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welcome to this live podcast show on um the art of a great conversation that's exactly what we're gonna be having today right Harry right will I certainly hope so yeah I know it's the same conversation we had earlier but we're gonna make some tweaks I've made some changes there's a bit of a Chasm between teaching people how to have a good conversation and actually having one there's a bit of a bit of a Chasm between those two I think let's do both yeah yeah and by end of today we really

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hope you take away some ideas inspiration in terms of how we can really have more meaningful more memorable conversations in our classroom we're going to be chatting about it today now because it is a live podcast show it's not like a workshop you don't have to stay glued to your screen if you want to take us with you while you make a cup of tea or stretch or something like that you can do I will be sharing some visuals on screen but they're not really essential for you to to remain

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glued to your screen so feel free to to relax a bit and join the chatter we will be monitoring the the comments and chatting to you as we go through today's topic shall we get started then with this big topic of memorable conversations I do it I'm ready do it you didn't mean me when we said we didn't have to be glued to the screen did you I almost went and made a cup of tea but then just stood up yeah I just stood up I was about to leave I didn't leave though yeah stay here for for this

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conversation after afterwards we can go and have a break but for now I thought a good place for us to start with be to actually think about our own memorable conversations so a question I'd like to ask you both and to folk uh listening today is what's a memorable conversation you've had recently Harry I can see your thinking you've got a fresh example to sh I have got a fresh example I talked fresh one you didn't say that I've got one from this morning I'll come up with another

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one yeah you go first I you see this morning I talked about a professional conversation that I'd had um with with a fellow person within the the environmental sphere now the next one was also a professional conversation but it was kind of a small talky one and it was actually when we were getting ready for the global teachers Festival there were a group of the other teachers that were involved that that I I've met in in in previous times and I was in this very room um and it was in the middle of two

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weeks of rain and I had my washing just here it was all there don't worry I've moved it on now and I don't know how but I I can still remember all of the different ideas I was given on how to get my wash and clean on you know other people had the same issues and you know for for some reason the all of these these lovely people there were I think there were about six of us will was there as well um he's actually there for us here isn't if we're looking on there um will was there as well but yeah in

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the end we had a a conversation only a two-minute one about washing and rain I it was memorable and interesting it was re it was really interesting it was really interesting because that I was getting solutions for what I could do with the problem that I had right there and instantly I got a dehumidifier real solutions to real problems yeah exactly a tailored conversation I never thought such a topic as that would be uh as powerful as that but I think it is because you got the the solution to the issue brilliant

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exact nice fresh example thank you Harry nice one hasah uh so my memoral conversation um so this weekend I went to go and see an old friend back in our kind of Hometown and we had a conversation from about 10 p.m. till about 1:00 a.m. forgetting the time completely it was one of those when you just utterly forget genuinely didn't look at the clock and it was 1:00 in 10 minutes uh and uh we were talking about just the people from our childhood and we spoken to we spoken to Dan Phillips have you seen him I've seen him on

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Instagram I've been following him a little bit I don't really know what he's been doing and then just sort of feeding back on each other on how this huge group of us were when we were young and sort of catching up on the people that we used to know when we were kids and what they've all been doing and sort of comparing each other to them and them to each other and just thinking about very very old times that I haven't really thought about for a long time it woke up lots of do you know I mean lots of lots

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of those shapses a walk down memory lane one could say right that's lovely I'm so glad you very two very different conversations but both meaningful and really memorable in their own ways and I see folk sharing in the chat as well conversations that they've had that are really memorable I think it was Maria you mention that you had a chat with your son who's going away soon and that that was obviously a really special moment uh for you um interesting conversations with neighbors I see popping up in the chat

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so lots of different examples and continue sharing with us because we are uh listening to you as we're chatting today but I wonder what is it about these conversations that make them so powerful because I don't think I have this many conversations on a day-to-day basis that really stand out I think I'm mainly in the transactional space of just going through tasks and chores I don't really have these type of moments so what is it that I'm missing I think the the personal connection is

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really important so for wills it was with an old friend obviously and um you know he was reconnecting over something memorable so there was that emotional connection there and for me I was getting advice from well from people I respected you know there people like uh Chia and Rose who you'll be able to see at the global teachers Festival if you stay tuned in um so people I know and respect I know it wasn't about work or El but listening to their ideas and opinions you know it felt really

