Want to be a 21st-century educator? Try these 6 steps while communicating!
“Young people are actually potential waiting to happen, and for that potential to take shape, to grow and feel nurtured and contribute to the world, they have to feel heard.”
-Shalini Menon on the Importance of Listening
Associate Director, Quest Alliance
Communication is a powerful tool and if used in the right way it can bring a world of change and positivity in one’s life. More so, as an educator, you have the responsibility to influence, create, discover and empower!
“I was hoping to take a 5 day leave from office for my brother’s wedding”
vs.
“I will not be working for 5 days this month.” If you were a manager, which of the two phrases you would prefer hearing from your teammate?
One simple statement can make or break things. The strength of communication lies in the fact that it is not only responsible to pass on necessary information but evoke strong emotions in humans.
So, how do we know what to say, when to say? Here are some effective steps that will help your journey of becoming a 21st-century educator.
1. Don’t Preach, help people learn:
“Imagine a situation where person X comes to you and says “You have to change your body language if you want students to listen to you. Add more real-life experiences next time to make it sound more relatable.”
Of course, you will feel a sense of disappointment and maybe even threatened depending on the dynamics you share with that person, after hearing this statement.
Vs.
Now think of another situation where you get constructive feedback from person Y “The story you narrated was great, along with the real-life experiences. It will be great if the body language is worked on, practicing more in front of a mirror has helped me improve, try it!”
We can think of a hundred situations like this and draw parallels where someone said something, that either left us questioning our actions or motivated us to do better.
When we have an urge to preach to someone, let’s pause and reflect — is this something I would want to hear?
If the answer is NO, then change your sentence and tone to the message you want to convey it, which in turn will help your students or anyone you communicate and feel “ Wow, that is what I was looking to hear, this is helpful!”
Adaptability is the true essence of a 21-st century educator.
2. Listen, Listen, Listen:
The power of listening is underrated and sometimes we don’t realize the huge difference it makes in a person’s life just by listening to what they have to say.
“How can you possibly try to change someone’s mind, if you don’t know where their mind is? Says TEDx speaker William Ury in the talk “ The power of listening”.
He talks about the importance of truly allowing a person to complete their thought process, which will then enable their mind to “open up” to suggestions which you have for them.
Listening helps us build trust, and is a key to communication. A fine example quoted by Shalini Menon, Associate Director, Quest Alliance in the MasterClass “The Art of Listening”:
Person X says “Hey, I went on this vacation and it was so great, I did a trek in the mountains, and…”
Person Y cuts in with a response that goes like “I too went on a vacation! I did that and I did this, and this was so amazing”
While a conversation is necessary, it is important NOT to go back and immediately add your story to it. Can you imagine how this would make one feel?
They would feel cut short. As if their story did not matter at all.
By listening, you are allowing not just people’s stories to unfold, but also nurturing their mental growth.
3. Bring humor in people’s lives:
One of the greatest ice breakers of all time — humor. Of course, when one learns to use it tactically and in the right situations, people will find you endearing and relatable!
Let’s look at a scenario with two outcomes
Students: “ Ma’am we are too tired to finish this exercise, can we do it tomorrow?”
Teacher, with an angry face and hand gesture: “ All of those who do not complete the exercise will be punished, and made to stay back an hour”
Vs
Students: “ Ma’am we are too tired to finish this exercise, can we do it tomorrow?”
Teacher smiling: “ Who wants chocolates? I have a box full of them and I am only planning to give it to those who finish this today!”
Students reply “Me, I want the chocolate!” and get back to finishing the work, motivated and excited!
One simple gesture, lightened up the day of so many, can you believe it? This is the power of light-heartedness and having humor in our daily lives. This will also greatly influence your classroom attendance and retention in students
What kind of educator will you choose to be? Reflect.
4. Be Compassionate:
We all own that smartphone, don’t we? Tons of apps to do anything — feel like having pickle? You can order that on an app now.
Want to buy cat food — well, that has an app too! But here is the thing, there is no app to tell us to keep your phone aside and stay in the moment. Wish we had one, right?
You have 20 minutes of free time and see a student sitting alone by the garden, looking like s/he needs someone to talk to. You can either choose to go up and strike a conversation or scroll through your Facebook app.
While the effort that is required to talk to the student is a little more, a simple “ Hello, how did you like the class today?” might be the beginning of the connection that you establish with your student.
Establishing connections opens up new doors, it is the basis on which student /teacher communities are formed and is responsible for positive changes in the ecosystem. So, let’s as a community begin with establishing better human connections!
5. Practice Authenticity:
According to the Cambridge dictionary, authenticity is defined as:
If something is authentic, it is real, true, or what people say it is.
It is that simple — stay true to yourself. Now the hard part — how do we practice this in our daily lives?
“ When you take responsibility and you take full responsibility, that is the most empowering thing and you can do it at any stage.”
-Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Let’s look at a scenario with two teachers and students
Student 1: “ Sir, can you tell me what you think of my essay I shared with you yesterday?”
Teacher 1, who happened to forget to read it replies with: “ I think you can improve your grammar a bit, there were some errors I noticed, will let you know what else I think.”
Vs
Student 2: “ Sir, can you tell me what you think of my essay I shared with you yesterday?”
Teacher 2: “I am so sorry Maya, I had a very long day and wanted to spend some time with my family in the evening, I will surely read it today. I am excited about reading it!”
Which educator do you think displays an authentic behavior? Yes, we all agree its Teacher 2. It is the simple act of being honest, accepting his mistake and also emphasizing on how he will make up for it.
In our everyday lives, we will come across several situations where we want to say or do something, simply to feed our ego and save ourselves from trouble, but that is when we should ask ourselves — is this something that is going to help me or someone else?
As a famous line goes — always remember to take the high road!
6. Be Assertive:
For the above 5 points to work in your favor there is this point that you need to “Become”. I am emphasizing on the phrase “Become more assertive” because this is a trait that takes some time to practice, and can be a little harder to understand fully at first. But given time and experience, it will be clear how it can positively impact your life.
School Principal: “ This personality development workshop is not something we have time or money for, we have enough syllabus to complete anyways.”
Passive Teacher: “Okay ma’am, thank you.” walks out submissively
Aggressive Teacher: “Why ma’am is something wrong with my idea or you don’t like me giving ideas?.” Gets up and leaves, irritated.
Assertive Teacher: “Thank you for taking time out to discuss this with me, I have a suggestion. How about we have the personality development workshop and reduce the snacks expenses from the other meeting? I believe that this workshop will enable students to grasp some important concepts that will enable them to crack interviews next semester. Our college will could have a better placement rate…”
It is pretty evident which teacher will get the job done right, build a stronger relationship with the principal and students and also grow in his/her career. Yes, the assertive one.
Using phrases like “I think, I believe, I want to to try, I am curious” help in establishing an assertive tone in conversations
These qualities are almost innate to any successful person, having any career and working in any field. More so for an eductor like you, it’s of great importance, because you are not only building your career, but you play the role of inspiring and mentoring your students — As a 21-st century educator, embrace it!
Article Written By:
Chitra Devaraj, Community Manager at QUEST Alliance
Reference Links for the article: TEDx ; Edutopia.org ; Stanford eCorner
