#peoplewithABILITIES | A New Experience
Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn
In May this year, I was engaged to create and run a content marketing module as part of Make the Change's Online Marketing Diploma for people with disabilities, or as I like to say, #peoplewithABILITIES!
It was a special moment for me as this was my first foray into conducting a full-blown, month-long course - not to mention how humbling, meaningful and enjoyable this journey has been. To give you guys some context, 80% of the group was deaf with the rest consisting students with other special needs. Fortunately, I was accompanied by an interpreter and live note-taker which helped to ease up the teaching and learning experience. It really has been a great developmental journey for me and I thought I'd share what I've learnt thus far. Hopefully, you guys find this interesting and valuable!
1. Empathy not Pity
Real relationships are founded upon a fundamental and most times, unspoken mutual-respect. It is easy to fall into the trap of feeling bad for someone who has a 'disability'. The greatest respect and dignity is accorded to an individual when they are not seen as lesser. In my final grading, students that did not complete their assignments or fell short in terms of the effort and time put into their work were given a much lower grade than those who showed clear effort and understanding through their work. I explained how I had assigned the grades and the students took it very well. It is important to be sensitive to the needs of the group but pity will ruin the capacity and value you are trying to build. At the end of the day, everyone learnt something and had a great time learning together. That's what matters. Safe to say that I'm still friends with all of them! (Hello! - if you're reading this :P) This commitment became the bedrock of running the course well and growing together along the way. I even managed to pick up some sign language from my students!
2. Have Fun!
All smiles and chuckles with Can't Take My Eyes Off You!
Being a fresh graduate, I really understand how the traditional teaching model can get pretty boring. Sometimes it's not about having a ton of games and activities in the lesson for the sake of it but just not taking yourself too seriously. I count my successes every time the room is filled with laughter, questions and sometimes, vigorous note-taking (hahaha)!
Here's my favourite warm-up activity that I did in secondary school. I call it Can't Take My Eyes Off You! which is a simple drawing game where I get the participants to pair up with someone they haven't spoken to and draw each other's faces without lifting their pen or looking down at the paper. The room always erupts into warm laughter as they share their drawings and have organic conversations. It's also a nice touch and reminder that we shouldn't forget the offline connections between people even as we embark on an online marketing module.
3. Get Creative
As a run-on point from the previous one, it's really important to keep things fresh. This doesn't mean throwing all the theory and information out the window but instead, finding new ways to present the information and coming up with hands-on activities that can get the class moving and thinking. Some of the things I did included the use of:
Attractive Slides and Material
Appealing presentation material can really help to hold the attention of your audience. It does take more time and effort to put good material together but you save a lot more time having to repeat yourself since there is increased memorability. I am definitely more inclined towards slides with less words as students actually tend to pay more attention and have the opportunity (and space) to pen their own thoughts and learning points down. It also encourages me to really know the material and leaves me to focus my attention on the class rather than reading off the slides. Canva is a great tool that helps me create beautiful and effective slide decks, infographics and more! I highly, highly recommend it.
Games
I tried to have a mix of different games to recap previous lessons (e.g. Kahoot), highlight important points of the session or even just to get the students in the right frame of mind to learn and explore the subject differently. It's a great bonus that games help to get the energy up!
The perfect cure for post-lunch food coma - Press Here, the game!
Well-deserved fun time before a sharing session.
Children's Books
Engrossed in the magic of being a kid again!
Lezann enjoying A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin.
Another awesome tool was the use of children's books. They are simple, easy to read and highly digestible for the amount of time available during any given session. You would be amazed at the conversations and learning points drawn from the creativity and magic of children's books - even in the context of marketing! Some of the books we explored included The Big Adventure of a Little Line by Serge Bloch, Press Here by Hervé Tullet, The Butterfly Books Series by Air Amber and the Butterfly Home, Peace is an Offering by Annette Lebox and Stephanie Graegin and many more! Personally, I am obsessed with Children's Books and usually pick them up at Woods in the Books (I can spend hours there).
Reflections
I find that when there is a lesson plan created, many facilitators want to cover as much ground as possible. I find that going deep is just as, if not more, important than going wide. Instead of chugging ahead with the aim of finishing up the syllabus, allow time for what has been learnt or discovered to sink in. Most times, more learning happens. I try to make sure there is ample time for short reflections and sharing of those thoughts so everyone can learn from one another, myself included! I remember an entire session that we spent reflecting on our brand purposes and values. Although we did use almost all three hours mulling over some pretty difficult questions but it was all worth it and went a long way in shaping the course of the module.
External Speakers
It's always nice to have different perspectives. I had invited a couple of friends from different industries and backgrounds to share their take on content marketing. This worked brilliantly and really helped to enhance the learning of the class. I like to keep these sharing sessions casual so that everyone feels comfortable and the Q&A happens more naturally. It's not always necessary to seek out highly experienced speakers and I found that the students just appreciate the stories and experiences that the speakers have to share - less so, the length of time they've been in the industry or how amazing they are at their job.
Sian Choo from *SCAPE introducing herself to the class.
Group photo after a great sharing session with Sian Choo!
4. Adapt
The lesson plan is there to guide the learning journey of the class. It is not cast in stone and in fact should be adapted to the interests, capabilities and developmental journey of the class. I find that the rigidity of sticking by one course of facilitation and learning only hinders development. Whilst knowing where I want to lead the class, I like to maintain fluidity with my sessions and find that skipping some things that become less relevant over the course of the module or delving deeper into passion points made all the difference to my sessions!
5. Know your Group
I cannot emphasize this enough. There is no one size fits all in education. Specific to the group, there were many sensitivities and needs that I had to manage along the way. The attention to these needs really go a long way and will be remembered long after the module is over.
More Visual Material
With hearing loss comes the heightening of the other senses. My students are highly visual and appreciate the use of rich media and graphics in their learning experience. I enhanced my material with videos, infographics, moodboard samples and such so as to better facilitate learning and conversations!
Captioned Videos
These are so important and not always easy to find. Close captioning doesn't always cut it so it's best to make sure the videos are properly captioned. I spent a good amount of time finding captioned videos to support the teaching material so make sure you prepare ahead of time!
Expressive Speech
Many of the deaf lip-read to support their understanding of what a hearing person is saying. This happens even if there is an interpreter and the awareness is greatly appreciated. I've had students tell me that I really open my mouth when I speak and this helps them out a lot. It's not necessary to exaggerate your speech but just enunciate your words properly.
Speak at a Normal Pace
It is a common misconception that you should alter your speaking pace, usually slower, so that the interpreter can sign what you are saying. However, because sign language is often not a direct translation word-for-word and varies in terms of grammar, interpreters that I worked with do prefer the facilitator to speak at their regular pace.
Flicker the Lights
Special needs of not, it can be a challenge when it comes to getting the attention of the students. For deaf participants, it is common practice to switch the lights on and off a couple of times so they know that you need them to be present with you.
All in all,
I had a deeply rewarding experience and am looking forward to learn and develop with the community! If you'd like to get involved in some way, visit Make the Change for more information or contact me directly at tiziana@brainjuice.sg.
Final session; post-presentations!
Surprise gift from the class - so thankful.