Tag Archives: Communication

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Professional Development: Collaborative Teaching in EFL/ ESL

By Lindsay Clandfield and Jo Budden

Level: Starter/beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Advanced

 

“I love my new job. I can be creative in my class preparation, I get along really well with my students and I really appreciate the responsibility. There’s nobody looking over my shoulder all the time when I’m at work. It’s me and my class.”

“I feel bored and a bit depressed with my job. I feel like I am doing the same thing over and over again. I have no new ideas and I hate my course book. I don’t know if I can do this for the rest of my life. One of the problems is that I feel so lonely, even with a class full of students. I think I’m becoming disconnected from it all.”

The first quote is from a new English teacher in their first few months of teaching (after the “fear” of the first classes has worn off) and the second is from an English teacher who has been working for some years. Do either of these sound familiar? Why does the second teacher feel that way? What has happened?

The second teacher may be close to suffering from teacher burnout. Burnout is a response to chronic, everyday stress, rather than to occasional crises. As Dr. Susan Barduhn, President of IATEFL, notes, “People who go into teaching (or nursing, social work, fire-fighting or any kind of helping profession) often have a high need for approval and high expectations of themselves. The burnout-prone individual is one who simply takes on too much.” One of the best ways to avoid burnout is to start supporting and cooperating with fellow teachers and professionals. According to many studies, burnout and teacher turnover is drastically reduced when successful peer support exists.

This article is about Collaborative Teaching. I take Collaborative Teaching to mean more than teaching or planning a class between more than one teacher (although it can take that form). For me, collaborative teaching is about developing different mechanisms of peer support. It is also about developing professionally, but not in isolation. What follows is a series of tips and activities for teachers to do to start collaborative teaching and stop burnout before it occurs.

 

Share ideas

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to start collaborative teaching is to swap ideas. Teachers often do this anyway. You can formalize this process at your school in two ways:

Organize a folder entitled Ideas and Tips. Divide it into sections (either by level, or by theme) and ask other teachers to contribute. For a project like this to work you really have to have someone in charge of keeping the folder or folders in order. Why not rotate that duty among teachers? You could also have a “Tip or Activity of the Week” that you can post on the staff room wall.

Offer to organize a meeting to exchange ideas at your work. All you need is a time and a place where teachers can meet. At a school where I worked we called it the Materials Circus Maximus(Gladiator had just come out in the theatres!) We all met on a Friday afternoon and shared activity ideas. This became even more popular when teachers would “teach” the others using their material. It made the activity more memorable when teachers actually played the part of learners.

Sharing ideas in your school can be beneficial for all involved. But why stop at your school when you can share tips and classes with English teachers all around the world! One way of doing this is through the onestopenglish Lesson Share competition. See section G below for other ideas.

 

Start a teacher discussion group

This aspect of collaborative teaching means going further than just swapping tips and materials. Get together with a group of other teachers (or even just one other teacher!) to exchange ideas and methods and reflect on your teaching. This could be to discuss problems you have had with a certain class or course book, to share good and bad moments in class or to reflect on a particular aspect of your teaching. It could be a formalized meeting with other teachers at the school, or a more informal meeting at a cafe.
Here are some directions that a teacher discussion group could take:

  • The group meets to discuss discipline problems in their classes and ways of dealing with them.
  • The group meets to offer advice and suggestions to one member who is having trouble motivating a class.
  • Each member of the group researches an aspect of methodology which they haven’t tried (examples include Total Physical Response, Using Literature in the Classroom, Task Based Learning) and then presents their findings at the meeting. A good starting point for research like this is the Methodology section of onestopenglish.
  • Each member of the group writes some reflections on two different classes – one which went well and one which didn’t go so well. Teachers come together and exchange reflections. They then discuss the classes.

Observe a colleague

Peer observation is a great way to get new ideas and see how others deal with everyday classroom occurrences. Have you ever wondered what was going on in the classroom next door? Why was it so quiet or why was there so much laughter? Here’s your chance to find out.

Choose a colleague who you respect and ask them if they would mind you observing them. With any luck they’ll jump at the chance of having an extra pair of eyes in the class. You could use the observation to steal some new ideas for your own classes. There are many forms available to use as a guide for the observation. Click in the box below for some samples from Jim Scrivener’s Learning Teaching. Alternatively, make a form yourself for your exact needs.

