Educator Voice & Expertise is Vital in Curriculum Design

Today, Ali and JoDee are joined by Rupa Mehta, a fitness entrepreneur and founder of the NaliniKIDS, a nonprofit organization that focuses on creating PreK-12 programs that pair physical movement with emotional reflection. Together, they’ll discuss the importance of involving educators in educational product development, along with integrating exercise, movement and mindfulness into the education system for both students and teachers.

Connect with Rupa:
Website: https://nalinikids.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nalinikids/

Connect with Ali and JoDee:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachershift
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teachershift
Teacher Shift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-shift
Ali’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisimon/
JoDee’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodeescissors/

Website
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/

Episode Transcriptions
https://www.teachershiftpodcast.com/blog

Transcript

Ali  0:06  
Teachers are natural innovators, entertainers and problem solvers. They dream of growing old into the profession, teaching their kids kids. But sometimes career goals shift, and that makes opportunities outside of the classroom seem intangible questioning, who am I, if I'm not a teacher? I'm your host, Ali Simon.

JoDee  0:29  
And I'm your co host, JoDee Scissors.

Ali  0:32  
And this is Teacher Shift.

JoDee  0:43  
Every year we see new educational products and methodologies introduced in schools. But how many of them take into consideration the voice, expertise and guidance of a teacher. Today we talk with a guest that values the voice of educators, so much so that every seat on her advisory board is filled with educators.

Ali  1:05  
Rupa Mehta is an NYC fitness entrepreneur who started her career by challenging adults to reflect on what truly makes them feel healthy. In 2008, she started the nonprofit, NaliniKIDS, bringing her methodology to the classroom. Welcome to the show today. Rupa.

Rupa  1:23  
Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm really honored to be here.

JoDee  1:27  
We're pumped that you're here because Ali told me all about your business after a run in with your husband at South By. And so I'm actually going into this, into this episode a little bit blindly. I wanted to learn from you. You know, we have your website, we have your socials and everything. But I did a little bit of research, but I really came today like the rest of our listeners to learn about your business. So tell us really quickly just what is Nalini?

Rupa  1:57  
So Nalini is actually my mom's name. She was an amazing mom. Unfortunately, she passed away three years ago. But I was very lucky I grew up in a home where I felt accepted, challenged, encouraged, nurtured. And so many of our students across this country don't have that gift or that luxury. And I felt that it was really my duty, whether it was with adult clients or with students in a classroom, to make sure whatever program I do surrounding, you know, getting healthier physically and emotionally, that the students and the adults would walk away feeling that feeling of acceptance and encouragement. And so NaliniKIDS is really rooted in having a very comfortable, safe atmosphere where you can become physically and emotionally healthier.

JoDee  2:44  
I love that you haven't named after your mom, Ali and I have both lost our mothers. And we understand that this is a really great way to honor her for a really positive and very proactive mission that you have with your nonprofit. I know that you know we live in this digital age. Kids are very tech savvy from a very young age. We become sedentary when we are you know attached to these devices. And as someone that has studied the, the SEL competencies. I've gone through the CASSLE trainings and implemented it in my own work. I do think that exercise is a huge part of opening up those cognitive abilities. And you had started it with adults. And seeing that, seeing you exercise it with adults and then translating it into the children's space. I totally agree that it's something that that kids need. They need, you know, we live in this digital age and they have to have some sort of physical activity, to help them emotionally to help them mentally and all those aspects that make them an active and an eager learner when they're in the classroom. 

Rupa  2:59  
No, I often I think about if I were a student in the classroom now I think of this caricature comes to mind of a student walking into the door but getting stuck because their head is so big. That they're filled with like the 24/7 news cycle, testing, that their heads are almost floating away from their bodies. That's the way I feel. I don't feel the physical presence of students and quite honestly, teachers oftentimes because there's so many distractions. And when the head is that big, and filled with so many thoughts. It's interesting because social emotional learning, I think 20 years ago, or at least what I was circling around, it was really meant to kind of provide this space in the brain to be able to deal with all this stimuli. And now increasingly, social emotional learning can increase the stimuli in your brain. It's sometimes controversial. And so I actually think more than ever as SEL grows, this connection to physical fitness and this feeling of at exercising emotions, I think is more important than ever.

Ali  5:05  
So why do you feel so strongly about having movement be a part of SEL? I don't always see it presented that way. But I definitely buy into what you talked about South By in your talk and, and what you just shared with us.

