This morning at 9am, I was a very anxious former student-turned-current student. I went through an odd but strangely calming preparatory tea ceremony, and thought about all my best teaching experience anecdotes.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew Lindsay was going to ease us in gently, for which I was grateful. It’s been far too many years since the last proper lecture I attended, so to have such brilliant speakers in the first morning was a blessing.
Although in my own practice I dutifully load all my teaching material onto Moodle, I hadn’t experienced it from a student perspective. I was mightily glad to be able to have the slides open in a separate window as the speakers were talking so I can go back to anything I had missed while furiously note taking on the previous points, or even the insightful points my fellow students were making in the chat.
I enjoyed the conversation about the silences in the room. In my own practice in theatre design, we consider silences a really vital tool, for colouration and dynamics. The next observation is about teaching online – I have not taught in college since February due to vulnerable health. Silences in the room from students may be seen as irritating – I have experienced my fair share of non-talkers (particularly the students who load up the meeting, keep their cameras off then disappear altogether) – however, I have come to embrace the silences as a challenge to get even the quietest student talking. This can be through the meeting chat, a synchronous Padlet exercise or verbal expression. I don’t pick on anyone to speak (unless we are in a group tutorial) but I continue to ask provocations to get the conversations flowing. I’m slightly prone to tangents, which is a by-product of active student verbal engagement.
In pre-Covid face-to-face teaching, verbal communication is the single most important tool at hand, particularly in the theatre environment. I teach practical theatre making, which is considered a ‘dangerous environment’ (akin to a building site) by the HSE. With the proper verbal communication at the right time, it’s the difference between being safe and being crushed by an enormous weight from 8 metres up in the air. Some students see some verbal communication processes as primal scream therapy, which is an interesting perspective. Even the most shy multi-lingual student leaves an early stage theatre induction session having experienced hearing their own voice being projected, respected and responded to by their fellow class-mates.
My very practical teaching practice rapidly moved to online theoretical teaching, and I am very keen to explore more ways of getting a pleasurable response from students verbalising their responses in the online world. I want the same student voices in the room to quieten, and for quieter students to voice their valid responses. I wish to re-create the buzz of the theatre workshop environment online, as a great deal of responsiveness comes from community spirit, engagement, and a collaborative effort.
Thank you for such an excellent start to the year!