Resourceful Teachers, by Laura Szmuch and Jamie Duncan
About twenty years ago, we felt we had reached a point in our
teaching careers when we had the need to go further in understanding the
learning process. In particular, we
paid attention to some important aspects in teaching which were not generally
covered in most training courses, like the delicate chemistry produced by the
communication between teacher and student.
We began to play with this intuitively and change things in our
teaching and we started to read a lot about NLP. We wondered what would happen if we took
all these marvellous ideas and technology and used
them in education. We realised we had a lot to learn and that there was an amazing
world to which we had only just gained entry, so we decided to take some courses
and learn about it properly.
As we were both very enthusiastic about applying what we had been
learning to our classes, we began to try things out, take notes, read, and get
books from the US, the UK and New Zealand that were not available here. Above all, we shared everything we were discovering.
Individually, we started giving some workshops to friends and colleagues,
until the day, when as we were about to finish the Master Practitioner training,
we organised a study group together. From this group, there were requests or
almost 'demands' from our colleagues who wanted something deeper and more
structured than just a workshop, to be given in English and dedicated to
education and language teaching. At
this point we were completing the Trainer training and we realised that we had all the material and ideas in our
heads. What was needed was to put
it in order and form a course. And our first NLP Practitioner Certificate course
in Education started, and we founded "Resourceful Teaching". As time went
by, we decided to continue studying other disciplines and started to give shape
to this new course, which expands the excellent basis that NLP has given to our
teaching to include many other interesting components. Among these are
Neurosciences, Cognitive Psychology, Jungian Psychology, Humanistic Psychology,
Ontology of language and Coaching
tools.
Instant results!!!
The wonderful thing about working with teachers is that we see almost
instant results. They tend to have
a phenomenal drive and come to us interested in acquiring techniques to help
their students learn more easily.
Little by little, however, they realise
that they are also helping themselves immensely. They become more open and more complete
as people and discover that they have resources available to resolve conflicts
and communicate more effectively.
They see that they possess an
enormous treasure in the form of their academic knowledge and training but that
however rich this intellectual knowledge may be, it is still not quite
enough.
Therefore, they acquire tools to transmit learning, not just from the
mental perspective. It is incredible to see the difference
in their classes when they learn to use their bodies, their voices, aspects of non-verbal and unconscious communication and to
value their intuition. They
improve their communication with their students, parents of students,
colleagues, heads and other staff in a remarkable fashion. And this is because their communication
reveals a different point of view, one which has been nourished by reflection,
practice, application, and not only through academic readings, which is often
the case with postgraduate courses.
Can we share something with
you?
What most excites us is that they approach us as 'professionals',
committed to their work and then they discover themselves as 'people'. They realise
that they need to devote time and space to themselves and to the organisation and planning of their lives and careers in a
wider perspective. Teachers
normally live in a whirlwind of classes, preparation, marking, exams and
different groups and undoubtedly this is a situation in which it is easy to lose
oneself. The changes that we
witness in teachers have to do with finding themselves again and reacquainting
themselves with their subject, their pupils and their lives. Apart from dramatic improvements in
their classrooms, they tell us of important changes in their families and with
their partners, of new jobs or growth in their institutes, of more useful free
time which emerges from better organisation and clear
objectives. They also tell of
better physical health and we insist a lot on this point as teachers need strong
and flexible bodies, loads of energy and to eat well. Teachers need to set an example for
students.
And what is "Resourceful
Teaching"?
The vision of Resourceful
Teaching is to see teachers growing and developing with wisdom, maximising their skills as communicators and models of
excellence in their field. These teachers are committed to using their talents
and strengths in helping the world recognise the
supreme importance of meaningful education as a birthright of all human
beings.
The mission of RT is to provide a structure through which teachers have access to the
skills and technology of NLP as applied to education and to other relevant humanistic
disciplines. This
includes high quality training and support, materials and information, contacts
and networking. Our graduates are
empowered with the awareness, choices, communication skills and facilitating
beliefs and values to make a real difference in their teaching
context.
The strategy of
RT has been to create a Practitioner's Certificate and Master
Practitioner's Certificate course completely orientated towards practising teachers.
It is also to run workshops, shorter courses and other training for
teachers. We offer
consultancy and information to teachers and to educational institutes. We develop materials and literature
applying NLP to the teaching and learning processes. While NLP has been a major
influence in our work, we have also incorporated learnings and techniques from the Neurosciences, Cognitive
Psychology, Jungian Psychology, Humanistic Psychology, Ontology of language and Coaching. This new Resourceful Teaching Practitioner
course is the culmination of our experience and expertise at applying these
techniques and philosophies to the
classroom.
The structure of RT is to offer training and consultancy in Education in the following
ways:
*
General Educational workshops
*
Tailor-made on-site workshops responding to special needs of schools or other
educational institutions
*
Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education
courses
*
Master Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education
courses
*
Consultancy upon request
*
Electronic mail newsletter and blog
*
Free introductory talks
*
Participation in major ELT events
*
Ongoing access to instruction and trainers
*
Networking and a forum for contact both within Argentina and internationally.
Education with a capital "E"
When people complain about the crisis in education, we consider that
it is a good idea to teach those who teach. When those who are part of the
teaching-learning process know where they are going, what their beliefs and
values are and how to find their mission, the crisis becomes a path of
opportunities. The huge changes
that we are experiencing in the world are an excellent challenge and the better
prepared we are and the greater our self-knowledge and our personal and
spiritual development, the more chances we have for continued learning and
growth in all aspects of our life.
Laura Szmuch is a graduate of the "Dr. Joaquín V.
González" Teacher’s Training College and works as a teacher of English as a
Foreign Language in her studio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She’s a certified
coach and has trained in Psychoneuroeducation.
She’s the author of Aprendiendo inglés y disfrutando el proceso (Learning English and Enjoying the Process),
Las seis
inspiraciones (The Six Inspirations) and A
Teacher’s Motivational Grammar: The Reasons to Teach, for her
Master’s Degree in Cognitive Psychology And Learning with FLACSO and UAM.
They are Master Practitioners
and Trainers in NLP (Neurolinguistic
Programming).