Reflection 2
Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Focus Area 3.5.1: Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement
Standard 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
Focus Area 3.5.1: Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement
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I find that the best teachers in my school years were the ones that communicated both verbally and non-verbally and looked for both verbal and non-verbal messages effectively. These teachers do not make themselves centre stage but give students the opportunity to voice their opinion, feel included and feel understood. They also used humour at the right times, used their voice appropriately and used a variety of stimuli to communicate (Johnson, 1999). At the beginning of my practicums I was so concerned with the delivery of the content and not HOW I was delivering the content. One of the first things I learned was that I needed to project my voice further and a little louder. It’s hard when you have a soft voice. I also needed to sound more confident in what I was saying and use words such as ‘class’ ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ rather than ‘guys’. Such a rookie error, but you learn things quickly. With such embarrassing experiences communicating, I decided to use more non-verbal cues such as the fish concentration game where I only used my hand gestures and claps to gain their attention. Using visuals, hand gestures and proximity I find are useful assets to accompany verbal communication (Powell &Powell, 2010). One of my best posters on the left is of a Multiplication game I created with a set of rules that students can read everytime they walk past. I don’t even need to repeat myself! As soon as they walked in the room they were immediately engaged which highlights the link between communication and engagement. I want to always put effort in the way I communicate whether it is verbally giving positive and constructive feedback and non-verbally affirming to what is being said. 283 words |
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