load for children instead of burdening them with sequences of difficult tasks. It might make everyone's day more pleasant.

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22:15

TWTBIM_00343 Exploring Boundaries

Teaching With The Body In Mind ·

2025/08/12

Tom has some questions about boundaries and rules. For children, the edges of boundaries are the interesting part. Boundaries are more "stretchy" and can be more dynamic than rules.

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