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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