An upcoming UO professional development workshop for educators will focus on the other 82 percent of communication – the nonverbal part – and will teach teachers to hold classroom attention by letting students “know you care.”
University of Oregon’s Professional Development for Educators program will offer the workshop, ENVoY Nonverbal Classroom Management II, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 24, at the Baker Downtown Center. The workshop is a follow-up to ENVoY I, which was offered last fall, but there is no prerequisite for the upcoming course. The workshop fee is $200.
This month's session will be led by Frank James, who trained with and is endorsed by ENVoY text author Michael Grinder.
James, an adjunct instructor at the UO College of Education for the past four years, will demonstrate nonverbal communication skills that help develop positive relationships between educators and students.
James has 31 years of experience as an elementary school teacher in Lane County, teaching kindergarten through 6th grade.
A question and answer session with James follows:
Q: What inspired you to become involved in teaching workshops like this one?
A: After training extensively with Michael Grinder, the author of ENVoY, he endorsed me to teach ENVoY, which I did periodically while I was still teaching full-time. I recently retired after 31 years of full-time teaching in elementary schools, which means that my schedule is more flexible. I’m now able to teach this class and have the time to coach teachers in their classrooms. It is a pleasure to visit classrooms and give supportive feedback to teachers.
Q: How would you describe the ENVoY program and its overarching goal?
A: Research on ENVoY finds that teachers who systematically utilize the full range of nonverbal management skills are able to reinforce consistent and fair parameters while preserving their relationships with each student, regardless of unique learning styles or cultural backgrounds. The skills include everything from getting the attention of the class to setting up the class up for successful seatwork. ENVoY has now been implemented in school districts across America and translated into five languages.
Q: How can positive teacher-student relationships impact the education system?
A: Here’s a good quote for teachers: “They have to know you care, before they care what you know.” In order for classroom management to work the teacher must have positive relationships with their students. This is why a substitute teacher can explain the guidelines and rules left by a veteran teacher, but the students don’t always comply because there is not an established relationship.
Q: Will this workshop benefit both experienced and inexperienced educators? How so?
A: The statistic often used in this training is that 82 percent of communication is nonverbal. As teachers, we are really professional communicators, so understanding nonverbal communication skills will improve your ability to communicate regardless of how many years that you have been teaching.
Q: What do you hope educators will take away from this workshop?
A: There is a tendency in the field of education to overtrain and under-implement. The ENVoY approach is to follow up and support implementation of the skills through coaching, weekly reminders and ongoing online support throughout the rest of the term. During this term, teachers will begin to see how important nonverbal communication is and why it is always best to manage the class nonverbally and save your voice for teaching.
- by Sarah MacKenzie, UO Office of Strategic Communications intern