“‘All learning is remembering. A good teacher causes students to remember what they already know’ ~Neale Donald Walsh Thanks for being a great teacher. You draw it right out of us,” was an email from a student.
WOW! What a testimony. I do my best to help my audience feel connected to the learning objectives. Recalling prior experience helps participants anchor in our topic and requires some conscious action on my part as the facilitator. I ask questions, offer time for paired sharing, and tell stories. These invite thinking, communicating and emotional connections.
This fall I was teaching Learning Profiles and opened with a story by describing a particular road in Centerville. Just with the mention of the city, the lone guy in the class exclaimed he knew right where that was. He was with me hook, line, and sinker. As I finished the story of getting pulled over by the police, I painted a picture about my senses at work while stressed and how my brain was processing (or NOT). The class analyzed my learning profile under extreme stress. We then shared situations where we’ve been with children, their parents, or others who are presenting a similar “blank empty” profile because of stress.
Of course, information is only as good as the accompanying application, so we continued by anchoring (repeating) what can help one process stress and return to an integrated state with sensory access and pre-frontal capability.
A sincere thanks to the positive testimony and warm fuzzy! I love what I do! Visit my calendar to see when you can join me!
Post-script: Cindy attached her Storytelling article based off her presentation at the the 2015 International Kinesiology Congress in Banff, Canada.