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useful and memorable absolutely I think um I think also for me it was the it was it was clear like it was nostalgic and it was it feels good to me I like nostalgic it's got a very deep and and that sort of place in those people have got deep emotional connection to me in some level that I don't often tap into so I think that conversation in particular just uh it made be feel good and nice to sort of think about those times I can't I don't know the science behind Nostalgia um but

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I I know that I like that feeling and so I think it sticks with me because it's one conversation that made me feel in a way that I haven't felt for a long time and somebody just said in the chat box about it being you know motivation and interest so in in my case solving a problem um something as well that I thought was an inan silly thing to talk about at first um ended up you know solving my issue I I think we've seen like in the chat people are talking about emotions personalization and stuff how can we

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take these type of qualities then and bring them into our classroom because when I think about like my years you know my previous career as a teacher I think about when I used to teach teenagers and adults particularly that first thing Monday morning where everyone's coming in and you ask them questions you try and start up conversations I don't always have this many well I don't recall having this many moments of where we really get talking get stuck into topics it'd be quite difficult to get people going so I

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wonder um how can we start to extract a bit more of these quality like what is it about how we're setting up or having these conversations or setting up these conversations that we can start to bring to the classroom well I think I think we've already touched on two of them Harry's touched on firstly is and I don't think this is news to a lot of people here but personalizing the classroom some shape or form making it true for that person um I personally don't think that's

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enough on its own if you just have that as your sort of philosophy of just personalization I don't think that's quite enough to make to make sure that they're going to have have quality conversational practice in their classrooms um I think it needs both personalization and some kind of emotional stimulant of some kind within those conversations so you can be personal you can make a question personal like what did you do at the weekend and that might be emotional for some depending on what they did but it

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might just be a bit of a black and white you know what would you like to drink in the cafe rather than being emotional I do think it needs to have some kind of emotional uh layer on there whether it's a preference or whether it's an actual sort of you know a feeling that you're that you're sort of generating within them um Harry I really like um yes so yeah emotion is important I really like what rashim has said in the chat that real life scenarios um so making sure they are real life I know the the Monday morning

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one is one that that you mentioned and uh I I like to make sure before it gets to Monday morning I have an idea what my students might be doing at the weekend so on the Friday session or on the Thursday session I was say what do you do what do you do I like to I like to ask what they're going to get up to at the weekend because that's a nice way of using pronunciation as well what you're GNA get up to or you know what you're going to do so you've got the pronunciation in there as well um and

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then checking afterwards sometimes you might have to take a note you know write down that be has a match or um Sylvia is going horse riding or it's Felipe's cousin's birthday but then when it comes back on the Monday rather than just saying how was your weekend you say bee how was the match you know how how was how was the horse riding oh how was your cousin's birthday Philip so having that connection is can be really useful I'm gonna up it Harry I'm gonna get that I'm

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gonna add something else on to it steal you what you could also do is the the students do that themselves on the Friday so you buddy them up different buddy every weekend you just have a weekend buddy and on a Friday they say what are you up to what you going to get up to blah blah blah blah blah they remember it maybe say you can't take notes they only one to remember you've got to have that active listening ready you got to listen and acknowledge what the person's saying in some shape or

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form and remember it then on Monday saying buddy so how was the cinema how was that film would you recommend it that sort of thing and also another thing sorry I'm going to steal from y asking how it made them feel you know doing that that connects emotion to it so you know how did you get on at the weekend well our team lost ah how did that make you feel how did you feel after you lost you know were you okay with it you know did you expect to lose you know was it against a much better team or was it upsetting so diving

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deeper into it not just that surface how was it but you know how did it make you feel yeah genuine curiosity right exactly really holding space for people and what I loved about that example that you you gave well and I also saw it in the chat with folk who are hosting smaller groups for speaking whether that's within a larger class and you're pairing them up or putting them in small groups like encouraging students to have this interaction not feeling like you have to be the one always leading that I

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think is a really powerful thing and thinking about the relationships that students are building between each other is really a big part of kind of creating space for these meaningful memorable conversations that go beyond just a transaction or feeling like a practice this is really powerful is there anything else that we want to add to this list I think we we've zoomed through so many good things in just the first few minutes of us doing this live show is there anything else to add can I just respond to

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Angel uh about shy people and shy Learners which is an absolute you know I think my son my son's very shy and I think that's almost I actually like that as a trait in him I think he's he's he's very Charming with it um and I think if you were to pair them up I think on Forum with the teacher is a bit intimidating for some people I think it was intimidating for me actually when I was asked to read loud out of a book I found that anything on Forum in the classroom it's strange because this is

