Without a doubt, one of the most pleasant and rewarding activities during my time with Up with People were the workshops with schools and the contact with students from all over the world.
Feedback from teachers show that it has been always a good experience for the students as well. A particularly interesting point they mention, is how we always try to engage all the students in the class. I stopped a moment to think about that and I will now share with you some of the tips I and some of my friends use to keep the students engaged during the whole time.
1. Learn Together
During my Up with People experience I had a break through teaching experience. I was lucky enough to do one of our projects called Stand for Peace (where we would teach the values of tolerance and diversity for K-12 students all over the USA) with our education manager at the time, Chris Miller. From this day I learned from his fantastic skills that the most important thing is not to be able to teach, is to be able to facilitate the “learning together” process!
He would never give up answers, just ask more questions building up step by step the tools to help us get to an answer.
This make such a difference! Because we were all part of the learning process: we build up the logic, the feelings and the creativity to find what we are looking for… it all just make much more sense.
2. Outsiders advantage!
Bringing someone from outside allow the students and even the teachers to address subjects that are normally too tricky for a teacher during regular classes. When we go to schools not judging anyone, we are opening up a new channel to students to communicate. It is different from their normal patterns and give them a different opportunity… and we will not give them grades in the end.
I remember many examples of issues that came up, specially on the workshops we prepared for team building and conflict resolution workshops with international students.
One time a girl confessed: “I will never date anyone from a different culture because man are just not as polite as the ones from my country”… the immediate answer she received from a another boy was: “I have never seen you making any effort to meet someone from a different culture, maybe that’s why!”
Or the time we discussed in Germany about a very tricky subject regarding Turkish immigrants, very harsh on a boy Turkish descendent. We had the chance to discuss a bit more the immigration issues and give voice to everybody… many hidden opinions were put it out and the class start a vivid discussion on a typical “let’s not talk too much” subject. We had to use a old tool of conflict resolution: “So… how do you guys see the way to solve this immigration issue?”, if the government is too blamed I like to bring back to their own classroom level… “How do you guys, here, can contribute to make it better?”. Outcomes are always great when you give the entire classroom a chance to work as a team on a problem that truly belongs to their reality.
Those are examples of how we can get them sharing things that are really important for them just for being there to listen without judging what they will say.
3. Be there with them, equal to equal, having fun. Be enthusiastic and be real!
I love that I can just enter a classroom and know I will learn something new and meet superb new people. I like it so much that there is no way to not be enthusiastic. The facilitator gives the pace and the mood of the workshops… this is very important! But you are not there because you are better or because you have more answers, you are there because you had some other experiences that allowed you to facilitate a workshop. I really took that chance to learn something new and to help them to learn how much they can learn from each other.
Here are some personal things I find out: When you listen to what they want to say, they will listen more to what the other have to say as well. When you don’t underestimate or lecture them, they will have no reason to be against you or against the others. When you are really enjoying it, they will be more open to share and enjoy the day as well.
4. Adapt to audiences but don’t change your personality.
Every class is different; with a few questions and one or two ice breaker activities you can already feel the class and the people. Adapt the speed and the next activities you will do but don’t try to change the way you are… being real is the best way to build trust with the audience.
Here are some general things I like to do when I spot some situations: Some students like to be cooler than the others, I like to make fun with them to not let them take over, as they usually like to do, I also involve more people on the joke (we can just do that because we are outsiders!). Some like to participate in everything, it’s great to use them to keep the speed up, but I love to ask people to speak, I like to set the pace already from the beginning showing that I will ask everybody to speak all the time. Some classes will be very shy, split them in smaller groups to help them to open up and share more as well as to help you to gain their trust. If they want to speak their own language, encourage them, but also ask people to help you to understand.
And you? What do you do to keep students engaged? Many of us had the chance to facilitate workshops or being in front of an audience… What are your best practices?
I hope you enjoyed and that teachers are more and more encouraged to organize different activities… take the opportunities that come from outside of the school as well, this can add valuable contribution to the curriculum!
Many greetings! A plus!
Leo
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