This is a continuation of the blog that sets out to discuss these six titles …..
- Don’t hold the ball harder than you need to.
- Being a clown is a serious business.
- Don’t just do something, stand there!
- Dig the ground before you plant the seeds.
- Take no heroes, only inspiration.
- The perfect event where many things went wrong.
Dig The Ground Before You Plant The Seeds
This takes us back to the ideas brought up in the section Clowning is a Serious Business, namely that a big part of the job of a teacher is to create a positive learning atmosphere in the classroom. The state of mind of your students is a crucial element of a successful lesson.
One tool that can help with this is the idea of a primer activity, a short activity that is designed to get the class in the right frame of mind for a longer activity that is to follow. For example, if I want my class to focus on text work, I may lead into that with a fun game that involves words and focusing. If I am preparing to do a roleplay then I may choose to do a dynamic and creative improvisation activity first. In any case, just as you would not throw good seeds onto hard ground, do not throw away your great lesson ideas on a class that is not in the right state of mind to receive them. Prepare them to be ready for the work that you want them to do and if you find that your students are clearly not in the mood for a certain activity, then you should not do that activity at that time, shelve it for later, even if it is part of a carefully prepared lesson plan.
Take No Heroes, Only Inspiration
This title comes from a rock protest song from the 1980s by a band called the Redskins. It refers to the idea that it is good to be inspired by what others do, but there is no need to put them on a pedestal and worship them as individuals.
In terms of teaching I think of the big publishing houses like Pearson and Macmillan (to name but two as examples). They often sponsor big-name speakers to give plenary speeches and to represent them at conferences. It is inspiring for teachers to meet and listen to listen to the famous expert and this kind of celebrity endorsement is an effective form of marketing for the publishers, everyone is happy. The problem is though that, ultimately, it is not empowering for teachers. At the end of the day the big publishing houses are businesses and they want teachers and schools to buy their products. They want to create a situation where teachers believe that they need those products in order to teach well. However, a good teacher does not need the latest edition of their textbook in order to teach well, they will teach well anyway.
I believe that teaching is an art form and that teachers should think of themselves as artists. Moreover teaching is a very complex art that is harder than acting or directing theatre for example. A good teacher should take pride in their skills and take inspiration from experts who can help them to improve those skills. They can even admire the experts, why not? The danger is to make sure that in the process of putting others up we are not also putting ourselves down.
Good teachers Find A Way (an extra one)
I believe that a good teacher will find a way to teach well in almost any situation and it is important for teachers to nurture their personal teaching skills through the many distractions that are continually thrown in their way.
During the covid time I was honoured to be part of a zoom group with some excellent teachers and teacher-trainers. It was a time when teachers were under a lot of pressure, having to suddenly adapt to online teaching with no warning and at the same time adapt to new challenges to keep their isolated students together and motivated. The good teachers found a way, not just in terms of learning how to use zoom and other technology, but in terms of instinctively making adjustments that just made it work. It was a joy to watch skillful teachers displaying their skill.
The Perfect Event Where Many Things Went Wrong
This is how I remember my wedding and also how I remember many theatre shows I have been in, where things did not go according to plan.
Our wedding was very well-planned. Our friends were taken by bus to a castle, after the ceremony we went on a boat trip, in the evening there was a party in a different venue. The basic things went well enough, but all kinds of details did not, even bigger details like forgetting to bring out the wedding cake and then having it for breakfast the next day. But, at the end of the day, our guests agreed that it was one of the best weddings they had ever been to. The details did not matter at all, the thing that made it work well was the energy, the guests could feel that we were delighted to be getting married and that we were delighted to be sharing it with them. The details were, well, details.
We have met this with shows where important props were broken or missing. We were nervous about having to play, but found that, in the end, it made no real difference to the enjoyment of the audience. In fact, because we were more focussed than usual, the contact with the audience was even better than ever. I tried to harness this effect when I presented the material in this blogs at conferences. I presented these ideas without any specific preparation, and no slides, (which is almost unheard of in a conference setting). I talked around the topics, saying the thoughts as they come to me and occasionally pausing to play a game or let the audience brainstorm when I fell that they need a break. The fact that the sessions were not planned to detail helped to give them a spontaneous energy, the fact that I was saying what I felt the need to say in the moment meant that I was talking with focus and purpose. The sessions were all very well-received.
The message is that we should not over-prepare. We need to know what we are doing, what we want to achieve, but if in the moment of performance we are focussed on executing our plan, then we are not focussed on being tuned in to our class. In theatre the script is not the show and the rehearsal process is not the show either, the show is only what happens on the stage in front of the audience in the moment of performance. Similarly the preparation is not the lesson, the lesson is what you do with your class in the moment of teaching. The preparation is a help, but you can still do a prefect lesson without following your original plan step by step. In fact I think that is the only way to deliver a perfect lesson, so do not prepare too carefully.
You can create a perfect event where everybody is satisfied, even if things do not go according to plan.