Praise in advance
Did you know that kids work the same as credit cards?
I use this fact to get kids engaged in a way that makes them feel awesome!
With a credit card you can use money now that you don’t have yet. It’s as if you have the money right now.
There’s two powerful words in there: yet and as if.
Let’s take full advantage of them shall we?
“Yet” presupposes that there will be something in the future (just not yet; like the money you’re spending in credit)
“As if” means we don’t need the reality to match the way we are behaving, we can act as if (I thank my actor training for this too- in acting it’s called the magic if)
Here’s how I apply “yet” and “as if” to draw kids into my lessons.
There’s a desired behaviour when I’m teaching; I want the kids to have fun, focus and curiosity. Not crawling up the walls excitement, and not dead eyed robots- something in between.
They’re not there ‘yet’
When I know where I want them to be and use the word ‘yet’ on myself, I’m inviting in the possibility that they will soon be perfectly at the level of engagement I seek.
Act as if.
Here’s the sneaky part, I actively praise the behaviour I don’t see yet, but I act and speak as if it’s right there in front of me: “I love the way these people over here are focussing and having fun, who else can I see? Oh yes you are all SO GOOD at focussing your attention on me and having a great sensible time!!”
I’m spending on credit here. They may not be perfect (yet!) but I’m nudging them toward perfect by praising them in advance.
The game then is to be a heat seeking missile on any and all behaviour that is remotely in the direction of the desired outcome and double down on the praise until I’m not longer in credit mode.
That attention is money in the BANK!
Don’t call someone a show off
A characteristic of the New Zealand upbringing is to make sure you aren’t standing out too much. We’re taught not to be a ‘know it all’, not to be too loud and that over confidence is to be avoided at all costs.
The term ‘show off’ as a negative is one of the most damaging things a young heart can hear.
This is why I’m banning you from saying it.
Words have effects, because of what they infer.
To call a kid a show off and tell them not to do it is inferring that what they have to ‘show off’ is not of value.
It’s inferring that you shouldn’t share things you’re excited or proud of.
It infers that you definitely should not own and flaunt the things you think you’re good at. In fact, you shouldn’t think you’re good at things.
Don’t be a show off.
As simple and harmless as it sounds, I believe its a real act of violence. It’s making the worse possible assumption of someones intentions. Of course, we can encourage kids to have a bit of grace in their gifts. Or assist them in improving them.
But we must never sever the sprout.
Yes, confidence and arrogance are on a spectrum and I’m saying that nuance should always be honored.
What is our intention? Do we want to push down the flurries of ‘showing off’ in an attempt to keep their creative spirit at bay? Maybe protect them from being teased?
Or, do we intend to lift up? To encourage? To feed the flame and signal safety? To say:
“hey that thing you’re trying takes bravery! Wow, look at you go! I honour you for it!”
Never flippantly extinguish this flame. Fan it!
Teaching a thousand kids at a time
I remember seeing on The Simpsons years ago a futuristic scene where there was a teacher beamed into hundreds of classroom tvs and teaching digitally. Here is a picture of it!
It cracks me up that last week I was literally that guy. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about taking my teaching to a live zoom direct to kids. But I was blown away by how well it worked and how the lesson content translated.
Here’s what worked:
- Personalisation. Just like in person, kids love to be seen and acknowledged. One of the best parts of having a screen to interface with meant every classroom was clearly labeled. A simple ‘hello xyz primary school, room 12 look at you go!’ Seemed like a rock star shout out for the kids!
- Get moving! The session I led was all about getting moving and speaking in Te Reo. The virtual-ness of the session didn’t stop us there either! I could see hundreds of classes up, moving and having a great time.
- Focus setters. A unique aspect of teaching through video is we can cast focus literally by having specific things on the screen. Look at this, then look at this, then this, then this. This was the same for the zoom, I could direct focus by curating the content on the screen. I could even select certain super star schools to showcase to everyone else.
I never anticipated that zoom would be so additive to the particular type of lesson I wanted to deliver. Zooms don’t have to be boring and impersonal, the kids proved they can rock the classroom no mater where they are.
Feelings not facts
There’s what we’re actually teaching then there’s emotion we want our students to associate with it.
How we say something is much more powerful than what we say.
After all, information is freely available everywhere. We don’t need more people spouting facts- anyone can find the facts they need.
What we really need are people to deliver learning in a way that moves us.
Something I’m asking myself is constantly is this: What am I teaching and how can I create excitement and curiosity in my students?
That can’t be outsourced. We need your humanness to connect the dots and deliver education with heart.
