A. Warm-Up: She/He/They/We are!

• If in person, class arranges themselves with the teacher into a circle. Each student “introduces” themselves to the group (even if they already know each other), by stepping into the middle of the circle, describing themselves in the third person, naming themselves, and adding a descriptor. Examples: “He is Raul, and he is a musician.” “They are Lee, and they are funny.” The class then choruses back the same line: “He is Raul and he is a musician.” This gives all participants a chance to name their pronouns and to consider one theme that informs their identity.

On a digital platform, encourage students to turn on their camera if you know that is a comfortable option for all participants. Furthermore, ask students to turn on their mics for the duration of the activity, monitoring their own background noise and turning off if their space gets too loud. Ask one student to start and spotlight each student as they speak. The choral response back will be loud and chaotic, but try to play it with it and see how it goes. Modify as is necessary for the size of your group. Ask each student to pass to the next speaker.

Optional (and fun!) expansion: Round 2, each student adds a physical motion to their lines. The group then needs to repeat their lines and the motions back to them.

Optional (and even more fun!) further expansion: Memory challenge, each student steps into the circle, or is spotlit on Zoom, and the group has to remember their lines and motions and do them for each individual.

(Resource: Theater of the Oppressed)

B. Language & image prep for film screening

• Share these terms and their definitions; give students a chance to ask about and refine. (These definitions are drawn from Merriam-Webster with minor modifications.)

Gender identity: a person's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female

Trauma:
-a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury
-an emotional upset

MDMA: 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, is a psychoactive drug primarily used for recreational purposes. The desired effects include altered sensations, increased energy, empathy, as well as pleasure. When taken by mouth, effects begin in 30 to 45 minutes and last 3 to 6 hours.

Self-care: care for oneself

Risk: someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard

Healthy risk: a tool to define, develop and consolidate their identity. Healthy risk-taking is a big part of growth

Heal:
1a : to make free from injury or disease : to make sound or whole heal a wound
b : to make well again : to restore tohealth heal the sick
2a : to cause (an undesirable condition) to be overcome
b : to patch up or correct (a breach or division) heal a breach between friends
3 : to restore to original purity or integrity;
- alternatively: to create a new way of being and/or a new outlook that counters previous modes of acting or thinking that caused harm to oneself

• Ask students to choose one of these terms. Once they’ve chosen one, ask them to scroll through their photo stream and post one image that speaks to that term to the class instagram account. Alternatively, if you’re on zoom students can replace their profile pic with this image or share to the chat. Remind students about the group’s community agreements. (This is where the advanced work with community agreements will come in to play; make sure to include guidelines about what is safe and respectful to post.) This will also likely be a hectic moment as it may be exciting to be able to use their phones in class rather than hide them away. In order to contain some of that energy, give students 5-8 minutes total to complete. The time constraint will also encourage students to dive in and not overthink it.

C. Screen film; “Integrate.Me”

• Allow for some supported but open-ended reflection immediately following the film. While you conduct the discussion, ask a student to chart ideas and responses where the group can view.

Useful prompts:

1. What images were repeated? Why those images?
2. What was the source of the narrator’s pain and trauma?
3. What brought them to seek treatment?
4. Were they helped? What helped them? Why did it help?
5. What did you think of the dancing? Who was the dancing for? Would you post photos of yourself moving/dancing in a similar manner? Why or why not?

D. What We See/What We Don’t

1. 1. Pass out template; see Resources. Feel free to create your own.
   2. Explain parameters; their work will be private to their own page, and they will have the choice of what to share out to the group.
   3. On the outside of the figure:
      - prompt students to write and draw what others see as their strengths and successes.
      - prompt students to write and draw what others see as their weaknesses or challenges.
   4. On the inside of the figure:
      - prompt students to write or draw what they see as their own weaknesses or challenges.
      - prompt students to write or draw what they see as their own strengths or challenges.
   5. At the top of the page, have them write and complete this line:
      People see me as ________________, but really I am ___________.
   6. Ask for any volunteers to share that line to the group. Go on as long as there are volunteers to share. This may become the whole group and the rest of the session.
   7. Finally, in a different color ink or type set, have students write activities they do that make them feel good about themselves. Allow them to write them wherever they choose.

E. Transforming Map

1. 1. Use one of the Transformation Map templates (See handouts, or create your own). Distribute one per student.
   2. Model filling one out for the group as a whole. Choose real, class appropriate challenges from your own life. Depending on the template the exact instructions will shift; but choose one end to mark a current challenge or way of being they’d like to change, and one end to mark the strength or way of being they’d like to arrive at.
   3. In the appropriate mark, ask students to write a challenge or weakness from their “What We See/What We Don’t” exercise.
   4. In the appropriate mark, ask students to write something they would do, or a feeling they would have, if they got past that challenge or weakness. In other words, what would help them shine.
   5. In the marks between, ask students to fill in relevant activities that help them feel positive about themselves.
   6. Anywhere on the page, ask students to fill in specific actions they can take that would help them reach the circle on the right.
   7. While students are working, play music without words. Allow ten minutes, but be flexible to allocating more, based on the mood of the group.
   8. When done, ask for volunteers to share. Go on as long as there are volunteers to share. This may become the whole group and the rest of the session.

F. Following our map, charting the journey, and posting about it.

1. 1. Give students a week for the concluding project.
   2. Tell students to follow their own transformation map, to the best of their ability over the next week.
   3. For every action taken, instruct them to take a photo or record a video.
   4. They are welcome to post single images or videos as the week progresses.
   5. However, at the close of the week, instruct students to review all their photos and videos and to craft into a single IG story that tells the story of that week’s self-care journey.
   6. Make sure they post in the 24 hours before the class meets, so that the Stories will still show up on the class feed.
   7. Close the week with a class screening of everyone’s IG Stories.

EXTENSIONS

1. Focus a lesson (or series of lessons) on a narrative of gender formation. Use the “What We See/What We Don’t” template to capture internal vs. external gender identity. Support this study with lessons specifically on gender theory; focusing on gender as a spectrum. Focus final project on telling the story of their own gender identity.

Helpful Sources

Film: Trip of Compassion
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tripofcompassion
Thousands of PTSD victims live in Israel, which in recent years has been promoting an innovative treatment, namely psycho-active substances, known as psychedelic drugs.

Emma Talks
http://emmatalks.org/
EMMA is a Mini-Art Festival and Speakers Series. The core purpose of EMMA talks is to bring important stories by women* writers, activists, thinkers, storytellers, makers and doers, from the periphery to the public.

Together their stories will build a powerful and engaging collection of talks, celebrating and building on the conversations, imaginings, and hard work of so many individuals, communities and movements, which will lead to a creative cross-pollination of ideas.

*including two spirited, trans and gender non-conforming folks.