Rupa  5:20  
I think for myself, you know, let's say I'm just meeting both of you today. And let's say we ended up doing a walk together, before we do a podcast together. I'm sure I'd open up even more on the podcast, right. And so, you know, anytime you have a shared group experience, a physical movement, it allows you to then move the thoughts in your brain a little bit more easily. And so, you know, to the degree that we could pair that together, I think it would be phenomenal for schools. You know, if I, if I were to, I don't have the expertise or credentials to really do this right now. But if I were to open up the school, I would want to make sure that like, the PE teacher and the counselor are so connected, and that the blueprint of the school lended itself to making that mind body connection. I think we talk about it all the time, the mind body connection, but our practical infrastructure doesn't necessarily reflect that. And I do think on its simplest level, when you can move the body, you are more easily able to move the mind. And with this increasing amount of stimuli that we have as on an adult level and students have, we need that more than ever.

JoDee  6:31  
I totally agree with that. I know that it is exercise and movement is a really big part of my mind opening up. And I think about all the kids that came in in the mornings, who did have a lot going on in their head. And in your little 20 minute video, you had this graphic where it's just like a little tiny body, and there's a giant head and there's all these things going on in there. And it happens to the adults that are in the building to. There are kids that came to school that had a bad night of sleep, they saw something terrible on the news, or their parents got in a fight that morning. But adults experience those same things to going into the workplace. And so as you integrate these things with students, what about the teacher? Are the teachers engaging? Are they getting involved in order to open their cognitive abilities?

Rupa  7:31  
It's 100% true. You know, I think about... I'm in the middle of developing a Pre K curriculum. And the way we kind of pitch it to them a little little ones is like, we live in this world of words. You know, you live in the world, I live in the world and fifth grader lives in the world of Pre K student. And we're inundated with these words all day long. And these words can weigh us down or lift us up. And so teachers feeling that they have the space and the time and really like a safe space to share words that are on their mind, whether that's the word professional development, observation, testing, and explore the feelings and emotions around that. That helps lighten the burden of the world of words that we live in. You know our workouts primarily on on a very simple level, we have like two to three minute free videos that are online that teachers can use in the classroom. But there's like the happiness workout, the confidence workout, the anxiety workout. And so what we do is simply give the dictionary definition of the word. We have a physical movement that feels like the manifestation of that word. So for example, anxiety might be the tree pose and trying to balance on one leg. Energy might be jumping jacks. And then you go through a series of questions, whether it be ELA, STEM, or based on community that tie that word together. So anxiety might be like, what makes you feel anxious at home? Or is there a day of the week that you feel a little bit more stressed around? You know, we have these kind of emotional workouts associated to the physical workout you just did. And the way we bring teachers into that, well, not only are they hopefully modeling it in the classroom. Teaching these workouts actually just has this nice collateral effect of just helping the teachers feel like they have a physical outlet to. But oftentimes, in training schools, we do do a group exercise workout with the teachers, a workshop where they dive into their own emotional way on the teacher level. And sometimes this stuff doesn't have to be heavy and so crazy, and so long. It just couldn't be I have a teacher who right now has like a little collection jar in her Pre K classroom. And she's just collecting words from the teachers throughout the day. And they just do a movement at the end of the day that reflects the word that they put in the jar. And just something like that makes that connection palpable. And another way we bring teachers into the, into the mix is that we're very passionate about having them involved from the beginning to the end of our curriculum, meaning that we have an educator advisory board. And we look to teachers across the country from different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different genders, different grades served, different types of school, whether it be private, public, charter, to help us come together to strategically think about curriculum that not only has the best intention, but actually can be implemented, because intention doesn't always equal implementation. And teacher input is vital to bridge that gap.

Ali  10:28  
I definitely think that teacher input is so important. And it's amazing to hear that your organization involves educators from that foundational spot. You're not just bringing them in, like later on to test something that a whole team of non educators has written, but that they're actually involved. One thing I was thinking about when you were talking about the programs is, how do you work on getting the teacher buy in? That's something that I know can be a struggle, you know, you're out of school. And guess what this year we're going to do this new thing. I can definitely see if the PD that the teachers are given involves them doing these exercises, they can see the benefits of it in that one session. But I'm just wondering if there's, if there's other ways that maybe you've heard from the teachers that you've worked with, or that the Advisory Board has shed light on of how teachers really buy into the program?

