Teaching Tips with Gifs

The people I hire to teach my continuing education workshops (http://www.journalism.cuny.edu/cunyjplus/) are not generally educators. That’s because I need to teach digital skills and those are new. And the people who know those skills and use them every day are working in journalism, not teaching at a school.

So, sometimes they make rookie teaching mistakes like sitting down behind a desk instead of standing up to command attention and energize the room. Or they’ll tend to lecture too much.

I thought, maybe I can help. I read books on pedagogy. I talked to great teachers. And I looked for gifs (that’s my process; don’t judge).

The result is a list of tips with gifs that I’ll share with the journalists I hire to teach. I’d love to hear your feedback and reading recommendations.

1. Be seen and heard

Stand up. You want to be the focus of the room. If you sit down, people in the back won’t even see you. If possible, step out from behind the lectern. Move around.

Speak up. Unless you are a naturally loud speaker, speak loudly, louder than you think is necessary.

2. The first 5 minutes

Your students will get to you “fresh” from a long day of work at the end of a long week of taking care of children, looking for a job, putting a beloved pet to sleep… in other words, life. They need to transition into learning mode. The first 5 minutes of class should do that.

To grab their attention, you could 1) write a provocative question on the board, 2) ask them to recall, without their notes, what they learned during the last session, 3) ask them what they already know about this session’s topic, etc… These little quizzes reinforce learning. A fun trick is to say “before we get started…” and launch into a seemingly unrelated story, a problem that you need their help with. “Before we get started, I’ve been having this terrible problem getting in touch with the Mayor’s office. What would you do?” And watch a class light up with suggestions!

3. Make it social

Learning is social and people want to network. If the class is small enough, have students introduce themselves briefly at the beginning of the first class with their names, their place of work, why they wanted to take the class and a surprising fact about themselves.

Simulate team work in your classroom. To tackle a thorny problem, do the “Think -Pair -Square- Share” method: Students think about the problem on their own for 5 minutes, pair up with another student to discuss it for 5 minutes, meet up with another pair for 5 minutes and finally, share with the entire class. This fosters different modes of thinking and encourages accountability.

Give closure. The end of a workshop may feel like the last day of camp. Students have gone through a powerful growth experience together. It can’t end on a whimper. Carefully plan the last day or last half hour or whatever of your workshop. Maybe it’s a viewing party where students critique one another’s work (over snacks?). Maybe they have to write a Medium post where they reflect on what they have learned. Maybe you just ask them, What did you learn? What was the most important thing? Do you all agree? What surprised you?

4. Make it hands-on

Understanding is only the beginning of the learning process. Theory will only get your students so far. You have to DO the job to create the neuro patterns to remember how to do the job. This is almost muscle memory. Whenever possible, have your students DO the work. If it’s a video class, they should be shooting and editing video, get feedback, then rinse and repeat. Practice is the only way they will get better at it.

If possible, have students do the work in the real world. Time is precious and nobody wants to spend it on canned exercises. Find simple real-world assignments that will make learning fun. Examples from a social media workshops include: A tweet a day. A photo a day for Instagram. Etc.

5. Everybody participates

Continuing education classes are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. Introverts and extroverts and know-it-alls… make sure everybody has a turn.

On that note, with a continuing education class, you will have different levels of expertise. Do cover the basics and bring the level up as needed. Many of your students (not all) took your workshop because they don’t know the first thing about the subject. Err on the side of 101 and get the pulse of the room once in a while.

6. Ask, don’t tell

Engage your students, do not lecture them. Make them feel like they have control over their learning. You’ll do that, mostly, by asking them questions. Questions are crucial to constructing knowledge because they cause us to index things in our memory.

Instead of flashing a pat definition on the screen (“audience engagement is …”), why not start with examples and ask students to come up with a definition. Or a list of tips. Or ask them to come up with their own examples. Your students are professionals; they have stories of their own to share.

Challenge your students with surprising situations and ask them to solve the problem. This big media company created a beautiful app but nobody wanted to use it. Why? What can we do better? It engage your students’ curiosity, challenges their preconceptions and ignites their creativity.

Don’t be afraid of silence. Allow some time for students to think about the question.

And when a student has a question for you, why not ask the room if anyone wants to take a stab at answering it. This is especially helpful when YOU don’t know the answer!

7. Teach for unpredictability

Tech/media companies used to have 10-year plans. Now they have 6-month plans. Things are changing fast and we don’t know where all the cards will fall. The unknown can be scary. Make your students bold, comfortable with change and with changing technology. Try things. There’s a new chat app everybody is talking about today, probably gone tomorrow? You don’t even know how it works? That’s fine. Have the students try it and report to you.

8. Prepare

Craft a “promising syllabus” that explains what questions students will be able to answer thanks to your teaching. Say what the class will be doing to answer those questions. And explain how you and your students will know that they are progressing.

Engage with the students ahead of the workshop with an introductory email. Such an email can include a survey to gauge levels, a link to a video to watch or a problem to think about to be solved in class. But don’t overload them. Pick the one task that is more meaningful to you.

9. Don’t forget breaks!

Moving around is great for thinking. And breaks are great for bonding. Or resting.

10. Give feedback

People are motivated to learn when they have a progressing sense of competence and mastery in their skills and knowledge. They want to know they are getting better. Give respectful and honest feedback.

Sources:

“5 things School of Rock can teach us about real education,” Doug Belshaw. Doug Belshaw’s blog. http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/01/27/5-things-school-of-rock-can-teach-us-about-real-education/

A New Culture of Learning. Douglas Thomas.

Coursera. Learning How to Learn. https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

“Do Schools Kill Creativity,” Ken Robinson. TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Don’t Go Back To School. Kio Stark.

How To Build A Better Teacher. Elizabeth Green.

How to Raise an Adult. Julie Lythcott-Haims.

Made to Stick. Chip and Dan Heath.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Small Changes in Teaching: The First 5 Minutes of Class.” http://chronicle.com/article/Small-Changes-in-Teaching-The/234869

What the Best College Teachers Do. Ken Bain.

DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs Anya Kamenetz.

The Wisdom of Teams

… And, more than anything else: Make It Stick. Peter C. Brown.

Special thanks to Carrie Brown, Kim Perry, Kio Stark and Andy Mendelson.