Today we had our microteaching session which I really enjoyed. Yet, I did find it very emotional, as a lot of the short workshops were designed around, or highlighted challenging personal experiences. But even apart from that, learning and teaching are both vulnerable processes, so how is one to manage emotions in a teaching setting?
The facilitator sets the tone. The more a facilitator is to share of their personal context, the more participants will share as well. I believe it is positive to acknowledge the human nature and the personality of the facilitator, yet there can be a mindful selection of what comes into the teaching environment. Why and what do I want to share with students? What is relevant to the teaching?
Sharing experiences can be inclusive, celebratory, heart-warming. It can equally be triggering, challenging and unmanageable. It can take the focus away from the content of the session and descent into chaos. Hence, if personal experiences are to be brought in the classroom, prompts can be steered in a way that participants are encouraged to bring positive experiences into the session. This can also be a reminder that the language of affirmation is powerful.
It is often thought that emotion is positive in learning. Yet, I found today’s session too emotional; meaning, that the level of emotion required was not allowing me to focus on learning. When is the line crossed and how do we hold the balance and how can it be re-established? There is a way of re-focusing participants attention by managing time appropriately towards the intentions of the session to which the sharing of personal experience is in support of. Equally, one has to think on their feet: in a micro-teaching session by R. about doors / thresholds, the emotional balance was de-stabilised. R. could have asked us to leave this space through the door / threshold and come back in, to re-establish a calm environment that is focused on learning.
This leads me to think that leaving a space, changing the nature of activity taking place, practicing a short meditation can be applied as methods for shifting focus. What others might exist?