Category: Changes and challenges 2015

by James Taylor

Compared to most teachers, I live an unusual life. Due to my partner’s job, every couple of years I change the country where I live and start all over again. I have to settle in, find a new home and job, get used to a new public transport system and generally get acclimatised. That’s how my life has been for the last ten years and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I have learnt a huge amount from that way of life, mainly from the hundreds of students I’ve met in four different parts of the world.

Recently, I moved back to Brazil, the first country where I lived abroad and the place where I became an English teacher. Back then I knew nothing about blogs, courses, resource books, journals, conferences, webinars, and there was no such thing as iTDi, Twitter and Facebook.  Anything that you could describe as ‘professional development’, activities that now make up a large proportion of my professional life, didn’t figure at all.

This time around it’s very different. I’ve only been back a couple of months and I’ve already been to two conferences and given two webinars for BrazTESOL and BrELT. I look forward to being a part of one of the most vibrant ELT scenes in the world.

So when iTDI asked me to write about 2015 as a year of change for me, it would seem most obvious that I would reflect on this transition from Costa Rica to Brazil and compare the two different teaching environments, but I’m not going to do that. After ten years, this change is something that I’ve become fairly accustomed to, so nowadays it doesn’t seem like such a seismic shift.

That doesn’t mean that 2015 wasn’t a year of change, however. The joy of this profession for me is that I find I’m always in a state of change. Even after ten years, I still feel I have a huge amount to learn about English teaching. There are so many aspects to what we do, from second language acquisition to motivation and from phonetics to international varieties of English, that I still need to learn a lot.

As an example, I recently completed the iTDi course with Philip Kerr on translation and using the student’s own language in the classroom. It was an eye-opening experience as I’d never really considered using the student’s L1 and it was clear how much I had been underestimating its potential. Philip also reminded me about the importance of repetition and how useful flashcards can be in helping learners remember the language we teach them.

Another thing that Philip mentioned was reading skills. For many years, like most teachers, I adopted the standard approach to teaching reading. I would start with some general discussion questions before following it up with some skimming and scanning activities, ending with the students trying to figure out the meaning of new vocabulary from context. What I’ve learnt in the last few months is that these activities have little or no use in the classroom which has been a big discovery for me. (If you want to find out more, start here).

Finally, I recently watched Hugh Dellar’s webinar for the University Of Limerick on colligation. Leo Selivan defines it like this: “If collocation is a lexical company of a word, colligation is its grammatical company. For example, verbs of perception, such as hear, notice, see, watch, tend to be followed by an object and an -ing clause: I heard you coming in late last night.” I was amazed listening to Hugh speak as it seemed to me that this was a fundamentally important concept that I’d never heard of until his talk. Another thing I need to learn about.

I know that being a teacher can sometimes be a thankless task. It’s not difficult to feel underappreciated, but we should be grateful that we work in a field which is so intellectually stimulating. Change is easy for us to grasp, there are countless ways we can learn something new and shake up our teaching practice. You don’t need to move from one country to another to experience it.

 

by Sirja Bessero

 

 

A few years ago my then teacher trainer told me how her side job as an oil therapist nourished the teacher in her. As I was fully engaged in my teaching career, bursting with energy and excitement and tirelessly trying out new techniques in my classroom, I paid next to no attention to what she was talking about. I didn’t feel the least concerned.

However, the fact that her confession I half-heartedly listened to stuck with me is a perfect example of how random bits and pieces come together to form a whole in the end. Many years on and I could be the one telling her story. But let me start at the beginning.

As this year 2015 was ushered in to the sounds and lights of fireworks, my face was smiling but I was lost and tired inside. During the 15 years of teaching my enthusiasm had never let me down, quite the contrary. My excitement and seemingly endless energy had helped me find a dream job with amazing students, got me the chance to give a talk at a teachers’ conference, found me a long awaited post as a part-time teacher trainer, and put me in touch with lots of inspiring teachers from all over the world. In short, I was successful and enjoying it to the fullest.

Yet despite the achievements, my energy and enthusiasm began waning. For no apparent reason, more and more often the spark failed to show up. I still managed to give good lessons and my relationship with the students was as good as ever, but deep down I knew I was running on last remnants of energy. I had never done anything but teaching. I was reaching my forties. I began to panic. Suddenly I felt that if I ever wanted to change, it had to be now. Now I still had got time and stamina to launch myself into a whole new adventure.

And so I did. After years of weekly yoga practice, I signed myself up for a four-year yoga teacher training course. My once-a-week practice had already proven beneficial enough for me to want to share the good stuff with other people. From the first day of yoga training I knew I had chosen the right path. I was confident that the door I had now pushed open would lead me into exciting adventures. But little did I know that what I thought would be a change in direction would also lead me gently back to teaching English, energized and strengthened anew.

