A Non-Verbal Thought
I’m big on non-verbals. I guess it's part of my communication training in college. The way a person sits, looks at me, etc, it all effects me somehow.Standing up on the stage (in Chinese classrooms there are literally little stages the teacher stands on =P) in class, looking over the ocean of faces and bodies, I cannot help but take in the non-verbals. It really effects the way I teach. If they look interested I tend to get more interesting and active. If I see students looking bored, tired, or what not, my confidence level drops. I lose my place, stumble over instructions. It's especially tough in my Newspaper and Magazine Reading class because it goes from 4:30-6:20 pm. Students are dead tired from a day of work in addition to starving for a dinner break. Heads laid horizontally on the desk or supported by their hands, heavy like a brick. There is the occasional yawn (students do try to hide it though, they try to be respectful always). I don't know which one is the worst though, blank stares pointed right at me or out the window. Either way, they've zoned out. How do I get them involved again? By the last thirty minutes of the second period, I just want to let them all go. I feel as if I'm dangling them over an open fire, each of them slow roasting with groans of suffering regardless how interesting my subject matter seems to me. At least I give them activities to do. Straight lecture would really kill them. Yea, it's a non-verbal nightmare. =P
However, there is one gal who sits at the far left who acts as a shining beacon of nonverbal encouragement. She’s one of those nodders. The kind that, after every major point I make, nods their head. Sometimes she points her eyes upward, maybe thinking about what I am saying. When I introduce new terms I can see her mouthing the words after I say them. Whether she is really learning or listening is another story, but I find comfort reactions either way.
If you want to make your teachers happy... look like your listening. Just hope you don't get called on if you're faking it though. Maybe I should call on this girl sometime?
Nah, if I discovered she really wasn't listening at all, I'd have nothing left!
No real rhyme or reason for that story... just thought I'd share an average slice of life from my everyday.
That's where the real living happens anyway.
posted by Unknown @ 9:39 PM
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