Rupa  11:20  
You know, I think more than anything with teachers I've connected with, as long as I am patient and authentic, it will come out. You know, I feel like teachers are authenticity sniffers, They really, they just know, if they don't want bullshit in their room. They don't want to be sold a bunch of stuff. So I think oftentimes the approach, it's not necessarily that the EAP has shed light on this, it's just the nature of the EAP. They get to talk, I get to listen. I get to talk, they get to listen. Like we have an even exchange of ideas. And I think that we're not attached to the outcome. I don't expect the teachers I'm connecting with to necessarily teach NaliniKIDS in their classroom. They might have other hurdles. They might be attached to other SEL programs. They might have lack of administration buy in. They might be tired, but that doesn't mean they're not valuable to this organization, and helping us understand what's happening on the frontlines of education. And so, for me, it's more about relationship building, and making sure I really, I really value each and every teacher I've connected with over the years and on a personal and a professional level. And I think that has lend itself to me really organically having their voice in the curriculum. And then in terms of, because that voice is so valued, you know, like we have this program, Word Workouts. Like I just told you the anxiety workout, confidence workout. Those words that we decided to film workout videos around, were rooted in us doing interviews with teachers and parents and saying, like, what are the words that are most popular and coming up in your classrooms. So I feel that the teachers feel creatively invested. And, and I see creatively very, I want to emphasize if I were to bold a word, everyone likes to feel creative, and a sense of ownership. And so that feeling, we want to make sure we have with our schools that we deal with. And however, we have to work together to make it customized and tailored to that classroom, to that district, we will take the time to do that.

JoDee  13:30  
I love that. I really appreciate you valuing the voice of a teacher, because when Ali and I were at South By there were a lot of people presenting without the guidance of teachers. And I've been to several panels here in Washington, DC that are education oriented, with high level educational leaders. And at the end of those panels, there wasn't a single teacher voice representing the classroom. And the teacher is the closest person to the students. So there, there was this long lineage of people talking about teachers, and talking about students, but the person that's with them the most, wasn't there. And so that is something that really bothers me in terms of, you know, these products being built, these programs being built without the voice of a teacher. And you not only include them in the voice you, you empower them. They empower your work. And I think that reciprocal relationship is really good in the end, for the student

Rupa  14:40  
100% and honestly, it's just a more fulfilling experience all around. You know, I started up as a fitness instructor in New York City, teaching 20 clients a day. 20 clients in a class, six classes a day, six days a week. It was like a lot of teaching a fitness. And I remember sometimes people thought like I can teach a fitness class. And I'm like, Yeah, but it is hard to even just like balanced music, talking and stuff. And like, think about that in a classroom level, like I'm talking about a fitness class adults. And now over the years I've taught, I've taught social emotional learning. I've taught classes kindergarten all the way to 12. But I feel that from the day one I became a fitness instructor just balancing, I always had an appreciation for how much teachers need to balance in the room just to feel heard, just to make sure your voice is loud enough, just to make sure that everyone's seated kind of in a way that feels like everyone can be have a voice in the room, making sure that everyone's fed and like all their little stuff is dealt with. And so I think a lot of this is like classroom management support, like on a broad level, and then like, how can we help you integrate this program. And if you're not willing to be part of that dialogue, or if you're being too judgmental going in, you're not going to be set up for success. Yes, in an ideal world, every student does exactly what you want, when you want. Slass starts on time. There's no transitional stuff needed. The administrator doesn't come in. You have a great commute to work. But this is not true. This is not reality. And so feeling like you have a partner kind of in the dugout with you to kind of help you deal with all that stuff to then get to the program, I think is really important.

Ali  16:22  
When you were talking about the program, and the Word Workouts, what really stood out to me was that it's clear that educators were involved in this creation, because it wasn't something that sounded like, at least to me, and you could tell me, was gonna take 30 minutes, 45 minutes. These are quick things that you can bring into your classroom. And because they're not lengthy, the ability to do them over and over again, and to build a routine, to get used to them. It's really hard, I think when you're a teacher, and you feel overwhelmed, and you have to bring in so many things. But if you can bring in something shorter into your classroom that has deep meaning, deep purpose, and you have the tools to do it, that it's a lot more reasonable. And also, like, I think you will get benefit from it as well, as a teacher. I know, when I was at my last school, I wanted to bring in more mindfulness activities, and actually did yoga with my students in Spanish. And, you know, it was bumpy in the beginning. It was I'm not gonna lie, it was bumpy, because it was trying to get a bunch of high schoolers to do it. But eventually, you know, we got into more of a rhythm. And I really liked it. But it didn't take time. It took like longer amounts of time to do that. This sounds more reasonable, right, like shorter bursts. More than a brain break. But less than a full on activity in a class that you would normally do like a full lesson.

