HLT Magazine, January 03: Pilgrims Course Outline

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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 1; January 03

What do our Teacher Training courses achieve?

Mario Rinvolucri, Pilgrims, UK

At the end of a very intensive two week Teacher Training course on our Hilltop site overlooking Canterbury, UK, I will sometimes, in my exhaustion, wonder what the course may have meant to the participants, for real, as an integral part of their teaching life.

At this stage I am normally aware of the warmth of the group that has just closed.
I am aware of some of the positive and negative things that some participants have been though.
In the case of a few participants, I wonder why they came on a course like this.
I usually have serious doubts as what will happen when the participants get back to their familiar classrooms. Will the course turn out to have been just froth and fun and theatre and a welcome escape from home routines?

Yes, I think it is right to continuously question the work I /we do and to wonder about its validity.

Do Pilgrims Teacher Training courses actually encourage positive change in the classrooms that our participants go back to?

Is the money that participants spend on our courses or that the European agencies pay on their behalf, is this money well spent? After all, 1500 euros/ US$ is quite a lot of money, and a fortnight is quite a bite out of a teacher's summer vacation.

As the Northern Hemisphere autumn turns to winter I will normally get a trickle of e-mails and letters that are the real evaluation of the summer courses which I offer. They are the real evaluation, because they speak not of the course, but of returning to the classroom after the course. Let me give you an example of just such an email:

Marie-Anne, from France, writes on December 30th,2002:

Dear Mario,

Do you have a nice break over the Christmas period?
I must admit, I needed mine. Teaching after a Pilgrims course is quite rewarding but also exhausting because you change a lot of thingsЕ..
although I must say I enjoy much more the actual teaching part of the classes, because something has changed in my attitude and I am probably less tense than I used to be. Does it make sense?
Any plans of coming over to France?
Take care.
Lots of love.
Marie-Anne.

I find this participant's brief report thrilling because of its calm, grounded, almost casual style. This is a real " thank you", not one of those more gushy ones.
It is a real " thank you" because it gives me firm news about Marie-Anne's classroom at three levels of the Bateson hierarchy of logical levels:

Behaviour level: "Е.. you change a lot of things Е."

Attitude or Belief level: "ЕЕsomething has changed in my attitudeЕ.."

Identity/Ego level: "ЕЕ.I am probably less tense than I used to beЕ.."

To hell with Batesonian analysis - the bit that I really like in Marie-Anne's email is where she writes: " I enjoy much more the actual teaching part of the classesЕ.."

February is a the time when many Northern Hemisphere colleagues decide how they want to spend July and August.
If you are thinking of a fortnight improving your teaching skills, why not go over to THE PILGRIMS WEBSITE www.pilgrims.co.uk and have a read of the TT course description sheets? These are the courses on offer in 2003

What's new in Language Teaching?

Teaching English and other Languages to adult Immigrants

Creative Drama for the Language Classroom

Making exam Classes interesting

The Creative Pilgrims Teacher

English for Teachers

Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers ( 7-12 years)

Secondary Teaching

Certificate in Teaching English to business People

Neuro-Linguistic-Programming for Teachers

Teaching through Multiple Intelligences

British Life, Language and Culture