by Siti Suwarni - A Report of the Pearson Workshop
Pearson Indonesia conducted a teacher training session on Saturday, February 20
th, 2016 in Golden Flower Hotel. The participants were English teachers from many schools in Bandung. Al Ma’soem Elementary and Junior High School English teachers attended the workshop, too.
Mr. Julius C. Martinez was a speaker and had given an amazing subject about how to engage the English class. As multidimensional concept, classroom engagement in an English class should receive the utmost understanding as well as applications by the parties involved. Teachers as classroom designers should be the first to engage in the preparation and execution of a teacher session.
How to engage our English class?
Mr. Julius opened the session by asking the participants to write as much as they could the using of rubber bands. It’s really a good opening activity to make sure the participants’ involvement. Then, he explained or reminded all teachers that there are four questions the students/learners usually ask to determine their involvement in the English class. Those questions are;
How do I feel?
Am I interested?
Is this important?
Can I do that?
Moreover, he emphasized that to get the engagement of the students, the teacher should be able to apply effective strategies.
What strategies could the teacher use to make the students feel positive in class?
Feeling positive is an important thing. If the students do not feel positive in class, it means they will not engage. There are some aspects of learners’ emotions that affect their engagement. They are students’ energy levels, teacher’s personality, and students’ perceptions of acceptance by teachers and peers. The strategies can be used:
- Use effective pacing.
The teacher should know and understand the background of the students. She/he can explain and speak clearly, not too fast or not too slow.
- Incorporate physical movements.
The teacher should have a good gesture or body language while explaining, so the students can get information and train their concentration.
- Demonstrate intensity and enthusiasm.
In this case, the teacher should move around the class or never sit while teaching.
- Use humor.
In fact, not everybody has a good sense of humor and feels hard to create a good humor, they can just use some funny videos, short film or pictures from various resources.
- Build positive teacher-student and peer relationship.
