Developing with colleagues

Sunday 14 June 2009

by Duncan Foord

We looked at activities from circle one and circle two in the first two weeks. Developining alone and developing with your students.  Circle three is for development activities you can do with your colleagues. Here are some developmental activities that teachers can share. What are your experiences with these? How useful have they been for you and what challenges do they present? Have you got any tips?

 

 

Discussed TEFL theory/literature with a colleague

 

Observed a colleague

 

Been observed by a colleague

 

Swapped materials

 

Shared the teaching of a lesson with a colleague

 

Planned a lesson or series of lessons with a colleague

 

Spent time socially with colleagues

 

Taken part in team building activities with colleagues

 

Mentored or been mentored by a colleague

 

Set up a blog, wiki or web project with colleagues

 

 

 

One area I have been interested in this year is mentoring. At the school I work in we set up a small mentoring project which paired up experienced teachers with newly qualified and newly arrived teachers. The principal aim was to help them integrate quickly and provide support. Mixed results. Mentees were generally happier than mentors with outcomes. One question that emerged was to what extent the mentors should be setting goals or simply be there to support the mentees. I would be interested to hear any views or experiences on mentoring from you.

Comments

  1. 1

    Anthony

    17 June 2009 21:01

    It’s funny that in the last week or so I have done eight of the 10 ideas you list. In the process of simplifying our initial teacher training course, I have not only tossed ideas relating to your book (amongst others) about, we have also planned sessions, participated in sessions, in doing so watched each other work and watched each other at work, swapped ideas and materials, thought ahead towards other sessions, in doing so mentored each other, and finally set up a blog to help us document this process. What we haven’t done is “team building” (if the above doesn’t count!) or going out socially! Guess we have to get our priorities right! ;-)

  2. 2

    Duncan Foord

    24 June 2009 07:34

    thanks Anthony. the businessballs website has some good quick team building exercises which are a fun way to start a meeting. Or you could just pop out for a cup of tea together

  3. 3

    Kingdom Lee

    16 December 2009 10:23

    Hi, Duncan. I happened to search your Blog on Delta today. I’m one of teachers you trained this July in Shenzhen, China. I sent you my best wishes for the coming Christmas and New Year. I’m in a jungle of developing myself in ELT at the very moment. Sometimes, I have no idea whether I should develop the learners speaking or written English first as they are the starters in junior school. Some of them are well-developed in their English, others are poor. I’m glad I’m here to read some of your blogs and can keep in touch with you.

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