Testimonial by Michaela


              

Michaela’s Experience with Hula-Hoops written year 2000


“I was completely unprepared for what I encountered on the first day of school.  Led to go where the need was greatest, I took a job as a 2nd grade teacher in the inner city.   What I found was shocking!  The 7 and 8 year olds lived in the most impoverished +neighborhood in the city.   Because the school was nonintegrated,  there were no computers or copiers that worked.  Doing my job was a daily exercise in frustration.  The children were already resigned to their futures.  They were walking “clones” of their parents’ conversations, prejudices, transience, and drugs. Violence broke out in the classroom on a daily basis.  It was common behavior for the children to shove desks into other children or jump from their desks to fist fight, or scream, “That’s my pencil”.  Winning these children over to the idea that they could be successful people in an environment different from the one they were in was a formable task.   I asked myself, “How do I do this?”

In comes Eva from San Antonio, a retired teacher who developed the MELAND concept.   In MeLand there is a Me language and everyone has the same name – “Me.”  We have an Invisible Me and a Visible Me.  Each of us Me’s has a space – My Space.  Each Me is the boss of Me.  This was it! The first activity was showing that every person has a space – “My Space”.  I asked each child to step into a hula-hoop.   With this fun toy each child experienced for the first time, “MY SPACE”.   They learned that in their space they have rights.   They learned to respect their own space and the space of others.  Suddenly fighting STOPPED, and instead I heard:  “You can’t fight with me.   You are invading my space.”  Soon the children were asserting their rights through talking to each other.  I saw respect and compassion emerge in these little “Me’s” and for the first time all school year, I looked forward with enthusiasm for the next day of school.”
Michaela Tells It Again...year 2010
 
MeLand was my life saver when I worked in the inner city schools. I was teaching second grade and I did not get control of the classroom until March of that school year.  I did it with the MeLand material. Introducing MY SPACE was an eye opener for the children. "We have space that is ours?  We are the boss of that space?" Total amazement to the children that they had power over themselves. With the songs, singing the words, and the journals we created, the children began identifying what they were feeling, and now had the tools to put their feelings into words. The children communicated their needs, their feelings, and respected themselves and each other. The rest of the year was pure joy! 

Thank you, Eva!
 
Michaela Turner, BS Ed, CYKF, YKT
30 year veteran edcuator and Certified YogaKids Teacher and Trainer
Co-Creator of the online Yogi Parenting Course

 

                

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