Surprise and delight
Variety is attractive. It’s an effective way of keeping attention in the classroom. The great news is, it doesn’t take a lot to manufacture variety. Simply asking a new question can reveal new and exciting ways to bring your next learning session alive:
How could I pleasantly surprise my students today?
How can I bring delight into the room today?
Their way in
One of my favourite games to play when I’m teaching is searching for the thing that makes the lesson content make sense for my students.
Content: Finding a way in via content is simply using specific learning that seem to light up the student. If I want to teach a song in Te Reo for instance, I might have greater success using a translated Disney song rather than another one. It’s win win, I get to teach the desired outcome AND we get to deliver it using content that lights up a particular student or class. Content could be the way in.
Metaphor: Story examples or the right metaphor can be a great unlocker for some students. When I was teaching pōwhiri once, I used the example of inviting a friend over to your house. As a class we discussed all the things we would do to make them feel welcome. We then began making comparisons between this example that they could understand and the lesson content of the pōwhiri we were learning. Metaphor could be a way in.
Wrapping paper: Sometimes the way in is purely presentational. If I present some learning in a more mysterious manner, some kids click in more. If I’m playful and throw away that might draw others in. I’m not wed to any one presentation or teaching style. What ever sparks wins! So be flexible in your presentation approach and let their engagement dictate your style. How you ‘wrap’ the learning might be the way in.
There are many roads to Rome, but again the fundamental trick is to look for the spark; what am I saying or doing that seems to light them up? When a student is leaning forward with interest or sparkly in the eye- then they can learn anything. ANYTHING!
They believe what you believe
What do you want your students to believe about themselves? About their abilities? About the world? How can you generate a certainty within yourself that communicates these to them? How can you construct environments, experiences and connections that foster these beliefs?
Antidote
If you’re in a situation you’re not enjoying, try ask yoursef:
“What would make this moment barable?”
Then ask: “What would make it good”
And finally “What, within my power now, would make this an outstanding experience?”
The best teachers are improvisors
I love improv. To me it’s like a playful conversation with your best friend. And I also think teaching is a bit like a conversation. A transfer of knowledge or a creating of connections for a student. To have teaching sessions that are as alive and vital as an improvised scene holds the potential for magic. The best improvisors will tell you it’s this playful spirit that is part of the secret. But what does it actually mean to be playful?
Listening. The first secret to great improv is listening- and there a few different ways to listen. More on that tomorrow…
Pacing and Leading PT 4
Check out the other steps of this series:
STEP 6 ADJUST: You’ve successfully paced their current state and began leading to the desired state, it’s time to adjust more and more toward where you want them to go. It’s important to say here, this is isn’t a magic trick or some woo woo thing- this is how humans behave. The saying goes that people tend to like people who are like them or who they’d aspire to be like. This tool of pacing and leading maximises this element of human nature.
STEP 7 REWARD: Human’s like to be rewarded. We have an entire nervous system set up to respond pretty strongly to reward. If we’re hungry and we eat something, pleasure signals zoom through our system to say a big “YES, that was good that helps us survive”. So we’re acutely aware of pleasure and reward. Most humans like praise and attention so this is a good way to reward when you’re pacing and leading a group. The tricky thing is different people have different beliefs about what being rewarded looks like. Generally, simply acknowledging people warmly with a look can be enough. Essentially what you want to do is ignore the behavior that isn’t where you want them, and shine a good feeling on the stuff you want.
STEP 8 END STATE: After repeating the cycle of pacing, leading and rewarding you’ll eventually get the group to where you want them. It might not be perfectly as you imagined, but provided you were listening attentively, pacing and leading with pristine accuracy you should see pretty dramatic results in the group’s state.
There you have it, my favourite tool! I find this a much more elegant way of bringing people around to a state that is most conducive to the work you’d like to do with them.
Pacing and leading PT 3
Let’s move onto the next step:
STEP 4: LEAD: Now it’s time to begin leading them to the desired state. As you can imagine this should be done gradually; changing your state quickly will probably just look a bit weird and have the opposite effect you want. This is where our focus on the energy of the room is important. Imagine where you are is on one end of a spectrum and where you want them to be is on the other side. As you begin to inch your way along the spectrum, it’s important to ‘hang out’ at certain places.
