Self-Coaching Inside & Outside the Classroom

With this post, I want to extend many thanks to those who attended my workshop on Tuesday at the IATEFL Conference in Liverpool. After weeks of nervous anticipation, I was happy to have a group of open-minded, warm people in the audience. 

If you weren't able to attend, I'll talk a little of what it was about. 

My intention was to share some of what I am currently learning from the world of coaching. As a teacher, it has been extremely insightful and helpful to discover ways of relating better to my students, in particular through the eyes of a Thinking Environment. Equally important are the ideas, tools and skills for self-coaching. Learning to pay careful attention to what I do and say; being mindful of my environment and reflective of my practice. 

As well as Nancy Kline's Thinking Environment (thanks to those of you who pointed out the incorrect spelling of Kline on my slides! Apologies to Ms Kline for my oversight), I also introduced Dr Steve Peter's Chimp Paradox Model. What I learnt from this was a total eye-opener for me. To understand how different parts of the human brain operate helped me understand my own behaviour better as well as that of my students.

Human Brain - the unscientific version

Understanding how my Chimp operates, I understand why I feel dis-satisfied with my performance. As is often the way, I had a picture and soundtrack in mind for the workshop. Reality didn't quite match expectations. My Chimp's need for perfection wasn't met. Subsequently, it is niggling at me for letting it down.

Fortunately, my Human Brain is good at managing the Chimp. I am using the truth and facts of the matter: overall the workshop went well. The audience participated, listened and proactively showed interest in the handouts. I maintained an upbeat, consistent flow and finished on time! In the grand scheme of things, my session was one of over 500 and wasn't a case of life-and-death. I met my goal of presenting at an international conference on a topic close to my heart. And I want to do it again in the future.

For now, I shall reflect on the conference as a whole. My small contribution is just one of many experiences over the week. The people I met, talked, laughed, discussed with fed my imagination and re-ignited my desire to keep doing what I'm doing.

So, once I've arrived back home, caught up on lost sleep and touched base with my family, I'll come back and share more.

Bye for now.