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my job now you know but as a kid I hadn't developed that preference or the skills or anything to do that uh or the confidence you know and I think if I was given a partner that I could sort of remember that that's the person that I need to tell it's not everyone else and it's certainly not at one time you know it's just one person that makes it easier for those that kind of aren't so inclined to speak on Forum I had to read aloud once when I was in must have been year 11 so I was quite old I was 16 I

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was doing a lot of drama at the time and instead of saying sufficient I said suffocant and it suff that that I that still keeps me up at night sometimes um what it was awful that keeps you up at night yeah I remember that horrible moment it was really embarrassing I got quite teased for it a keep you up at night still today not often just every now and again I remember that oh God that was a horrible moment when I one of those moments you making a cup of tea and then you be like that moment suffocant milk in

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there why do that suffocant what a fool what a fool I was what a fool I was but I think this is a really good point that uh was it angel or Angela raised that you throwing back to Angela Angel maybe um because not only does it help to kind of think about making this the classroom a bit more inclusive and supportive but also I think for students who I know I used to have a stutter when I was younger a really bad stutter asking me to speak out in front of class particularly in another language particularly reading as well with the

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dyslexia add did on top of that was an absolute nightmare for me so I think it also kind of makes it a little bit more supportive and inclusive for students who may just need a little bit more learning support and that coming from their peers and not necessarily from a teacher always because we have large classes and lots of people to to to support most of the time I thought sorry Harry yeah that wasn't Harry that was Laura you interrup Harry you can jump in no I'm good I'm good I'm Harry are you sure you don't

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want to say something I'm sure I don't I'm sure you're positive 100% may I you may the another thing to add I think is um just a little sort of linguistic thing to add to these questions to sort of help students and you as a teacher and as a person is to think of superlatives to add uh as a sort of so I realized this with uh I'm sure everyone has experienced this who's a parent you get your kid back from school uh I can't speak for anything older than five my oldest is five you say how was school uh

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what did you do and it's like if there's this meme about gandal that says I have no memory of this place it's just you say that to your child like what school what are you talking about I didn't go to school today never been there that was ages ago I went to school uh and uh he's just literally just walked in from the door from school um so adding superlatives I found or sort of making it far less General and saying trying to tap into the emotion by saying what was the funnest funniest thing that

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you make Jacob said today or what game did you play at lunchtime what was your um did you learn anything when you did math today he loves math so did you learn anything with your math today did you do something particularly um clever that you found that you were doing quite clever today and that sort of thing so using superlatives and being generally more specific being generally more specific generally more specific generally more specific specifically more specific specifically generally more specific the most specific yeah

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exactly I can see this is resonating with folk who are joining along and saying I agree as they are uh listening with us today I do actually have some examples of typical questions and I thought we could actually put this to the test so using these superlatives maybe reframing some of them um as we kind of like put this to the test but maybe before I do show those questions um I'd love to know from people following us today are there typical questions that come up in class all the time like what did you do on the weekend

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what's the weather like that you constantly see that you tend to get a response from your students do you have any ones that you want to add we'll see if they're on my list or a mind- numbing response because you know what's the weather like today in Seville like right now it's not great weather I'll be honest it's a bit cloudy and windy but usually what's the weather like today it's sunny and hot just sunny and hot sunny and hot yeah it's not very interesting yeah no we're we're pretty

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guilty of that in uh in I can't speak for the whole world in the UK I think is a really common thing to talk about the weather I love to talk about the weather yeah everywhere Rashmi says what do you like to eat yep how was your your holiday says Tyra oh how was your L how you is the worst question in my classes yeah let's give going everyone everyone say something everyone say something everyone who's willing whack something say something hi who stayed out the latest over the weekend oh that's great so sort of

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putting a question out there to compare each other's thing that they all did who had hopefully that's not a young learner class mhm you get a six-year-old I was out till 3 in the morning teacher yeah from London yeah yeah I don't know why they sudden we go how you like about school there's another good one yet how do you feel yeah what's new yeah what are you do Anna Anna what are you doing here that's a bit of a confusing question to ask your students what are you doing here what are we all doing