 

Ask a colleague to observe you

Choose a colleague you admire and trust and invite them to observe one of your classes. Choose a focus that you’d like them to concentrate on, such as your instructions, interaction with students or use of L1 in the class and ask for feedback on that specific point.

Always remember that giving feedback is a skill in itself and you should aim to be mainly positive, by giving constructive advice and ideas. Think about what you would like to tell the observee before you begin the feedback and consider how best to tell them.

 

Set up a mentor program

In English language teaching, the idea of having mentors in a school is relatively new. The mentor is an experienced teacher in the school who knows where things are and is familiar with school procedures. A new teacher is assigned a mentor when they start. The mentor is responsible for this new member of staff. The mentor has different “roles”:

  • that of model (to inspire the mentee)
  • that of acculturator (to show the mentee around and get them used to the school culture)
  • that of sponsor and support (to “open doors” for the mentee, to introduce mentee to the “right people”; to “be there” for the mentee)
  • that of educator (to listen and coach the mentee so that the mentee can achieve professional learning objectives)

A more informal mentor program could be a simple buddy system by which new teachers are assigned a “buddy” on the staff who they can turn to if they have any problems or questions.

 

Inter-class communicating and swaps

If you teach in a school at the same time as another English teacher with a similar level, there are many interesting possibilities for collaboration. Here are some ideas.

For oral tests, swap classes with the other teacher. This can be beneficial for getting an outside view of your learners’ oral competence. It will almost certainly mean that your learners will take the test a lot more seriously. For learners who are preparing for an external exam like the Cambridge First Certificate or Advanced, both of which have an interview component this could be a good practice run for them.

Run friendly competitions between classes. This could involve trivia quizzes for example. Post the results of each group in the classrooms.

Have learners write letters to each other. You can even set up written role plays. For example, have one class write a series of job adverts for the other class. The students in the other class decide on which job they would like to apply for and write letters of application, which go back to the first class. This could even be followed up by a face-to-face interview.

Have individual learners come and visit the other class from time to time. They could be interviewed by their new classmates, or make short presentations.

 

Collaborate locally

The above ideas all more or less take place inside one school. You can expand your horizons and link up with other English teachers in your area. For example:

Go to a conference, seminar or product presentation. Many countries have an English teaching association and run a yearly conference. Conferences are great places to meet other teachers, network and get new ideas. Sometimes a local school or organization will set up a seminar on an aspect of language teaching. Finally, publishers will often have special teacher development days or product presentations (these often include free books or a free breakfast!). Get in touch with the publisher’s local representative.

Start a teachers’ newsletter. You could start this in the school where you work, or organize it between two or three schools. Include lesson ideas and tips and news about teaching in your local area.

 

Collaborate world-wide

Do some of the above projects seem too difficult to set up in your school? Maybe you work in many different schools and therefore are not in a position to implement or participate in such programs. Does that mean you can’t do any collaborative teaching? Not at all! There is a whole community of English language teachers helping each other around the world.

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Professionals

25 Tips for Having Meaningful Relationships

While technology has made it more convenient to keep in touch with the outside world, and even become re-acquainted with long-lost friends, it has also changed how we define relationships. Someone with 1,000 Facebook friends may think they’re a rock star. But, how many of those “friends” would be there to support them when they start a business or go through a personal crisis?

The more successful you are at relationships with your family, friends and customers; the more successful you will be in life with all of them.

Because of the hustle and bustle of the 21st century, it’s even more important than ever to have these meaningful types of relationships. Want to know how to achieve that? Follow these 25 tips.

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1. Be happy with yourself.

You may have heard this one before, and there is a reason for that – it remains the best place to start. As Michelle Maros so elegantly puts it in, Peaceful Mind Peaceful Life, “Your relationships outside will flounder if you don’t have unconditional love and compassion for yourself.”

2. Learn to listen and understand.

Throughout your life you’ve probably dealt with this problem. Your parents never listened. Your spouse never listens. Your boss just doesn’t understand, or listen. George P.H. notes in, Pick The Brain, that we can connect with people simply by listening to them, hearing them out without interruption, and doing our best to understand where they’re coming from.

