WORKSHOP "STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH STAGE FRIGHT"

Findings

The workshop for the second day called "Strategies to cope with stage fright" was an amazing experience in which I learned a lot of things that I will apply in my personal and professional life as an English teacher. On of the things that I learned and I will apply in my personal life is "to be a good listener". People do not usually care about how important is to listen to others, and in this workshop I learned how and why to do it. For example, there was a pair work activity in which one partner had to make a specific sound with the mouth, and his/her partner had to listen to the sound carefully to follow his/her partner around the room just by listening to him/her with the eyes closed. This was an excellent exercise because with this, we could identify if we are good at listening to others and if we pay attention to one or different things at the same time. Another thing that I learned is not to do things just by following my emotions. This often happens when people feel excited or amazed about something or a situation that make them follow their emotions without thinking in advance or thinking of the consequences. As a result, bad, sad, complicated situations, and troubles arrive to people's lives, and so that is what I learned in the workshop and how meaningful is to think before acting or following my emotions without thinking. Lastly, one of the things that I enjoyed during the workshop was the activity of communicating without saying a word! I have been used to express myself just with words; however, with this last activity in the workshop I learned that it is not necessary to use words to express myself. I could also use my face, my hands, gestures, and even my whole body to communicate what in my mind was, so that helped me to increase my communication skills, my contration to pay attention to others, etc. In other words, I learned different things that I would apply in my personal life.   

In the workshop I also leaned plenty of things that I will apply in my professional life as an English teacher. For example, I learned that is must to pronounce correctly the words when working with children, for if my words are well-gesticulated, my students will understand the message and learn the correct pronunciation of the words. Another thing that I learned is to speak out loud when giving instructions to my students, so they can listen to all of the instructions and develop the tasks correctly. For instance, I used to get a little bit nervous when speaking in front of people, and whenever I spoke in front of others I tended to speak so low that my audience could barely understand what I was saying. Therefore, it is important to consider all these stuff when speaking in front of others to send a clear message and have a good communication, especially when working with children. 

Conclusion and Interpretations of the results

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I used to speak so low in front of others, so I could say that it was a problem that I overcame in this workshop and that therefore can be considered as one of my weaknesses. I also overcame the problem of gesticulating in a wrong way, for when I get nervous for different situations, words come out of my mouth but they cannot be understood at all. Nonetheless, I have some strengths that I improved during the workshop like my pronounciation something that it is a mean to make others understand what I say. Another strength is that I avoid taking revenge against others but I like to protect others no matter what. During the workshop I had an activity in which I had to protect a balloon as if it were one of my students, so if one of my classmates wanted to prick or make my balloon explode, I could prick his/her balloon first. However, I realized that I couldn't prick someone else's balloon, but my instinct told me that I had to protect my balloon no matter what, so I descovered that I am a good protector, and that I prefer peace instead of violence! At the end of this experience the instructor of the workshop told my classmates and me that we cannot lose the control when we are threatened by someone or something. 

Recommentdations

One of the recommendations I want to share is to speak out loud in front of an audience and with a good intonation, so your audience will listen to you and pay attention while you speak. . Another recommendation is to pronounce the words correctly and gesticulate in a good way, for everyone can understand what we say. A third recommendation is to listen to others carefully to maintain a good conversation because everyone likes and wants to be listened to but when it is time for us to listen, we are not that skillful. The last recommendation is not to lose the control in difficult situations, especially when we or one of our special ones are being threatened.

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Workshop "Body Language"

Findings

In the workshop called "Body Language", I learned a lot of things. First, I have to say that it was a richful experience for my personal and professional life, for it was amazing the way I could overcome all my fears of talking in front of people, expressing my thoughts, personal feelings, and beliefs etc. In a personal way, I could learn how important is to "SMILE" and get all the "FEARS" away from my life. For example, before attending to the workshop, I did not have an enough reason to smile, but the instructor made me think in a different way. I can smile just because I am alive, I have an incredible and lovely mother and brother who always make me feel better and motivate me to continue working hard. I can smile because I have God's love, something that not many people worry about. I also learned how important is to hug someone and let her/him know how special he/she is to me. Moreover, this workshop taught me that life is only one, and if I always live in a hurry, I will only see real life passing in front of my eyes without me living it. Therefore, I could say that the real learning of this workshop is Living life, not to worry about what is going to happen tomorrow, and that I also express my deepest feelings with my body, for just one smile can make a big difference. 

In my professional experience, I could learn how important is the Body Language, Face expressions, Gestures, Hands and Feet movements, etc. Now, I know how I should stand up in front of my students, that my gestures, and my face expressions can tell them the way I feel and how confident I feel teaching the lessons. I also learned how important is to be a kid, think like a kid, behave like a kid "specific situations" to make the class more enjoyable and meaningful to the students. Sometimes, it is good just to improvise and let the things be, that is another thing the workshop taught me. Finally, with the years, teachers forget that they work with human beings, people just like me and like you, so this workshop taught me how much important is to demonstrate some affection to our students because we do not know if they receive such affection at home. 

Conclusions and Interpretation of the results

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I learned why it is important to smile, so I could say that that was one of my weaknesses and I learned how to overcome it. Besides, I noticed that I feel uncomfortable about speaking in front of people and expressing my ideas with my body, just because I was afraid of what people were going to say about me. However, while the time was running, I could feel better and more comfortable with myself and moving around, doing all the activities that required all the body to move. Despite of the weaknesses I had, I can say that I have some strengths that I even improved in the workshop. For example, I could realize that even though I felt uncomfortable talking in front of people, once I started talking that nervousness started to diminish and I overcame it. Another strength that I have is getting easily involved in different activities that in the past I didn't use to have, but this workshop changed such situation. In other words, I felt really comfortable to share all those moments with my classmates and do all the activities without thinking in academic things. Bottomline, this workshop helped me to realize of my strengths and weaknesses but it also helped me to realize how to improve them.

Recommendations

I strongly recommend to take workshops such this one "Body Language", for it will help teachers how to manage different situations in which sometimes control is lost. For example, when nervousness appears when talking in front of people, and teachers do not know how to speak, stand up, move the hands and other important parts of the body. Another recommendation is to be kind and affective with our students because they are in that way, so we can demonstrate them that although we have grown up, that does not mean that we cannot be happy, friendly with others. Another suggestion is "avoid fears" because fears stop us to do and create amazing and beautiful things, fears stop us to live the life and have wonderful experiences. For this point of not having fears, I have on thought that I heard in a movie and it says "the things that you are more afraid of doing, are the ones that worth the most." I think it is true; therefore, don't be afraid of doing new things and trying things just because someone will look at you in a bad way, do them because you want to and because they are worth. My last suggestion is to live the life, live the moment without thingking of what is going to happen next, what you are going to do tomorrow; just take the time to take a deep breath and do not worry. Live the life, enjoy teaching, so that will help you to find the best way to teach your students, for your students will thank you their whole life of being a happy person and making classes more enjoyable and different, since your students will feel that they really learned in each class.