One bright morning Ms. Malika entered the classroom grinning broadly. She had thoroughly prepared today’s teaching session and she knew that, again, would help her pupils achieve states of flow with the help of the NLP techniques that she learned this summer. Greeting each pupil individually, he matched their enthusiasm levels and body language. There was trust and connection established by this small act of rapport-building. It was a friendly and comprehensible learning environment for the pupils.
“The marvels of the solar system” was the new subject Ms. Malika addressed and the class started. As the class went on, he played a gentle, rhythmic song in the background to gain their attention. The kids had come to associate this song with concentrated, engaging learning. Over time, Ms. Malika had painstakingly created an anchor, a positive trigger.
“We are going to start a space mission today,” he enthusiastically declared. The pupils enlarged their eyes in expectation. Then Ms. Malika helped them to define precise objectives for their task. “By the time this trip is over, every one of you will have made a solar system map. Recall that your map must be precise, vibrant, and brimming with fascinating information.”
He made sure nobody felt overburdened by dividing the work into doable pieces, or chunks. The moons and other celestial bodies would be covered by the sun and planets. With a mini-goal at every stage, the pupils were kept engaged and focused.
Ms. Malika was aware that every pupil learned differently. He therefore took advantage of several sensory modalities. He showed vivid pictures and movies of the solar system for those who learn best visually. He read engrossing stories about space travel for the auditory learners. And he included practical exercises, such as modelling the planets with clay, for the kinesthetic learners.
There was energy and focus in the classroom. Ms. Malika made sure the assignments were just the right amount of difficult, pushing the kids without becoming discouraged. Walking around, he gave encouraging comments and acknowledged little accomplishments. Fantastic effort, Maria! Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is exactly how you have drawn it.
Ms. Malika included little breaks and urged the movement to keep the kids’ energy levels up. They enjoyed and found refreshing the time they spent standing up, stretching, and even doing a brief dance with a space theme. Still, due to their enthusiasm for their projects, some of the students insisted on working even during break times. Ms. Malika, smiling broadly simply let them continue, knowing that they had reached the states of flow that she wanted for them. Her teaching objective for today was achieved
All through the class, Ms. Malika emphasized ownership and independence. He gave the pupils freedom in selecting the planet to study in further detail and the format of their presentation of their results. Their involvement and drive increased with this feeling of control.
With the class coming to an end, Ms. Malika directed the pupils in a short remembrance of the class but, oddly enough, she did not place an accent on the topic of the lesson and the activities performed. Instead, she asked the pupils to close their eyes and remember how they felt while working on their projects. She insisted on the moments in which the children already had found a viable solution to solving the task at hand and they have demonstrated passion and enthusiasm in making it happen. She asked her pupils to relive those moments and focus on what they saw, heard, smelled, touched, felt physically and thought at that moment. Immediately, she saw again the faces of the students lighting up as if they were back in those moments. At that moment, she asked them to yell: YESSSS! She knew them that she was one step closer to creating a verbal anchor that would motivate her pupils to bring back those states of flow every time they needed it. It would just need a few more repetitions.