3. Take the punch.

You can’t always take things personally. We all have bad days where we freak out, vent, or scream at those around us. My wife Kristy Rampton always tells me “There are few things in life less selfless than taking a punch every now and then from people who are having a bad day. Sometimes people just need to vent.” Get amnesia concerning the outbursts of others.

4. Follow-up.

If you feel like you’ve hit it off with someone, professionally or personally, don’t wait for them to get in touch with you. If you believe that there’s potential for a new relationship, then make sure that you follow-up. Keith Ferrazzi, author of “Never Eat Alone,” suggests that you should follow-up within 48 hours of the first meeting.

5. Be positive.

Here’s a quick question. Would you rather spend time with someone who is a downer or someone who is upbeat? Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist at the University of North Carolina, backs up the obvious by stating, in Psychology Today, that positive emotions help us “broaden and build” relationships.

6. Grab lunch.

We’re all busy, but are you too busy to stop and eat? Probably not. Relationship expert Nate Bagley from Loveumentary believes that you should “make the time” to schedule a lunch with friend, acquaintance or family member. This action will yield great benefits.

7. Don’t be someone else.

Adrian Savage wrote in, LifeHack: “If you can’t trust yourself, why should others trust you?”

8. Take inventory of the relationships you have.

Some relationships are meant to be last for a long time. Other relationships may just linger because it’s familiar and feels safe. Take an inventory of the relationships and see which ones you would like to hang onto and the ones you can let go. Letting go of unnecessary relationships opens up the opportunity to let new relationships into your life.

9. Pick up the phone.

Texts, email and Facebook comments are great every now and then, but there’s nothing like having an actual conversation with someone. Don’t hesitate to pick-up the phone and give your friend or peer a call to check-in and see how they’re doing. It is a good idea to be respectful of the other person’s time. The actual conversation does not have to be lengthy. Take the time to pick up the phone or Skype chat that friend. It’ll go a long ways to maintaining and fostering strong relationships.

10. Find common interests.

It could be the same sports team, band, movie, job or extreme sport. No matter how big or small, finding a common interest is one of the best ways to establish a meaningful relationship.

11. Pay it forward.

You should want to give others something because you want to. Not because you have to. If you know someone who happens to be a great web-designer and you have another acquaintance who is need of a designer, then why not introduce them to each other? Did you run across an unusual shot glass that would fit in your friend’s collection? Could you quickly purchase it?

12. Don’t wait to be asked for help.

If you know that a colleague, friend or family member needs some sort of help, then jump in and offer your assistance before they ask. For example, if you know that they’re moving and you have the time, you can offer to help, even if your body will hate it the next day.

13. Learn to trust others.

Even if you were hurt by someone in the past, either professionally or personally, you have to learn to trust again. As George P.H. so bluntly puts it “ALL relationships – family, business, platonic – require trust.”

14. Be clear on what you want.

None of us like feeling disappointed. But, did you ever stop and think that maybe you didn’t get your needs filled because you didn’t specify what you really wanted? Even if it seems uncomfortable, always be honest in what you want or need.

15. Understand what’s really being asked.

Here’s another piece of advice from Steve Boyer. He suggests that “people will always ask different questions than the one they really want to be answered.” For example, an “employees typically ask how to be more successful when all they really want is to get a raise or promotion.” In other words, there a larger question waiting to be answered behind that initial question.

16. Respond quickly.

While you don’t have access to your phone or computer 24/7, there’s a good probability that you will at some point sooner than later. If someone emails or texts you a question or inquiry, respond to them ASAP. Wouldn’t you rather be known as the speedy responder than the person who never gets back?

17. Set calendar reminders.

We’re all busy bees, so it’s easy to lose contact with friends, colleagues, family members and acquaintances. To avoid a problem, use a set-up calendar reminder so that you can schedule a time to touch base with the people in life.

18. Identify and avoid interpersonal pitfalls.

There are plenty of qualities that can be detrimental to a relationship. The Counseling Center at the University of Texas lists the following:

      • Having unrealistic expectations of yourself, the other person, or the relationship in general.
      • Coming too close too soon, physically or psychologically.
      • Being negative about self, the relationship or life.
      • Being a rescuer, a martyr, a savior or a “perfect” person.
      • Trying to change the other person to suit your needs.
      • Being too self-centered, judgmental or always “right”.
      • Stockpiling strong feelings – anger, pain, sadness, neediness – and then pouring them all out at once.
      • Expecting the other person to be a mind reader, a fixer or always a rock of stability for you.

