Large Circle Time - Dinker Sharma - January 2024
As the team at Shikshantar returned fresh from celebrating the tidings of the new year, they came together to reconnect through the traditional Large Circle Time. This time is important and special to realign energies among the team members and on this occasion, we had the pleasure of hosting accomplished theatre artist, film actor and director Dinker Sharma to speak on the value of introducing ‘Theater in Education’. With his experience in the acting profession, Dinker Bhaiya led the team in a dynamic session that challenged inhibitions and introduced new ways to approach day to day classroom experiences and interaction with students through his craft.
The discussion began with Dinker Sharma inviting the audience to express what their impressions of theatre were. The thoughts shared varied from “costumes” and “the stage” to “collaboration” and key elements of an individual’s inner feelings like “connecting to the soul”.
The session then moved in a more interactive direction through several theatre activities each designed to aid a separate facet of teaching. They also doubled up as another opportunity for the team to put themselves in the children’s shoes and exercise their empathy to understand inclusion and teamwork in classroom experience with children.
‘Shikshantar Says’ was a listening activity of call and response to prepare participants’ concentrations and response times while applying independent thought. Voice modulation exercises to effectively broadcast your voice to any corner of a room. Using emotion, direction and breath control to establish a connection between individuals even in a crowded room which can help every student feel directly involved in the space. The activities culminated in the entire room breaking into groups and collaborating to form a story that was then enacted in a charming play prepared within 15 minutes. He further connected the nuances of theater skills to how they can be used to work around individuality emerging from diversity of cultures, opportunities, abilities, habits etc. in the classroom.
Throughout the session, a common thread that Dinker Sharma drew attention to was the importance of connecting each activity to the children and the classroom and how it helps in all aspects of teaching. There was a continuous flow of ideas for further application of the principles of theater as well as its practicality and use through the lesson plans, day to day project experiences within the classroom space. Student group sizes for activities were discussed, conflict resolution and emotional control was demonstrated, specific exercises to gauge children’s awareness were suggested.
The fruitful talk ended with Anita Didi thanking Dinker Bhaiya for his time and noting similar elements within the skillsets of actors and our facilitators, bringing their lesson plans to life for students in their own creative ways, weaving them into stories that incorporate numbers, language, science and so on.