Friday 29 June 2012

Affordable Coaching for Freelance EFL Teachers


Professional & Personal Coaching for
English Language Teaching Professionals.


Photo: eltpics, @aClilToClimb
Many teachers work intensively and with focus on their learners. The job requires a great deal of self-motivation and dedication to maintaining inspiration and motivation in the classroom. Then they have to actually teach something useful, interesting and relevant to their sometimes less-than-willing students. Teaching might well be the most “noble profession”; how many teachers feel convinced of the truth of this?  




"In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less."
Lee Iacocca

I believe a person has within them infinite capacity to achieve extraordinary things. Sometimes, we lose sight of what’s possible, what’s available to us, who is around to support and work with us. It’s the human condition. As a coach, my role is to provide a space where you can take time out to look at what’s going on with you and your environment. As a teacher, I empathise with many issues which can arise in the profession. I will listen with respect and patience, in absolute confidence, while you think through the issue currently blocking your way forward. Through a process of timely and incisive questioning, you will gradually unblock the way and uncover the answer you were looking for, and discover it was within you all along! 

Photo: eltpics, a ClilToClimb
“The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
Khalil Gibran










Investing in ourselves can sometimes feel like a guilty waste of time and money. I truly believe that I am giving my students a valuable additional service when I have spent time on learning more and developing myself.  Knowing the teaching profession as I do, I completely understand the conflict of personal development with paying the bills and doing as good a job as possible in too-short days! 


Photo: eltpics, @ALiCe_M
“People want amazing results with limited resources. They say they haven’t got time. We show them ways you can use coaching to free up time.” Shaun Lincoln, director of coaching and action learning at the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL)




 With this in mind, if you are a freelance EFL teacher, I am prepared to work with you on a “pay-what-you-can” basis. In the open market, coaches offer their services for €100 – €300 per hour. That hour goes beyond the face-to-face interaction; the coach prepares appropriate material, considers which tools would be of most benefit and follows-up after sessions to check if their client needs additional support. It’s an important relationship which a coach nurtures and cherishes for as long as the client has agreed to work on something. 

Photo: eltpics, @sandymillin


 “Coaching links entirely with increasing capacity and raising attainment. It increases self-knowledge and helps direct communication and the ability to challenge in a non-confrontational way with clarity and purpose.” Lesley Mackenzie, head of Westfield Primary School in Radstock, Bath






 
You can reach me via e-mail: michelle@keeptraining.de or by mobile: 0174 97 22 5555. The first “chemistry” meeting is always a complimentary consulting session. 

Special thanks to eltpics for making such great photos available for free and to all the photographers who contribute. Good effort folks. Thank you. 


 

Monday 18 June 2012

Coaching for ELF Teachers - BESIG / TESOL France Symposium June 2012

What a weekend it was in Paris! Of all the teachers' conferences I've been to the last few years, it's up there at the top of my "had a great time" list.

The half hour talk I did went much better than I expected. Despite not getting across everything I wanted to in exactly the way I would have wished. Perfection is such an elusive goal. Luckily I'm not someone who needs to reach it very often. I was in a positive frame of mind, the music perked me up and the audience, spread around the lecture room were receptive and friendly. Above all, Roy very generously agreed to be my guest coachee!

Had to share this shot - simply silly expressions!

This one is more like it - a real coaching session...

 And another thank you to Tom for being an excellent scribe. Quiet, unobtrusive yet observant and careful in his capturing of what Roy said. Thanks so much gentlemen.


Checking what Tom has written on the flip. Which option to focus on.

This post is essentially a follow-up to that and the request for my slides and book list.