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here will is the big question what are we all doing here yeah yeah yeah what are your favorites how did you feel in your Hol very nice describe your your weekend with three adjectives that's nice like that we''re getting really good examples of questions so I think um let's have a look at the typical ones I had like what's your favorite food being one how could we make this typical question a bit better do you think um you go I went first last time arry so are we are we role playing this

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no no I mean just s whatever mind Laura what do you think okay I was I was I was ready to role play I've got my other hats here we can walk all right all right all right I'll ask the question first all right so you're your Harry is the learner I'm the learner okay and Harry you are going to be a seven-year-old in Brazil you're seveny old in Brazil B and that's it that's all you got that's your role okay so the aim of the role play is to make this question a little bit better personalize it maybe

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use some superlatives in order to get seven-year-old Harry role playing here in a lovely cap to engage in a bit more of a meaningful and memorable conversation is that right okay okay yeah yes yes yes okay so converting what's your favorite food to something okay got it uh right haer um what food that your mother makes would you recommend that I make for myself my mother makes the best fada in Brazil what's fuada fuada is like like a I was going to say B that's what we would say in Spanish okay it's like a

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a stew with with beans very very delicious okay very traditional Brazilian food okay so maybe we can go into a little bit about how the man makes it I don't know depend how it's different how the mom makes it maybe the grandmother makes it in a different way as well um but I like that it's you know something that you can try and you're so you're learning from the student in this case and the student necessarily learn learning from you absolutely else got could I ask we don't

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have to do this with all of them necessary I would like to ask is can anyone else think of another way that you can convert what's your favorite food into a slightly more emotionally engaging and when I say emotionally engaging I doesn't mean make someone really happy or really sad I just mean something's going to tap into them can anyone else Jazz up that question any better than I don't think I did I don't feel confident oh I think that was a good question it was making personal to what my mom's best dish is

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which was a really good thing so I think it's really nice I love this nice makes you happy yeah I love that one is there a recipe that comes from your grandparents that you love amazing what food would you have in your birthday party amazing lasagna every time crispy lasagna oh amazing what about you you choose one thing to eat every day the week what would it be and why says Pamela I love that question wow who cooks the best in your house it's not me that's for sure which food reminds that's a good one I'm doing my

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I'm doing my best with plant-based diet at the moment Harry knows all about that I think I'm doing quite well good job someone put here yeah which food reminds you of your mother I would say burnt kale because she once tried to make kale and she burnt it so how do you burn kale by cooking it too long by cooking it for too long well like a day it what like it was supposed to be crisps kale crisps they were not they were but they weren't good I love this whole connection between food and memory and events um

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it's just so much more interesting than where we just started with what's your favorite food so I love what's your favorite food is always Pizza Pasta and that's it Pizza there's no connection to it whereas there should be because food is everything yeah but one thing that will did I think we can all do as Educators is to ask those follow-up questions like well tell me more about that like what is it about people that you particularly like and maybe if you feel comfortable to to share a bit more

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of your yourself now we are a bit pressed on time so I'd love to do another role play um with another question what do you think yeah yeah yeah are we gonna have another costume change haven't got costume you did not come prepared will that's a very nice hat thank you very much it's my summer hat oh if you I actually ask that to people in terms of ice cre flavors I asked them which ice cream flavor they would be um okay I'm ready okay let's do I don't have I don't have another get up I'm

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really sorry that's okay that's okay yeah all right next okay let's do it typical what's the weather like today how can we make this a bit more engaging oh how does the weather today make you feel I think my answer to that is I don't think the weather is impacting me today oh I haven't even noticed it it's a good question because I hav even thought about the weather because I was so focused on this event because you know we're doing this today it's a whole day

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thing I don't think I've even once thought about the weather today I'm reframe it again okay imagine you were going on a family picnic how would the weather today make you feel okay uh it would make me feel disappointed Harry it's a very typical day in Old blighty I'll be honest it's uh it's a bit gray it's not rainy which is fine which is good you know it could be raining it could be stormy but um I don't feel lucky by the weather today so you wouldn't go on a picnic I probably

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would still go yeah with with a couple of layers you know I'd have my under layer and probably a thick coat on um but I yeah and what would you put in your sandwiches but I'm not going to carry on with that but that's just the of you know actively listening engaging and taking it on and moving it Forward because as teachers you know we do need to lead with that but we need to remember that these are the skills we're given to our students so obviously I've just done that with Will Will would then