As you all know, teaching can be an extremely straining job. Standing in the limelight, being continuously exposed in front of lots of people, acting and reacting under the scrutinising pairs of eyes, motivating yourself and myriads of others, keeping it alive yet not losing one’s calm… The list could go on forever. In order to ‘survive’ and flourish in such a demanding job, it is vital that teachers are aware of the need to protect and nourish themselves. If you want to last in this profession, you have to find your fountain of energy and inspiration.

Once I took up regular yoga practice, the changes were quick to show. Besides the physical wellbeing, I marvelled at the transformation my mental state underwent. What’s more, the changes happened in my professional life as well. Since the start of daily yoga practice, I have grown into a much calmer and more grounded teacher. Instead of rushing into conclusions, I now take my time before acting or giving my answer. I have become a better listener. Instead of trying to make myself understood, I make the effort to understand my students. I am also gentler, kinder with myself. I know I make mistakes. I will certainly keep making mistakes as long as I undertake anything. But mistakes are such valuable learning opportunities. I let my students see when I make a mistake, so that they feel comfortable enough to make theirs, too.

I remember wondering why my previous teacher trainer did not give up teaching altogether and instead launch herself entirely into her new passion, oil therapy. I thought it would be rather straining to combine the two. However, at this time in my life I would rather say it is vital to combine the two. I will continue teaching, I will continue enjoying teaching because I’ve found the fountain that nourishes me. I can grow as a teacher because I’ve discovered the soil that gives me strength. I will be able to accompany and help my students because I know how to help myself.

I hope you will find your fountain of energy and inspiration too, so that you can keep thriving in your teaching profession!

Happy New Year!

 

by Priscila Mateini

 

“We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges”   – Joyce Meyer

I had set some plans at the beginning of year 2015, and as the year progressed, that plan faced three levels of difficulties. The first one was quite easy – I had to adapt some materials for my son’s school – and I successfully overcame it. Then, towards the middle of the year, the second challenge that I had to deal with was working with the schedule routine of my new school. A new group of special needs students there had never had a mediator in the classroom before, so I was in charge of their adjustment and adapting the curriculum, too. Finally, the last difficulty resulted in the biggest and most important of the changes and took my life in a completely different direction: I was invited to take part in an MA project to study the demands of special needs teachers in public education. It has been extremely tough, but I have not given up.

At the beginning of the school year, I got a great group of students to teach. Even though they were a mixed group with a range of difficulties, we were able to establish a positive learning environment both in and outside our class. I can say that we were a very nice team. Naturally, I was very excited to teach them, but what I could not have imagined was that my life would soon turn upside down. In April, my daughter expressed her concern about my working too much and complained about my not spending time with her and my son. At first, I thought she was being childish, but then I realized that it was a warning for me to start working less. I changed my routine and decided to quit the institution where I was teaching at that moment. Instead, I chose to work close to home and focus on adapting material for special needs students. At the same time, I joined a group of researchers to study inclusive education for my MA project. That was the moment when my big challenges began.

The problem was that I had never before worked with so many people and schools in such a short period. I soon became aware that some schools completely lack support, mediators for Special Educational Needs (SEN), or even worse, a curriculum adapted specifically for SEN. This made me reflect a lot on how difficult it is to teach in a context which teachers are not prepared for. By that time, I had a handful of theories and case studies at my disposal, but I did not have the practice required to use them in class. At some point one of my research supervisors told me to feel free to quit, arguing that it was not the first time that someone left the project, but I said no. I was determined to stay until the end of the project. This project, as I thought then and keep believing until now, will help thousands of teachers in Brazil to work with and adapt materials for students with disabilities in an inclusive environment.

In my life, I have learned a lot from both bad and good experiences, which has enabled me to grow as a learner and as a teacher. Sharing those experiences with my special needs students has enormously helped me overcome fears of failure and has given me the strength to move on. Teaching children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities has opened my eyes to diversity and inclusive education, the ideas that I may otherwise would never have been able to see. Thanks to this turn of events in my life, I now take a firm stand on SEN.

Being a special needs teacher requires quite a lot from us – patience, competence, as well as continuous professional development. That is why I am constantly taking part in development courses and workshops. Although this training is not always focused specifically on SEN teaching contexts, we can still learn a lot, draw ideas, and get the most out of our experiences.

Teaching is not an easy job; what we do goes beyond what many people think. We spend countless sleepless nights planning lessons, thinking about our classes, working weekends and holidays to bring our students engaging, tailor-made materials that would engage them. Every single year a teacher faces challenges of all sorts, challenges that bring change into our routines and make us stronger and more hopeful for better days. At the end of the day, what really matters is that we have chosen this career because we love what we do, and it is those big challenges that fuel our willingness to put our whole hearts into it.