Deliberately provocative in name, #NakedTeachingDay is designed to get your attention! Year after year, schools are taking part in putting away their resources – pens, paper, iPads, Powerpoints – to teach ‘naked’ for just one day. Do you dare teach naked on September 28th?
Last year’s #NakedTeachingDay not only gave staff and students space to empathise with colleagues across the globe but also provided our charity ReachOut2Schools, in association with Lincs2Nepal, with lots of ideas to take out to the staff of Nepal. One of our more remote schools in Madi provides education for some of the poorest citizens in the country. Isolated from the tourist trails, this little school has very little. No interactive whiteboard, no iPads… many students do not even have pens or books. Your ideas supported teachers in growing their practice and educating with what they have. We hope you keep them coming on the hashtag this year!
If you want to take part but are struggling for ideas yourself, here are a few to get you started:
- Use Your Surroundings
Get outside the classroom and use your natural surroundings for learning. Walk in the local park and explore what already exists. In Madi school, we used leaves to create art! You don’t even need to use paint. Get creative with what you can find and discuss with your students how the children of Madi learn using only what they have in their natural world.
Using leaves to create works of art in Madi village school
- Cross Age Project
Take students out of their classes and create a no resource cross age project. You could link this idea to understanding how the children in refugee camps may experience school. The learning is not always linear and well organised but makes do with who and what they have. Set them a problem or a task to complete and watch as the older pupils guide the young ones on their journey of discovery.
Students learning in a refugee school
- Learning Through Another Language
The children of countries such as Nepal and Ghana are forced to learn in a language that is not their own. There can often be more than one hundred different dialects in one village. Each tribe communicating with a language. Teaching often happens in English as do exams to create a common language for all. This is not an ideal learning situation but it is common. How could you learn another language to create empathy for the teachers and children in this tricky learning situation? Would you invent your own shared language?
We think in our own languages in Jevan Jyoti School, Nepal
- Learning Through Song and Rhyme
In the caste systems of many countries, there are tribes that dedicate their lives to story telling and song. These old ways of living can be easily lost. We met one man who was from a singing tribe; his mental health had forced him to stop his trade and he now lives a life of homemade rice wine and depression. We work alongside schools to train teachers how to embrace traditions and use them to engage and empower their students. Could you create song stories and teach your students about the traditional way of recording history and storytelling?
You can also check out my roundup from last year
or get in touch if you would like support setting your day up. Whatever you do, use it to raise understanding of the situations that exist all around the world. Situations that may not be perfect but are real and can be improved!
The daily grind can leave us blind to the world outside our classroom walls. #NakedTeachingDay asks us to stop and reflect as a community. To be thankful for what we have and to recognise the struggle that takes place in war torn countries, countries that have experienced natural disasters or countries in real economic crisis. Education can be the key to improving their futures. I’m privileged to be working alongside many schools regularly. Your ideas will be used on our next visit and I’m sure they will be useful to others locally too. I look forward to working with you as the ideas and practice come pouring in! If your school choose to turn this into a fund raising event, get in touch and we can make sure every penny is spent upon improving education for those who will use it to improve their country’s future.
Share far and wide: It’s #NakedTachingDay on the 28th of September! JOIN IN!