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go off maybe with a different partner and you know maybe he would do it with Laura or or with Teddy or with whoever happens to be there so specifically not just doing it oneon-one with the teacher that's also as we said earlier just you just the teacher with one's student especially one by one that's really timec consuming and not really very realistic and enjoyable for the whole class modeling it over and over again um but also it's not authentic you know a student of seven years old having a chat

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about the weather with their teacher it's not really a genuine uh practice activity you know that's not really the the dynamic that you need to be practicing for it needs to be kind of peer-to peer so student to student but modeled first yeah yeah you know what I've got a few of the typical questions that um often come up in materials or may come up in classrooms and actually I'd like to hand over because everyone in the chat is doing such a Fab job in suggesting ways in which we can ask more meaningful

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provocative in a good way questions so shall we have a go at that waterfall activity to get people sharing all at once Harry I love that activity that you do shall we do you want to introduce it so everybody this is a waterfall what you're going to do we're going to give you a question for example well we're going to give you a question we're going to ask you to make that question more provocative as as Laura just said but in a nice way we're going to ask you to expand on it

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but do not press enter and I've just noticed someone say how would you describe today's weather with a song name and that's brilliant but not that that's really nice that's brilliant what we're going to ask you to do is type into the chat box your extended question but don't press enter until we say go when we say go we want everyone to press enter and it's going to go and it's going to look like a waterfall but an upside down waterfall so I'm going to call it an Australian waterfall very

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nice Trent that is amazing I was thinking Imagine by John lenon finally when you said that so are we are we ready for the question for people to I think we're ready okay do not press enter okay so here's the question what do in your free time do I press enter now no don't press enter now type it into the chat box but do not press enter nobody press enter don't answer the question extend the question okay while we're waiting while they while we're waiting can I add an additional layer to

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this Laura it for your for your role I think if you don't mind why don't you pick a question to role playay with us so you pick one that sort of jumps out at you and we roleplay the our answer to that question okay yeah I think we've got about three minutes left so there is time to do that okay so I'm gonna give you five yes four hold on Harry Harry sorry I think there's a misunderstanding of the task people are answering the question don't answer the question just write your

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extended answer for the question extended question extended question extended question extended question not answer extended improve the question what do you do in your free time improve that make it better we didn't IQ it guys that's that's where we went wrong we didn't Bad Teachers bad teaching okay so we're g to give can you make this question even better so we're going to go for another five four three two one everyone press enter go go go go go I think they got it I think they got it oh

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they have definitely got it amazing what is your silliest hobby that's brilliant I love that what's your favorite pastime what do you do for entertainment what do you like to do with your friends indoors or Outdoors what type are you great what stereotypes are associated to your hobby that is really nice car dream hob how do you invest your leisure time I love that investing your leisure time not spending it I'm investing it I love that one that's like what's your dream hobby because I think that

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kind of speaks to how we'd like to be spending our time more so jugl actually okay all right juggling juggle can't juggle I could probably learn but you know it's a dream you do with the fire and tricks and stuff get really complicated these are brilliant everybody thank you so much so much talking about Flags there's another I like doing yeah what about you will if I was ask you like what if you had a dream hobby what would it be or what would you if I had a dream hobby what would it be

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I've already got my dream hobby it's you need a new one will oh a new one okay my dream hobby would be something like like mountaineering or rock climbing if I without I would like to be the type of person that rock climbs on Real Mountain faces like Cliff faces I haven't got guts so I don't bungy jumping from hot air balloons yeah yeah yeah I love how you have this like other life that you you've envisioned for yourself as other persona of well yeah you know perfect brilliant cool version of

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me cooler cooler this is fantastic I know we're a bit limited on time because we've had such a good chat and we shared ideas we've been working on developing questions so we can have more of a response and engage in better conversations not just teacher student but student student so I just want to kind of summarize uh for everybody just of things to take away when we're thinking about question we can obviously think about developing our Banker questions going Beyond just what's your

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favorite food or what's your favorite hobby and just even working together today we thought of so many great examples to ask better questions um we talked about personalizing things tailoring things asking follow-up questions um how you talked about uh students talking to each other or will as well and then bringing that into the Monday so like the Friday they talk to each other and then Monday they talk to each other um following up on plans and personalizing things we talked about superlative

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and I think one of the things finally to kind of highlight was being gen like genuinely curious and encouraging our students to be the same so modeling that as teachers as Educators um is a wonderful example for our students to follow and to to um replicate when they're talking to each other