Week 4. Engaging the Elephant

This week has been mostly about learning new things which have always been exciting for me. Discovering more facts about the processes that take place when learning occurs allowed me to see a whole new universe of countless opportunities to turn previously boring tasks into engaging experiences for the learners.

Jonathan Haidt, in his book "The Happiness Hypothesis" compares the brain being like a rider and an elephant. This funny metaphor explains a lot. The automatic, emotional, visceral brain tends to often take control of the rider part which refers to the conscious, verbal, thinking brain. Keeping this fact in mind, any instructor can create much more interesting learning activities allowing the learners to create meaning from their experiences.

As instructors, we should utilize various strategies in order to engage our audience:

• Tell stories. Create a story with an actual character for a task. There's a logical flow in a story. In addition, they go on existing shelves as we already have those existing story templates from our childhood.

• Surprise "the elephant" by asking interesting questions, being mysterious, leaving stuff out, or being less helpful in order to encourage our learners to fill in the information gaps.

• Show it shiny things. However, it is crucial to remember that giving money or candy (or any other tangible things) can kill intrinsic motivation and turn any activity into a working routine. Try other types of reward instead that also create the feeling of immediacy for your learners. Try these:

Lesson 1: How to write a catchy Instagram post

Lesson 2: How to create a swanky blog

Lesson 3: How to make high-quality video content in English.

• Tell "the elephant" all the other "elephants" are doing the same thing. People like doing things if they know others are also doing them. Here is when the effect of social proof steps in. Using more collaborative work can contribute to the quality of a class a lot.

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The things I am grateful for this week:

I am grateful for being able to have a really good time with the International Women's Exchange community and draw in my bran new visual journal. I am planning to keep drawing in it as it does help distract from work. I cannot do it well but playing with colors is works its magic:)

I am grateful for being able to find a nice house that I will rent next year. It is going to be a beautiful adventure.

I am grateful for feeling so inspired because of all the new exciting things that I am learning. It has been a while since I was absorbed this way.