If you notice any of these tendencies in yourself, think about trying to change them. You may even need to get help from someone you trust so that you can avoid the inclination from going any further.

19. Don’t be judgmental.

Just because someone acts a certain way, behaves in ways we wouldn’t allow ourselves to or has differing opinions, it doesn’t mean that they’re beneath you, or less than you. Instead of passing judgment, why not ask them questions to find out why they have those opinions and interests. Besides learning something new, you may discover that you’re not that different after all.

20. Pick your locations and activities wisely.

Heading out to the bar to meet new friends sounds great in theory, maybe. But, you’ll most likely develop bar buddies. Are those really the people you can seriously rely on? While there’s nothing wrong with have acquaintances, try to spend time in places where there will be people with similar interests. If you’re into books, for example, then why not join a book club?

21. Be patient.

Building and maintaining a relationship takes time. During that time, you’re going to need patience to help cope with the daily frustrations of life. If you don’t have the patience to deal with life’s little aggravations, then how can you expect to have a durable relationship?

22. Make eye contact.

Research has long proven that “people who make eye contact are perceived as more, “likable and trustworthy.” Dr. Atsushi Senju tells the New York Times that, “A richer mode of communication is possible right after making eye contact.”

23. Don’t mumble.

Communication is a big part of relationships. So, why would you want to make conversations awkward or confusing because you can’t be understood? In case you weren’t aware, mumbling is also a “sign of covert anger, resentment, disrespect, or sadness.”

24. Laugh.

In case you weren’t aware, laughter is extremely contagious. Besides being beneficial for your overall health, it can also “strengthen our relationships by triggering positive feelings and fostering emotional connection.” Also, take an opportunity to laugh at yourself sometime.

25. Let it go.

Pick your battles wisely. Even if you disagree with someone or have the need to tell them “I told you so,” it’s best to move on and let it go. No one wants to hear a lecture.

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Professionals

10 Qualities of Highly Successful People

The attributes here are shared by successful people everywhere, but they didn’t happen by accident or luck. They originate in habits, built a day at a time.

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1. Drive – You have the determination to work harder than most and make sure things get done. You pride yourself on seeing things getting completed and you can take charge when necessary. You drive yourself with purpose and align yourself with excellence.

2. Self-reliance – You can shoulder responsibilities and be accountable. You make hard decisions and stand by them. To think for yourself is to know yourself.

3. Willpower – You have the strength to see things through–rather than vacillate or procrastinate. When you want it, you make it happen. The world’s greatest achievers are those who have stayed focused on their goals and been consistent in their efforts.

4. Patience – You are willing to be patient, and you understand that, in everything, there are failures and frustrations. To take them personally would be a detriment.

5. Integrity – This should not have to be said, but it’s seriously one of the most important attributes you can cultivate. Honesty is the best policy for everything you do; integrity creates character and defines who you are.

6. Passion – If you want to succeed, if you want to live, it’s not politeness but rather passion that will get you there. Life is 10 percent what you experience and 90 percent how you respond to it.

7. Connection – You can relate with others, which in turns makes everything reach further and deepen in importance.

8. Optimism – You know there is much to achieve and much good in this world, and you know what’s worth fighting for. Optimism is a strategy for making a better future–unless you believe that the future can be better, you’re unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

9. Self-confidence – You trust yourself. It’s as simple as that. And when you have that unshakeable trust in yourself, you’re already one step closer to succeeding.

10. Communication – You work to communicate and pay attention to the communicators around you. Most important, you hear what isn’t being said. When communication is present, trust and respect follow.

No one plans on being mediocre; mediocrity happens when you don’t plan. If you want to succeed, learn the traits that will make you successful and plan on living them out every day.

Be humble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless. That is who you are, and who you have always been.

SOURCE

Professionals

3 Communication Fundamentals You Should Know

If you want to be effective at interpersonal communication in areas like managing conflict, negotiating, managing performance and coaching, here are three fundamentals – a theory and a two related skills – you really ought to know and be good at. The theory is attribution theory. And the skills are active listening and delivering feedback.

