How we run our classes (behind the scenes)

We’re always working hard to deliver the best possible classes for our students. 

As those who have attended our courses know, what we teach goes beyond Public Speaking in the traditional sense, and provides a space for people to share their vulnerabilities, express themselves authentically, and experience meaningful connections with other students.

We put lots of time and effort into considering how to make each session as beneficial as possible for those who attend. 

If you’re considering doing a course with us, here’s a “behind the scenes” look at how we plan and execute our classes.

Preparation

Our classes are inspired by many different aspects of communication, confidence building techniques, human behaviour and psychology. We’ve taken what we’ve learnt from acting training like Meisner, improv exercises, mindfulness + meditation, traditional public speaking methods and more.

We plan our classes to incorporate as much of these as possible to offer people a really unique and holistic training. We always consider the structure of our classes and sequence them to be both encouraging and challenging for our students.

Each class and course is discussed in advance with all of the trainers as a team, so we can collaboratively work on logistics, suggest new ideas and find ways to make them as fun and as creative as possible. 

Warm-ups

We always start our classes with a warm-up that includes moving the body and getting people to come out of the heads. When people begin a session, they might be coming straight from a busy workday, or they might be a little nervous about stretching their comfort zones. Improv exercises are perfect for shaking this off, and in addition, they help people learn to be a bit silly in front of others in a creative way. 

Theory

Once our students are “warm”, we look at a bit of the theory behind what will be working on that day. For example, It might be a breathing technique, an element of body language or something relating to the psychology of confidence. We always try and present the information in an interesting way, whether that’s watching a YouTube video, analysing a TED Talk or having informal group discussions.

Experimentation 

Next, we put it into action, by experimenting with what we discussed. We try to make this as fun as possible by turning it into a game. This might be an improv story or competition where you face off against other students. The emphasise here really is on experimentation. We want our students to fail a little bit, to face their insecurities around not wanting to look stupid in front of others, learn how to correct themselves and improve so they can grow.

Mindfulness

We then move on to speech deliveries, but before we get to this, we usually do a short 5-10 minute mindfulness exercise. We all know one of the hardest parts of delivering a speech is the anticipation feeling before. With mindfulness, we give ourselves a tool to regulate our anxiety and allow our minds a bit of much-needed clarity. 

Student Speeches

Then we run through student speeches, which are either one they have pre-written and prepared or off-the-cuff impromptu. Everyone gets a chance to speak and spend the much needed time practising. 

We’ve learnt through years of teachers that encouraging students to be open, vulnerable and express themselves as honestly as possible is one of the most conducive things to meaningful growth. It’s important to us that we create the right environment to do this make sure everyone is heard.

Once each student has delivered their speech we do one of the most important parts of the class - give feedback. We deliver feedback as a group and discuss together what we liked, what we think went well, and what the person could work on. This is crucial to an individuals development and gives them something to focus on for the next class.

Class Discussions

Wherever possible we open up our classes to group discussions. Students that come on our courses have a shared goal and providing an opportunity to hear their opinions, thoughts and feelings on what we’ve practised and discussed is as important to the success of the class as the exercise themselves. In addition, it’s a continual way for them to learn, practice speaking and express themselves in a group.

Reviewing and improving

The final part of running classes is reviewing how they went. As trainers, we collectively discuss challenges we faced, issues that arose and what we could improve on. We watch back students speeches we’ve recorded and analyse how we can continue to give really clear and helpful feedback to students. We work on techniques to help us be as present and attentive to people as possible whilst students go through this process. We try to understand how to be empathetic to each individual’s needs and give them guidance that useful and encouraging. As trainers, who’ve all struggled speaking in public ourselves, we’re always looking for ways to continually develop.

Finally, we ask the students for feedback too, so we can hear how we can keep on improving our training and providing the best possible courses.

If you’re interested in training with us and want to find out more, head over to our courses page for full info on how you can join.

The School of Connection team