STEP 5: MONITOR: There’s no use in moving along your energetic spectrum blindly, everything you do has to be in relation to the reality of the room. So as you begin to shift your energy to the desired state, you have to check how this is being received in the room. If there is no subtle energetic change, you may not have ‘paced’ for long enough. In this case, go back and match them a bit more. Truly let yourself be in the same energetic space as them before you begin to shift.
We’ll move on to the next steps tomorrow.
Pacing and leading PT 2
In my last post, I talked about my favourite presenting tool pacing and leading.
Here’s the next step:
STEP 3: Match their energy. Now that you’ve got your antenna tuned acutely to the vibe of the room, it’s time to match it. This is the pacing part of the equation. It may seem counter intuitive, especially if the room is hectic and unfocussed. This is why it’s important to key into the energy of the room rather than the specifics of it. The energy may be high; quick, buzzing, high pitched, spread out… these identifiers can transcend a specific behavior. Your job is to match the energy of the room, not the literal behavior. To ‘rhyme ‘with it, not necessarily mirror it. Another reason I love this tool is it encapsulates an important belief about effective teaching:
You can’t take people where you want them to go without first meeting them where they are.
Let’s do step 4 tomorrow.
Pacing and leading PT 1
This is one of my FAVOURITE tools I use in any situation where I’m teaching or presenting to a group.
What is it?
Pacing and leading is a method of influencing a group of people to a desired type of behaviour or level of engagement. In most cases for me, I want the kids I’m working with to be listening attentively and feeling playfully present.
How does it work?
STEP 1: Desired end state. Start by figuring out what desired state you want the group to be in. For example, I want my group to be listening attentively and ready to learn. To take them there, you have to figure out where they are…
STEP 2: Read the room. Listen closely with all your senses to get a feel for the vibe of the room. Yes I said vibe, I know thats not the most technical term, but I’m hoping you know what I mean. What is their body language telling you? What does the quality of their gaze tell you? What is the general feeling of the room? Often for me, I’m starting with a group of kids who are quite scattered, disinterested or unfocussed. I find it helpful to broadly categorise the vibe as either energised or unenergised. Funnily enough a noisy room that is energised is easier to work with that an unenergised room.
Tune it tomorrow for the next steps …
How to be the favourite teacher
What has to happen for a kid to say this to a teacher? Can you think of a time a student has said it to you? Why do you think they said it?
Maybe it’s taboo to try and be the favourite. I don’t think the point is being the favourite for some silly ego reason. But when you’re a student’s favourite teacher, you have an important power for change and an important responsibility.
To me, being the favourite means the student respects you and cares what you think. That’s a pretty great entry point for teaching or making a positive impact on their life.
It’s about belief
For a student to respect you and care about the work you do together, they have to believe certain things about you. Here’s a profile of beliefs a student must have toward their favourite teacher:
- My teacher cares what I think
- My teacher listens to me and gives me space and time to share my thoughts
- I am safe to make mistakes
- My teacher would never embarrass me in front of others
- I know that I will be met with kindness from my teacher no matter what
The question then becomes how do we install these beliefs in our students?
Well, if beliefs are just things we think are true, then truth comes from evidence. And evidence for the above would change from person to person. What has to happen for you to feel listened to and respected will be different to someone else’s rules for this.
So, listen. And perhaps start with the kind of evidence you might need. The adage to treat others the way you would like to be treated is useful here.
How would you like others to show you that you can trust them? Would you shout at them if they make a mistake or offend you? Maybe… but that might be an extreme place to start testing and may damage future tests…
Start with kind eyes. Listen more than talk. Assume they have the best intentions.
What you believe about people will affect how they operate toward you, almost like magic.
For instance, what would happen if you simply believed that every student you interact with is doing the best they can with what they’ve got? How would it change your impulses to their acting out or ‘misbehaving’?
To be the favourite, give ample evidence to warrant it.