Did your teacher training include presenting via Zoom, running classes on Teams and providing feedback via FaceTime? Nope, us either, but as teachers, we’ve learnt that perhaps nothing is more important than adaptation. The ability to change the direction of our lesson when engagement is flagging, to adapt out teaching style for a learner who is struggling and the ability to put everything aside when a student needs our support are the very things that make for powerful teaching.
The spirit of adaptation, and teachers' willingness to embrace it and make the best of any situation for their students, has never been more apparent, as educators across the country, and indeed the globe, have turned their living rooms into workspaces and their laptops into learning hubs.
At the start of COVID-19 lockdown, we at Pivot Point started a weekly webinar series to help with this adaptation, a shared learning space for educators focusing on best practice in online delivery and student retention. And while most of us have fortunately been able to return to campus, this forum now continues as our Monthly Webinar Series. During this time we’ve had some amazing guest presenters. In this blog series, we catch up with some of these brilliant individuals again. So, if you haven’t been able to catch our webinars, or you just want to revisit some of this content in more detail, this is the place.
This week, we catch up with Pivot Point Snr Field Educator and Consultant, Vic Piccolotto to revisit his top 5 tips for enhancing your screen presence online:
This one is a big one; it’s hard for students to connect with you if they can’t see your face. Your best source of lighting is natural light, so if you have a window where the sun streams in, move your desk in front
of it. Get the light on your face. If that’s not possible, then invest in a lamp. Any lamp will do, if it directs light on your face. If you want to go all out, and you think you’re going to be doing this a lot, or if you deliver classes at night when there’s no natural light, then a ring light is your ultimate accessory. Make-up artists and photographers use ring lights because they distribute light evenly, leaving no shadows. Position this in front of your face and you will see a difference in your camera presence.
This one is particularly important when you’re delivering practical classes. The cleaner your background, the easier it will be for your students to see the detail in what you’re doing, whether it is cutting or sectioning, or applying colour.
If possible, find a space where you can position your mannequin against a white wall. Move it as close to the wallas practical. This will allow you to get close to what is important; the head and what your hands are doing. It will create sufficient contrast to allow students to see those important details; your projection angle, the position of your fingers, the way you’re holding your comb, these are the details they need to see.
Get rid of your virtual background. Students continually tell us that swimming fish or asteroids are simply distracting. Students want to connect with an authentic person and get a sense of who you are. Allowing them to see you in your home allows them to do that; it gives them a sense of who you are. It’s probably a good idea to not have your camera facing last night’s dirty dishes, or your collection of empty vino bottles, but photos in the background, books, your pet are all fine; these all give a student a sense of who you are and helps to make up for that lack of face to face contact we would normally have in a classroom.
Whether you are doing a theory or workshop session always ensure you have prepared props to show your learners exactly what it is you are discussing or demonstrating. When I am conducting a theory session on design decisions and my topic is face and body anatomical comparisons, I will have two mannequins with different haircut lengths and colour. This will help me discuss the many considerations we work with when choosing best style. The learner can visually see what I am referring to and understand better.
When I am conducting a workshop demonstration, I will have a completed look of the style in question to refer to in my opening and closing discussions and a mannequin pre-sectioned ready to demonstrate with. When I cannot readily have mannequin props as is sometimes the case in lockdown I will always have image references to bring the points across. Always make sure you share your reference material with your learners.
Make sure you do follow up discussions or revision on your online sessions. I find the best way to do this is to give learners an online assignment or research assignment on the topic I have just given out or demonstrated on. It doesn’t have to be a long time consuming assignment or task, something as simple as have learners search online and collect 3 images that they feel represent the haircut or colour I may have demonstrated will work to reinforce learning. If it was an information or theory session, I might assign leaners to search and collect online images or articles on the topic. This allows the learner to use their memory skills and then show or create through visualisation their interpretation of what I have shown them or discussed with them. I find this most effective to gauge learners’ attention and ability to personalise their interpretation skills.
Implementing just one of the above tips will elevate your teaching game. Want to delve deeper? Our Pivot Point International Education team share their tips for effective online delivery here in a series of educator webinars here.
And if you want to see other professional educators in practice, our International team also have a series of Student Webinars. Share them with your students, or use them to gain a few extra tips and tricks.
Leave your details below if you would like more information on digital education resources for hairdressing and barbering, or share your success stories with us! We'd love to hear how you're making this work for you and your students.