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The Theory

The theory is called attribution theory. It is about how we explain why other people do what they do. According to the theory, there either are external causes – e.g. the dog ate the homework – or internal causes, something about the individual or the group to which the individual belongs – e.g. he doesn’t get his work done because he’s lazy.

The truth is we often don’t know why someone does something. You should be aware of this theory because the best way to blow up a negotiation or a coaching session or almost any interaction with someone is to impute a negative motivation to something that person has done. Being wrong about it only makes the situation worse.

The Skills

Now that you know what attribution theory is, you know exactly what not to do when delivering feedback or when you are engaged in active listening: do not make attributions. Do not tell someone what he or she is thinking, feeling, or intending. Instead, pay attention to what the individual is saying and doing.

Feedback
The purpose of feedback is to give the feedback recipient information about his or her behavior that he or she can use to decide whether to continue that behavior or to change it in some way. When delivering feedback, instead of beginning with the impact of someone’s behavior and assuming the individual knows exactly what you’re talking about, begin by describing what that person did using specific behavioral language and then identify the impact of the behavior.

The point about language is important because the same behavior can impact different people in different ways. For example, behavior that some would call aggressive might look confident or arrogant to other people. That’s why it’s important to be specific about what the individual is doing. Please note that the words aggressive, confident and arrogant do not describe specific behavior. They describe someone’s interpretation of someone else’s behavior. They are attributions.

Active Listening
Most people think of active listening as going “uh huh” every now and then and paraphrasing. These are techniques intended to encourage the other person and to let them know you’re listening. The techniques work best if they support the actual goal of active listening, which is listening to understand.

Here’s how to become an active listener: Do not assume that your interpretations are their intentions. Do not use attributions. Paraphrase when the other person says something that appears important and then, if it seems appropriate, add on a response or a clarifying question. For example, “As I understand it now, your perspective on this topic is… Mine is different. I view the situation this way…” That gives the other person the opportunity to clarify your understanding of their position and to hear your view.
As with feedback, active listening is useful in most interactions with other people whether those interactions are personal or business related. And both skills are essential for things like negotiating, managing conflict, coaching and managing performance. They are not the only skills you’ll need, but without them, you will be much less effective. That’s why they are among the fundamentals of interpersonal communication.

Source: CEO.COM

Professionals

5 Team Building Exercises

Teamwork: team working together.

Five main categories of team building exercises exist. They consist of activities that build communication, promote problem solving and decision making, encourage adaptability and the ability to plan, work to build trust, and develop a cooperative spirit. The team building exercises that promote these various skills are meant to be enjoyable and instructional.

Depending on what you want to improve on your team, you can try some of the following activities:

1. Build communication. Activities that develop open lines of communication and listening increase communication. Try games like telephone, where you sit in a circle and one person whispers a scenario into the ear of the next person, such as how an important report was not delivered to the president in time. The “telephone” chain continues until the last person, who announces what he or she heard. Generally, by the end of the chain the story has been altered substantially. This gives employees a chance to discuss how the story changed along the way and methods they could use in the future to improve communication.

2. Promote problem solving and decision making. Used often in science fairs, the egg drop is a particularly effective activity for promoting problem solving. Split the employees into two groups and have them rig up a package that ensures a raw egg doesn’t break when dropped from a distance. Make it more challenging by timing them and limiting the types of materials they can use to protect the egg.

3. Encourage adaptability and planning. Survival scenarios work well to encourage planning and adaptability. Announce a survival situation, such as the fact that everyone will be deserted on an island indefinitely. Instruct the group to come up with a list of 15 items they must bring with them in order to ensure their survival. The process of choosing will require that they adapt and plan for the unexpected.

4. Build trust. One of the most efficient ways to test the trust between two individuals is to have them protect one another physically. This can be done by having one person close his or her eyes and fall backward into the arms of another. Or, you could have employees stand facing each other in pairs; with their elbows bent, they place their palms together, leaning toward each other and moving their feet back further and further until they’re supporting each other. Such exercises quickly highlight trust issues and help everyone learn to believe in one another.

5. Nurture a cooperative spirit. Assigning employee teams to volunteer with charitable causes is the best way to encourage cooperation. When people work on a cause that the team cares about, they will bond. The opportunity to give back to those less fortunate often creates a charitable, cooperative attitude among everyone involved.

Armed with these ideas for team building exercises, you can create the best working culture for your business.