Teacher’s comments on Dynamic classes
This is a summary of the things we game up with which lead us to forming questions to ask students The main quotes form the posts/comments
“….when the teacher made my body move and my brain think in a meaningful way”
“Dynamics is movement and accepting change, new possibilities and horizons.”
“….sometimes by destabilizing the system we can make it evolve” “Balance is a sense of mental and emotional calm”
“Classes which have a variety of activity … which have a nice pace”
“Dynamic classes… is related to motivation both on the teacher and the student's …motivation is related to rapport”
“….this is a word (dynamism) in fashion…. people have been using it to mean different things.”
“Teachers must work on student’s perception of dynamism”
“REFELECT. Did they (students) find it dynamic?” (this means with the students)
“Dynamic lessons are a lot to do with how you know your students… to improve our lessons…. ,is through reflection and sharing”
Summary
From the comments it seems that we can split dynamism into to parts, both orientation and the teacher-student relationship. I feel though that the comments do not really separate these two points but are interrelated. They work together at the same time. One is part is intrinsically part of the other.
For me the comments mean in less teaching and instructing i.e. spoon feeding. Students are asked to find out language discuss it put their point of view and make their own decisions not just about the language but about the learning process. This clearly means less teacher centered classes and more learner centered classes. The balance here is important based on the comments here are more practical ideas in the classroom
• The level of discussion and conversation might be one way of looking at this as this is a constantly changing phenomenon where balance can be shifted at times between the different students in the room.
“movement, accepting change”
• Classes which at some point have movement not just physical but mental is another way of looking at these comments. Students don’t have to stay in the same place all of the time they become to over familiar and even bored without even noticing it until some time later. By giving them chance to talk to a new person or sit in a new place can rectify this feeling from setting in.
“variety” “change”
• Discussion during debriefing and feedback time in the class. Teachers getting to know there students and students getting to know about their teacher, not just their name but much more. Being supportive almost as a friend by actively listening to what students have to say. This is probably about not just knowing who the students are themselves but about what they feel about the class and what they are learning. Teachers can find out the students preferences and learning styles and make attempts to be aware of these needs in planning the following classes.
“rapport” …“get to know your students”
• Students would do more work than the student. Sometimes we relate this to STT v TTT but we probably must change this to SDT and TDT (students DOING Time v Teacher DOING Time). Doing referring to participation and performance “making my brain think different” Teachers could refrain from giving the answers to an exercise, ask others before responding put students in pairs/groups to collaborate more when carring out a simple activity.
“make my brain work”… “rapport”
• Teachers need to set up the environment of the class for this to happen. It means having a different posture than standing up at the board telling students the rules and going through the course book at say, the language stage, doing the exercise as the book says. The class could have an activity for students to discover the rules, to see them first before moving on to checking their presumptions with the book. “teacher and student motivation”
• Reviewing the item/class in which students have participated and asking them how they found the activity/class and debriefing them on why you did it this way. Examples being, “I wanted you to think”, “I thought you this would be better if we discovered this before so you could come up with your own rules “, “I liked that class because you all worked so hard and..”
“reflect”
I hope these help and allow you to think about if you are doing these items in the class. I’m sure they will help make students feel the dynamism you are investing in.
Reflect on which you are doing or could do, in your classes from now on.
Shaun 
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