JoDee  17:51  
I was just going to add on to the mindfulness thing. During the last few years of my teaching career, mindfulness was a really strong theme. And I remember when we were implementing the processes or whatever things that we had going on, it was natural for some students, and some teachers. And it was a work in progress, it was a little bit tougher, to be able to like step away, when you need to have a mindful moment and put your headphones on and listen to the ocean or whatever practices a teacher had in place. We had these zones to be able to recognize feelings and stuff. But by the end, not even ended the year by a few weeks in, it was this norm in our classroom. And I realized that, you know, sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zone. Sometimes things that benefit us, we aren't actually exercising. And to overcome those things that you might have to have a little bit of discomfort. Like maybe you're not, I was, you know, watching your video, and you were like having the audience like, do the little stomp thing. And you're like, I know, you can do better than that. It's like, you know, yeah, yeah, actually, I can, like I'm a little reluctant, but I can do better than that. There was a little bit of motivation until, you know, three seconds later, you know, you're counting down and everybody's just going full speed. So there is a learning curve there sometimes. But once you see those benefits, kind of like if you were to go to counseling, or go to a workout, or run a marathon or whatever it might be, the hard work is worth it.

Rupa  19:31  
100%. I think like, what we're talking about makes me think of just realistic expectations. You know, going in that first week of piloting the program, if you feel set up that you know the website, you know where to go to to execute this one workout and you feel comfortable with the why. Like why am I teaching physical fitness and social emotional learning right now? Like, why am I doing it? Is it because someone told me to? And my forte like, what is the why if you can figure that out? And then you have like the practical tools. So I'm very patient with the practical tools. I'll spend a lot of time on the why. Because like, if the why part is done and understood by the teachers and the administration, then time will be given to the teachers to hopefully plan. They'll kind of initiate planting time on their own. And I think we just have to be thoughtful in how we launch programs in schools and make sure we're very realistic about those first couple of weeks of implementation. Because I've been in a lot of schools where they've tested out a program and after one year, like a couple of teachers didn't like it, then they move on. And it's, it's not that I want to come in and like, hey, fix everything. I'm like, Well, why are we even moving on after a year? Sometimes some things even take longer than a year, right? And so I think really being patient to understand what, what are we trying to fix here? Why do you feel the need to bring this program into your school, and making sure teachers have a voice at that table when discussing it.

JoDee  21:00  
Amplifying teacher voices, I love it.

Rupa  21:04  
And I also think, you know, for us, I think to move the needle, the way our organization does it, we pride ourselves on having very kind of neutral curriculum. You know, I started out in the thick of New York City public schools, and in a school that was not open to kind of breathing exercises. The word yoga was like, Whoa, way too much. And I'm happy. I've always been drawn to kind of areas in the situation that are not necessarily primed and ready for this type of work. And I think as a result, I have really figured out how to get us there. So even just words, making the word workout. So let's say my jumping jack exercises called energy. It's not called jumping jacks. Or the calm workout is called calm. And it's not called meditation. These subtle things have been very valuable in us being well received nationwide, whether it be an urban setting, a rural setting, older teachers, younger teachers. Just everyone feeling like words are common, that's a universal thing. I can get behind that as a workout and as an entry point for social emotional learning. And so to the point that we talked about earlier, making sure something stays simple, so then it can be stickier, I think has been, I guess, our special sauce.

Ali  22:23  
Well it sounds like you were very thoughtful in the planning and in the rolling out of this of this curriculum. And, you know, sometimes you do have to be careful because you want this to be everywhere. And we don't want anything to be divisive. We know that education these days, can be like that. You know, people take issue with lots of things. But words for sure are things that everybody understands and, and bringing those bite sized pieces of SEL and physical activity into classrooms is really essential. And I think a missing piece of what's going on in our education system today. I, you know, I thought back even to my own education, and I was lucky that I went to a performing arts school. So I had a lot of movement, like in my theater classes. But besides that, there's not a lot of movement. You know, there's not a lot of those moments where students get to take a break unless they are in PE or recess, which let's be honest, those times are getting cut even more and more. So I'm really thankful for the discussion today, Rups and for your time. And I'm excited for our listeners to learn more about NaliniKIDS. And I want to let them know that they can connect with you on Instagram at Nalini kids and on your website Nalinikids.org And we'll link both of those in the show notes. But thank you again for your time today.

Rupa  23:47  
Thank you so much it was wonderful chatting with you both.

Ali  23:58  
Are you interested in suggesting a topic for Teacher Shift? Being a guest or recommending a guest? Please see the episodes page on our website to make a submission. And if you'd like to write for us, see our blog page. If you liked Teacher Shift, give us a five star rating and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Apple podcasts, Spotify and Amazon music. Today's episode was written and recorded by me, Ali Simon and my co host JoDee Scissors. Executive produced by Teacher Shift. Produced and edited by Emily Porter. Original Music: Emoji by Tubebackr.