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I want to talk more about doing a barometer. During the lesson planning class when someone (I think Danielle) stood up to be the teacher, watching her move around the classroom animatedly made me realize that movement is something we actually may not want to worry about restricting. I get the sense movement/closeness of bodies is so heavily policed already, by specifically shying away from activities involving more free movement, we are perpetuated this body policing. Furthermore, I think that doing these “policing” efforts relay an underlying fear about presumed aggressive attitudes that the women might have towards each other when given the freedom to move about a space in combination with the freedom to disagree openly with one another’s opinions. I think there are ways for us to facilitate which would resolve our nervousness with this activity. Doing a barometer has the potential to unleash a more exciting discussion, as well as encourage people to listen to one another and reconsider their statements. Maybe one way to do this would be having only one of our group facilitating and the rest of us participating… then we could model in some way, the freedom to change your decision/thinking toward a quote… also laying “ground rules” as mentioned in the SpeakOut article….

I just want to see more activities that are engaging in ways that are exciting, where the same couple people aren't always participating but that more people might feel called to speak. I think the Riverside women are ready and hungry from something challenging, so now it's a matter of the BMC women deciding we are ready to take some more risks with our pedagocial decisions.