So. Here's the list of books I've read since beginning my Post Grad coaching course:

Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl (very moving and highly inspiring. An extraordinary story)
Time to Think, Nancy Kline ("Ease creates; urgency destroys" lady!)
More Time to Think, Nancy Kline
Coaching for Performance, Sir John Whitmore (The GROW model guy)
The Psychology of Executive Coaching, Bruce Peltier (heavy going; haven't finished it yet)
The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle (v.spiritual and absolutely worth reading if you rush around a lot)
Egan's Skilled Helper Model..., Val Wosket (just read part of those - want to finish it soon.)
Further Techniques for Coaching & Mentoring, David Megginson (not read all)
The Chimp Paradox, Dr. Steve Peters (an absolute must!)
Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, Malcom Gladwell (thoroughly readable and highly fascinating)
Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell (in the middle of it now. Brilliant!)
The Element: How Finding your Passion Changes Everything, Lou Aronica and Ken Robinson (excellent and utterly inspiring)
Personal and Leadership Development: The Foundations for Continuous Growth, Sean Reddaway
Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It Now, Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen - (a pair of professional procrastinators - they really know what they're talking about!!)
The Tools: 5 Life-Changing Techniques to Unlock Your Potential, Phil Michaels, Barry Stutz, (have read only the sample from Kindle. Will download when I've finished the 3 other books I've got on the go at the moment!)
The Magic of Metaphor: 77 Stories for Teachers, Trainers & Thinkers, Nick Owen. (The book from which I read The Grammarian story in my talk).
Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (a classic!)
The Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, Eric Berne, MD (another classic; if you can stick with his writing style and some outdated (in my opinion) attitudes, it's a really fascinating, insightful read).
Introducing NLP: Pyschological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People, Joseph O'Connor & John Seymour (I'd already read their NLP for Trainers a number of years ago - deeply helpful for me professionally. The authors write in a very accessible way)

And the three other books I shared with you on Saturday:
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, Susan Jeffers - If you're someone who worries a lot - or just from time-to-time - read this even if you don't read any of the others.
The Prosperity Plan: 10 Steps to Beating The Odds and Creating Extraordinary Wealth (and Happiness), Laura B. Fortgang (her Little Book of Meaning is a lovely read too!)
And of course our very own Duncan Foord: The Developing Teacher.

OMG. That's quite a long list. I'm surprised I've had time to do any work the past 10 months! Luckily I'm an avid reader.

Anyway, there you go.

Can't upload the slides from the talk on Saturday here so have put them on the ELTAS group page on Facebook. Am contemplating sharing the video I made of Roy's coaching session - not sure about that one though.
Maybe we'll make do with the photos above.
 
In closing, here's the text from my last slide: Whitmore's coaching "prayer"!


„Where there is confusion, coaching can bring clarity.
Where there is fear, coaching can build trust.
Where there is concern, coaching can bring hope.
Where there is isolation, coaching can bring connection.
Where there is competition, coaching can bring cooperation.“