Don’t spout facts, light up hearts.
Māori Language Week and the Briscoes sale
I love how Briscoes always seems to have a sale on. It seems like they don’t really need a reason.
It’s the red dot sale!
I love how events seem to activate us. We see it every year with Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori; it’s awesome. There’s reo flying all over the place.
By the same logic, we can make events out of anything: Today is finally start writing my book day!
Or: hey are you ready to celebrate no sugar Saturday?
Maybe in the same way that New Years day gives us the illusion of a fresh start, we can decide to have one any time we like.
What are you celebrating today?
We don’t need your nerves
I’m really just reminding myself.
Despite over a decade of performing for audiences around the world and teaching hundreds of kids at a time, I still get that wobbly feeling in my stomach in the lead up to being in front of people.
They say the adrenaline is good but sometimes the feeling can take over a bit and make you hyper focussed on yourself.
This is exactly the wrong direction for your focus.
When this happens to me, I remind myself: they don’t need your nerves.
Instead I realign with what I’m there to do.
How can I give more?
How can I get out of my own way to serve these people I’m about to be in front of?
It’s easier said than done, but focus shift does a lot for me.
Call it something funny
We can transform our students’ experience of something just by naming it something else.
Would you rather do a ‘quiz’ or a ‘super expert field experiment?’
Would you rather ‘practice a waiata’ a song or be ‘a Kapa Haka hero’
What we call it matters. And it’s an easy adjustment. I like to think about ways I can make things sound more fun and interesting for my students.
Better yet, you can let the activity live up to the name! You don’t have to jsut call it somehting fun then deliver the same old same old.
Let the name you’ve chosen dictate the way in which you conduct that piece of learning or activity.
A waiata practice might look different to facilitating a room full of kapa haka heroes.
Deciding what mood you bring to the class
Deciding what mood you bring to the class
The first time I got my actor head shots done a friend of mine had some great advice:
What three qualities as an actor do you want these headshots to show?
I think I chose like quirky, trustworthy and vulnerable.
It was a great focus, because I went into the session clear on the moods I wanted the photos to have.
I think about this with students as well: what is the mood I want to bring to the my classroom today?
Mood is completely palpable; especially to young people. We may think we’re hiding our anxiety or annoyance well, but the kids can feel it.
Once you’ve decided what mood you’re taking to your lesson- it’s time to start priming it. I find it hard to just choose a mood in my head and make a ‘note to self’ to start ‘doing’ that mood when I enter the class.
It doesn’t work like that- you have to embody it. So I’ll gently begin living into the mood I chose in the hours leading up to my class.
Recently, I chose the word ‘glee’. I love that word and it cracks up. To take ‘glee’ in something is so fun. So that’s what I did. I took glee in making my breakfast and going about my morning. Glee in meeting people on the way to work.
And when I eventually did end up in front of my students, it wasn’t a great leap to bring my word into the classroom. I’d been edging toward it all morning.
I find it so empowering that we have this level of choice. Knowing how much mood can affect the learning that happens in my class and knowing I have the power to authentically change that is powerful.
Think easy when its hard
To sing a high note they say think ‘down’
It’s advice I got at drama school and in many rehearsals. When we try and sing a high note our body tends to tense up and prevents us from doing our best version of the Bee Gees!
Singing teachers insist we need to relax and feel free in the face of the high notes. Easier said than done!
I like to think of this for other things in my life too.
When I feel myself tensing up or over preparing in the face of something I believe is going to be difficult- I’ve been experimenting with asking myself.
What would this look like if it were easy? Can I just jump straight to that part?
More often than not you can jump to it being easy.
Magic in Meaning
The magic of meaning
One of my favourite things about kapa haka is that the actions in the songs are telling their own story. They mirror, match and extend the story carried by the words and the tune.
We were working on the song E Minaka Ana in class yesterday. The kids and I got talking about the different words and how they linked to the actions we had learned:
Kōrero: Our hands near our mouths.
Kai: Our hands by our bellies.
You get the idea. And its no surprise that their word/action retention went up.
But something else happened too- there was more ‘flare’ to their actions.
Suddenly because the tamariki had a deeper understanding of the meaning of each action and how they linked to the words, they leant harder into the theatricality and scale of them.
This is the same when rehearsing a play. We pore over every word of a script, touching, saying, trying, discussing each syllable many times. It means in performance, the script is lit up.
Touching each word and action with the kids does the same thing. It’s familiar ground; we’ve been here before and we know it.
And when we perform, we take great pleasure and pride in sharing this mahi with others.