Learning needs to be an enjoyable experience for all parties
involved. Without some means of enjoyment, both the instructor and the student
are in danger of not walking away with any meaningful takeaways from it. A
classroom without any sense of enjoyment amounts to little more than a waste of
time. The entertainment aspect is easily achieved by viewing the student as an
equal; by placing yourself (as an instructor) on the same field as the
students, it helps them become far more engaged in the session itself.
As a student, I was all too aware when I was forced to
partake in mandatory workshops; the instructor would stand before my class
reciting script by rote, regardless of how glazed-over the students’ eyes
became. It wasn’t until I realized how much more invested I was when the
instructor was able to cater the lecture to the specific classroom. By
utilizing class participation and various humorous interludes, my high school
English teacher showed me just how paramount it was to entertain as well as
instruct. She would talk to us as equals and colleagues rather than just her
wards for the fifty minutes of the class period. She’d encourage dialogue and
discussion (even dissenting opinions to her own!) and through that made me want
to continue my learning career far into the graduate realm.
While I was on the receiving end of instruction, I always
felt that the teacher was someone far above my status: I couldn’t connect with
them because, as a teacher, they were above me. Humor and calls-to-action
during the various sessions I observed made sure I was going to pay attention
and retain the information being conveyed, far better than a simple recitation.
In a past lifetime, I was an actor: I loved performing and
commanding the attention of those around me. The training I have as an actor
helps me effectively portray the
necessary information in an easily-digestible manner for the students to use;
simple acting techniques like projection, pacing, and effective blocking
(speaker placement / orientation) can make the lecture seem less like a
dictation and more like a ‘show’ for the pupils. I learned many of these
techniques as an actor in a traveling children’s show, performing for
elementary-aged students. Being able to ensure the plot (in addition to the
lines) was understandable by a wide variety of students was invaluable. While I
long abandoned the dream of acting in favor of professional librarianship, I
still maintain the need to amuse and entertain. It is this background that
helped me understand my position as an instructor.
During my instruction sessions through my practicum, it’s
clear that I was reaching students by commanding their attention. While
teaching ESL117, the students had very few questions on the overall content
during their guided work period of the class. Whenever a student raised their
hand, it was mostly to review one or two minor aspects of the lecture as a
whole. During this session, I was actually very impressed with how well
everyone was progressing with very little supervision, and I made sure to
emphasize this opinion. I would check in with each student individually to see
their progress and found that they all were utilizing the search techniques I
had lectured about. The other side of ensuring an enjoyable experience is
positive reinforcement. If a student is doing well and shows a clear
understanding of the concepts, that cannot go unsaid. Students should be told
when they are doing well (especially when faced with a new concept, such as
library searching) so that they can feel confident going forward. Particularly
in library instruction, it’s very easy for a student to get very frustrated
while searching, often bringing up too many or too few results in their first
few searches. A friendly voice from an entertaining instructor can mean all the
difference when faced with a roadblock like that.
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