It’s always
a pleasure to watch and listen to Carol Read present. She has contagious
positive energy and enthusiasm that can put the audience on their toes. I had
the pleasure of watching her plenary speech online on BBELT Conference at Mexico, February 2020. She started by saying that the theme of this conference is
Transformative Teaching and in order to transform we need to be able to cope
with the children, and the situations we are in and to blossom and flourish
with what we are doing. Sometimes, we forget about ourselves and feel guilty if
we do so.
Teaching is
a stressful and exhausting job, but what makes it so? Then, she asked the
audience to discuss in pairs 6 reasons for that. Then she suggested a number of
them:
n Challenging
behavior
n Unrealistic
expectations from parents and school administration
n Pressure to pass
exams
n Limited space
n Limited
materials and resources
n Learning
differences
n Long hours with
a lot of work load
n Low self-esteem.
How teachers are valued and paid in society
Then she
mentions the popular quote “a good teacher is like a candle……… it consumes
itself to light the way for others”. Then she asked if the audience liked it,
for which they gave a NO!! Then she continued: in order to transform the lives
of our learners not at the expense our lives how can we light the way to them?
We need a reliable charger if we are burnt out! So she preferred to share a
better quote which is “To care for the teacher, is to love the learner”. Thus
she believes that we need as teachers to survive and thrive as this is the way
to the transformative teaching we are aspiring to. Then she shared six
practical survival strategies:
A.
Look after your voice
n Don’t speak too
loud
n Find your
natural pitch
n Stay hydrated
n Do vocal straw exercises
(you can see its practical application on the presentation link https://www.britishcouncil.org.mx/how-survive-and-thrive-language-teacher-children
42.53minute).
B.
Make and break routines
n Routines create
order and security
n Are predictable
and build confidence
n Save your giving
instructions
n Foster a learning
community
n Allow more time
for teaching and learning
n Help you look
after your voice
She believes
that when children get older, they want to break routines and have surprises.
Then she started giving examples:
1.
Gym sequence (practice different moves in class for energizing students)
2.
Natural thinking puzzles e.g.
a. A man rode into
town on Monday, stayed 3 days and left on Monday.
b. Little
game:
-
I like apple, but I don’t like pears
-
I like green and yellow, but I don’t like red
-
I like running and swimming, but I don’t like dancing
and walking
(what is the criteria?)
3.
Look for ways to be creative e.g. line up in order of name, surname,
height, birthday…..etc. OR during checking the names for the school
register/attendance, assign the students names of countries, so when you call
the name of the country, they mention the capital city, or assign each a wild
animal and they call out the name of the baby animal …. etc.
4.
Spelling gym for spelling words and reciting the alphabet (see the
wonderful practice of the idea on the link above 55:02 minute).
5.
Memory game. Look at a number of pictures, cover them and ask the
students to remember as many as they can and write them down. Then ask them,
what is common among them? Is there a link between them? Identify the meaning
of each picture.
6.
Make Milage out of your materials to make them more attractive and
agreeable to your students. Add a creative touch to your work.
C.
No nonsense approach to classroom Management. Use SOS
n Softly softly: go slowly with activities and
explain reasons for using them. You can also change (adapt/set up) activities
to enable us to manage our classes in a positive way.
n Only one person: use the idea of CBG i.e. catch them
being good. Look for the positive rather the negative behavior. Use praise never
fake it. Show that you value their behavior.
n Stay serene: Play the waiting game with one
neutral body language. Also use the ‘art of the deadly stare’. She also
suggested negotiating things with students for automacity and agency. You can
also use choice boards.
D.
Find ways to reduce your
work load.
Try that without cutting corners e.g. have templates for lesson plans or
correct assignments for one objective to save time. She also suggested the need
for achieving work-life balance as we need to thrive. Then she mentioned why is
thriving sometimes hard:
n Lack of
work-life balance
n In ability to
switch off
n Anxiety about
things we can’t control
n Negative
thoughts
n Tendency to be
perfectionist
n Feelings swapped
by demands.
Then she moved to mention the
importance of ‘Wellbeing’. It depends on
your goals and way of thinking. It is important for both teachers and students
as it leads to better academic achievement and performance and at the same time
reduces increasing levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Then she showed
some shocking statistics:
She believed that ‘Wellbeing’ should really be
‘a goal or the goal’ for education as schools should prepare children for ‘the
tests of life rather than a life of tests’.
After that she gave a number of ideas
to improve ‘Wellbeing’
She also advised teachers to look for
‘the positive’ of our children and ourselves.
Look for the things they can do rather than they can’t. Then suggested using
sticky notes at the end of the week for example and ask the students to write
three positive things and share one with the class. Interestingly, she moved to
compare ‘fixed mindset and growth mindset’. They show how we look at things. A
growth mindset helps us to have persistence and perseverance i.e. resilience
that we need to breed. Thus ending her discussion with the 4 R’s:
n Resilience
------------------ growth mindset
n Resourceful
--------------- cognition, finding ways
to develop our skills and help our
students to be autonomous
n Reciprocal
--------------- when to ask for help
and be collaborative
n Reflective
--------------- Train students to reflect on learning, be
self-aware and apply
all
this to our teaching as well
Then she summed up the whole session
with the following slide
Closing with a final message
As this would help us become the
transformative teachers we all thrive for.
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