In the last semester of my undergrad, my public rhetorics class had an assignment where we had to do something public and then analyze the rhetorical moves we were making when doing something publicly (it was a little divergent from the definition of a public purposefully, just in case anyone is concerned about the definitely of public here). One of my former colleagues and I took this class together and spoke very bluntly about the rhetorical situations of the conference presentations we had done in New York a few months before this assignment, and have continued to talk about rhetoric in physical terms. I turned to have conversations with her about my outfit and persona choices before the first days of teaching because I realistically try to think about my physical presence in the classroom from head to toe every day I teach (it’s made me realize I should buy more non-winter shoes?? #frommontanaproblems). I’m sure my students don’t notice the deliberate choices I’m making in my physical appearance, but I’ve very aware of the way my body exists in the classroom when I am a teacher—something I’m not usually aware of as a student unless I’m directly interacting with another student about something that’s more vulnerable. And in the past I’ve only ever really been aware of my classmates’ bodies when they’ve hurt themselves and suddenly seem to take up more space (which is certainly something that should probably be unpacked because it’s so problematic and ableist of me).

The physical layout of my classroom is something that I see in my classroom as well, and I also get a read off of the classroom dependent on the way many of my students are physically seated in their chairs, and in that respect I think of them as having bodies, but outside of that I don’t think too much about it. I also think about their bodies when they come up to me at the front of the room because many of the students are taller and larger than I am. And then there’s the physical presence of my students which is much more obvious to me in classroom days than it is in lab days because the lab classroom is set up better for how many of us there are.

Other than that, I don’t really see any mind and body connection in my students. i’m so much more interested in their ideas and thoughts and how I can try to get them excited about what’s happening in class.