Sunday 1 April 2012

Inspirational

Sitting in departures of Glasgow airport waiting for my gate notification, the running digital ad board alongside the info board, was showing a promo:
“Scotland is inspirational in many ways.” “How has Scotland inspired you?”
Being in Scotland this week has inspired me greatly. Not because I was in Scotland but because I was at the IATEFL conference in Glasgow. The fact that it was my first experience of IATEFL and it was in Glasgow will be inextricably linked for me. What a friendly city. As clichéd as that may sound, I found it to be absolutely true. And what a friendly, approachable, welcoming lot the IATEFL crew are. On Sunday when I was unsure about where to go for the pre-conference associates’ dinner, my Twitter plea for information was answered by the President no less!
Now, despite my post-conference fatigue, I can say I’ve felt inspired this whole week in Glasgow. My first ever IATEFL Annual Conference. I’d never made the effort before thinking the distance, inconvenience, time and energy needed to get me there and through the whole experience just weren’t worth it. As a small, freelance teacher of mostly in-company BE courses, what could IATEFL offer me? There would be mostly “proper” teachers; people who became teachers by design rather than by accident and who subsequently take ELT very seriously.
Those people are definitely there – in their thousands. What I discovered is that I fit right in! I met up with people I know and struck up conference friendships with new people – colleagues with whom I intend to stay in touch.
Instead of feeling like an imposter or a semi-fraud, I felt right at home! Indeed I found the whole experience extremely inspiring, stimulating, (re-)motivational and lots of fun. There are many different types of teachers at IATEFL, and I mean more than those from the different SIGs and therefore teaching with a different focus (business English, ELT for young learners,teaching full-time in schools – public or private). There are traditional English school teachers, the pragmatic “this is my business”, entrepreneur-minded and the real actual academics. I peeked into the world of ELT in academia where people study the process of teaching, the effects on learners of different types of teaching, the whole educational psychology aspect. It’s fascinating! There are so many big, “technical” words for language, language teaching, language learning – a never ending source of material for academic discourse. A whole other world from that which I inhabit on a daily basis.  And utterly fascinating.
As well as conversing quite comfortably with the IATFEL President, I fell in with a number of renowned and highly respected ELT authors, with movers and shakers of the wider community, I chatted with representatives from the publishers, owners of international language schools. In other industries I could imagine the “famous” people being less approachable. At IATEFL, it’s much more a “we’re one big family” environment. Ultimately, everyone is a teacher and with that commonality at the core, building relationships and making connections is as natural as drinking gallons of coffee between the many talks and workshops during the conference!
Being an international conference, meeting teachers from around the world was also very exciting – I talked with teachers from Cameroon, Ghana, Serbia, Poland, Turkey, Wales (!). Talking with some of them reminded me of how privileged we are in Germany in terms of infrastructure (unlimited access to internet) and good pay. And all the many different accents floating around the SECC!! People talking sometimes in their native language but often using English to chat between nationalities. A brilliant example of ELF in action! Personally, I found it quite strange – in a good way – to know that no matter who I wanted to speak to, I was guaranteed they would understand me and be able to confidently chat back. A refreshing change for an English woman living in a foreign country Smile
So what I am ultimately saying. Being at IATEFL Glasgow was exhausting, at times frankly overwhelming. Ultimately, though, I found it highly professionally organised, varied, informative, fun and utterly inspiring. If you were also there, how would you respond to a banner ad flashing up next to the departures screen:
 
“IATEFL is inspirational in many ways. How has IATEFL inspired you?” 
Michelle.

PS: Here are some pictures from the week. Thanks to Mike Hogan for sharing on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjyJ2D5y

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Holding My Horses

I’m all a flutter. Thoughts are continually whizzing around my mind; ideas popping like firecrackers on new year’s eve. A slow churning of subtle excitement and anticipation – a few nerves too – accompanies me during the day. And keeps me awake at night (well, one night so far, if I’m honest!)

What’s going on, you may well ask…

Nothing earth-shattering nor particularly monumental. I volunteered to be part of my local teachers’ association. The difference this time (I’ve been on the committee team before) is that my role is to chair the group. My experience of those who have gone before gives me a great sense of responsibility. It is a role which requires management and leadership; commitment to doing the best for the association members. It requires creativity and forward-thinking; clear and transparent communication between committee team members and the wider membership.

I’m also discovering, fortunately in the early stages, it also requires patience and an understanding of the nature of the people who make up the membership. It requires me to “hold my horses”!

As a person who thrives on new ideas, looking for different ways of doing things, being creative and getting things done, I have to avoid riding roughshod over others. Thank goodness the chair is but one person among a group of bright, intelligent, knowledgeable people. People who hold a gentle restraining hand on me, while supporting other ideas with enthusiasm and willingness.

Personally, it is disconcerting and frustrating for me when I hear cautious voices. Those who question my ideas and present an alternative perspective. On one level, I understand the importance and validity of those voices; doesn’t stop me from feeling annoyed, irritated and frustrated, though!

Feeling a certain way about something is OK – I firmly believe. It’s how we deal with those feelings that is important. As I want this experience to be a personal developmental one, I set myself the challenge of behaving like an “adult” (those who familiar with transactional analysis will know what I mean!).

So, I will continue to indulge my penchant for idea storming. Then I will listen to those around me and accept that not all of my ideas will be possible to implement. I will value the judgment and wisdom of my team and work on mutually agreeable solutions. I will hold my horses back for a certain amount of time.

Do I sound like a Chairperson yet? I’m really looking forward to doing positive, useful and interesting things with – and for – ELTAS. I will keep an eye on my passion while not allowing it to be dampened too much.

There now, there’s that churning excitement in the pit of my stomach. Potential, I love it. The start of something new and improved. Let’s see what the team and I achieve together.

I’ll keep you posted!