The Practice Ground

03/12/2026

For most of my life I lived in two worlds that rarely spoke to each other.

In dance, learning lived in the body.
In school, learning was expected to live in the head.

Over time I began to see something clearly:
the body is not separate from learning — it is where learning begins.

I wrote a short reflection on what I call Education From Within and how movement, visualization, and the nervous system shape the way students truly understand.

Reconnecting movement, visualization, and understanding in the classroom.

03/08/2026

Healthy relationships are not defined by the absence of conflict.
They are defined by what happens after the rupture.

Repair is one of the most powerful forces for trust, growth, and resilience, in families, classrooms, and communities.

I wrote about why in my latest essay: “Rupture Is Inevitable. Repair Is Transformational.”

If you work with children or adolescents long enough, you will lose your patience.

03/01/2026

Before we talk about curriculum or strategy, we have to talk about nervous systems.

In Regulated Adults, Regulated Classrooms, I explore the physiology beneath learning — and why adult regulation is the foundation of every thriving classroom.

In education, we often focus on curriculum and instructional strategy while overlooking the biological conditions that make learning possible.

02/24/2026

https://kathimartuza.substack.com/p/why-adolescence-feels-like-the-ground

There is a moment in adolescence when the world tilts.

02/22/2026

"Somatics allows us to say, here I am: this is how I move, how I feel in relation to my movement, what I am learning, what my questions are; ecosomatics supports us to locate ourselves within the whole: this is my place in my body, in the dance, in my daily life, in my community." - Susan Bauer, Body and Earth as One: Strengthening Our Connection to the Natural Source with Ecosomatics.

02/21/2026

Adolescence is not a behavioral problem to manage - it is a developmental awakening that requires embodiment.

02/15/2026

When the teen brain is in melt down mode it literally is incapable of "behaving better." It needs to feel safety - not punishment in order to learn how to self-regulate for the future.

02/15/2026

Teens respond to accountability - not lectures. Own your part to allow them to open up to theirs.

02/14/2026

"The skills learned through regular mindful somatic practice have the capacity to guide adolescents to be able to move through the chaos and uncertainty they will inevitably face in life with grace and confidence. This acquisition of self-knowledge at the bodily level enables adolescents to learn the skills of self-regulation, which allows the cultivation of resilience and the ability to create with care." - Education from Within, Kathi Martuza