As a part of Phase IV of the ongoing course on Integral Education (IE) spread over a period of 12 months, aimed at introducing, guiding and mentoring a group of 8 teachers of the M S Udayamurthy School of Excellence, including one representative from the management, a three-and-a-half-day workshop was organised at the school premises in Namakkal. This was the fourth and final workshop held in the series of phases for the topics regarding IE to be covered with the teachers of the school.

Course Facilitators: The facilitators of the workshop were Shivakumar and Priti, from SAFIER, Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry and Bismay Ranjan as an IE resource person.

In Phase I, a general introduction was given to the theory, practices and approach of Integral Education. The participants were introduced to the founders of Integral Education and also the basic vocabulary and foundational parts of Integral Education (IE). Psychic education was introduced with several experiential activities. 

In Phase II, a brief preview was given to the practices of Physical Education, through awareness games and activities, and the approach was introduced with reflective experiential activities.

A Project work was given at the end of the workshop which was designed to help the teachers assimilate the learnings of the workshop.

In the Phase III workshop, an introduction was given to Vital Education beginning with Sense Development games as sense development is the doorway to building a robust Vital Education. Activities such as awareness games, painting in nature and writing poetry, which helped the participants become aware of their Vital nature were taken up and methods to control and the Vital nature were also taken up. 

A Mini Project on ‘converting a vital weakness into vital strength’ along with an Assignment to develop one’s own sense development and minor games was given to the teachers to prepare the base for the Phase IV workshop.

In the last phase – Phase IV workshop, an introduction was given to Mental development with the help of the two-fold approach of Knowing the mind and its real powers and Developing the mind in a systematic way. The workshop concluded with an introduction to curriculum planning based on Integral Project Based Learning which is an integral part of the Mental development. Certificates were presented to the participants who had attended all the four phases and participated fully by doing the assignments and project given thereby.

The topics taken up during the workshop were:

1. A presentation by the participants of the Mini Project on ‘Refining the Vital Nature - converting a vital weakness into vital strength’
2. Connecting to the Psychic being through Vedic Mantra chanting
3. Awakening the Physical by Practicing Suryanamaskara
4. A recap of the first three phases
5. Awakening the mind through an awareness game
6. Knowing the Mind through a discussion
7. Developing the Powers of the Mind through experiential activities
8. Doing an Integral activity
9. Introduction of the Integral Project based Learning (IPBL) method with a relook at the three principles of Education
10. Getting warmed up to do a project with a game
11. Curriculum Planning discussions with relation to IPBL
12. Screening of the Animation film ‘Sri Aurobindo: A New Dawn’ in Tamil to reacquaint the participants with the life of the Founder of Integral Education.

In all the four workshops, the teachers were happy to experience a new awareness enveloping them and their outlook towards education got completely reawakened with the shaking out of old ideas about education and the emergence of a new understanding with the help of Integral Education. Follow-up online sessions were taken up to strengthen the practices introduced during the workshops. Many small practices such as playing co-operative games, sense awareness games and creating a psychic atmosphere in the classrooms have already been started in the school. As a follow-up to the IE course, an IE based facilitator trained in Mirambika has joined the school in order to take forward the Integral Project based Learning approach in the school and help the teachers in the implementation.