Thursday 10 March 2011

RTNews 115

RT® News

A magazine on Neuro Linguistic Programming in Education
No 115 March 10 2011

Hello teachers,

We trust the new academic year is going well with exciting new classes and good prospects for an enjoyable productive term.

As we always say, this is also the time to choose something to study ourselves during the year. As models for our students, one of the best ways of encouraging life-long learning is for us as teachers to be seen to be learning as well. As you no doubt notice from our comments here and online, we are no exception and both of us always take up new courses of study each year to widen our skills and knowledge.

We would like to offer our congratulations to the following students who recently successfully completed their evaluations for the Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses.
New Practitioners are: Mariana Ini, Romina Lipari and Maria Cecilia Carattoli
Master Practitioner: Irene Pataccini
Well done and a big hug to you all!

See you soon,
Laura and Jamie
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1. The resources are within you
2. NLP Practitioner course starts April
3. Calendar of activities for 2011
4. Workshops and coaching
5. Subscribing/Unsubscribing to our e-zines in English and Spanish and an invitation to visit
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1. The resources are within you

When we set up Resourceful Teaching in 1998, we chose the name to transmit the idea that teachers have a huge pool of resources to call on when teaching.

Some people might respond to this, “But I work in a poor school with few books and no access to technology!” Nonetheless, we would reply that they have an almost infinite supply of resources. Other teachers may make a mental inventory of the teaching tools their school can provide them: libraries, computers, CD and MP3 players, video and DVD players, video cameras, toys, cardboard, paper and art supplies, internet connections, teachers’ books, interactive whiteboards, spaces for special purposes, etc, etc. Just fitting the use of these into the class timetable must be a job in itself!

Our intention, when we set up RT (Resourceful Teaching) was not only to draw attention to the idea that we do have many physical resources at hand, but also and perhaps even more importantly, to focus on the INTERNAL RESOURCES that teachers and students bring into the classroom that can be harnessed for teaching and learning. Which means that whatever the state of our schools, wherever we give classes, obstacles can be overcome with our ability to use our minds to solve the problem and that the actual act of learning and teaching can be enhanced by knowing our brains and how to use them effectively. Some people have said that NLP, which forms the basis of our work at RT, is like incorporating an owner’s manual to the mind, with the proviso that each mind is unique and different. To learn about our mind and how to manage it better is a relatively simple process of observation, openness and the willingness to try new things that can produce enormous rewards in the very short term, both in our teaching and in our daily lives.

It can often happen that we have what seems to be a perfect lesson planned on paper but when we get into the classroom things do not follow that plan and the lesson does not live up to expectations. This is completely understandable because we are none of us robots with automatic responses. Each day, each of us in class are different people and the dynamic interaction of these “different” people means that no two lessons, no two days are going to be the same, despite any general similarity in behaviour patterns. And that is just talking about what we see on the surface. What about what is going on inside us? Each day I am different in terms of my feelings, the activity of my brain, the chemicals that flow through my bloodstream. One day I may be restless and find it hard to concentrate, another day excited and focused and a third day, tired and irritable.

So, as a teacher, what can we do with this? Well, if we know where to look, the information is all there. We can see very quickly, when students need a change of activity, when “the penny is dropping” and learning is taking place, when more help is needed, when it is enough on a given subject for today…. Strangely, we often ignore this and plough on with our plan, even though we have “lost” the class, because keeping to the timetable is more important or because we have not been consciously taught to give more importance to what is going on inside us or inside the students.

And knowing about the internal states is not just a question of honing our performance or being better able to detect changes in the students. It is also necessary to better understand the student of today – a person who is usually surrounded by electronic gadgets and stimuli, whose attention span is shorter than in the past, who responds quicker to visual input, whose mind is bombarded with information.

It is ironic that as we advance technologically as a society, and even in terms of knowing the electrical and chemical operations of the brain, we actually end up knowing less about ourselves than we think we do.

What do we really want? What do we think about a particular issue? Why do we sometimes seem to be contradictory? What do we believe in because we have never stopped to think about it and our opinion is in fact it is something someone else has said to us and not our own idea? Why do I feel what I feel and not what my mind tells me I should feel? Why do some things affect me more than others? Why do some things attract me more than others?

These questions are not meant for deep psychological analysis but rather are simple day-to-day questions to help us know ourselves better. There are neither right nor wrong answers. But by knowing myself more closely I can be aware of where I stand and what sort of message I am sending out to the world.

In our courses for the Practitioner certificate applied to Education, we study from a very practical standpoint: the power of non verbal language, the different ways we access and process the outside world, how we store and retrieve memories and learned and acquired information, what our verbal language is really saying, how we fix emotions to experience and to our memories, how to discover what we really want in life, myriad ways of solving conflicts that are both with others and within ourselves, ways to adopt new functional behaviour, and how to read all of this in others (to the extent that we can) and many more rich tools and skills.

If ever there was a “technology” that has the flexibility and applicability for the 21st century, it is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). With it, we can act in any context and in any situation and be clearer about the behaviour and motivation of the other. NLP is based on the principle of “description” rather than “prescription”. There is no “correct form” to use, no dogma to follow, no theory to apply. We take each instance as unique, we develop our powers to observe, we act, we notice the reactions, we adjust our response and we refine our communication. From NLP we learn “HOW” to do things to get the results we desire. And we learn to value and respect ourselves and the other in each and every communication. We believe that these are the types of capabilities that will stand us in good stead in the classroom of today and tomorrow.

We would love you to join us on one of our trainings this year and discover ways to become even more centred and resourceful teachers.

© Resourceful Teaching 2011
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2. NLP Practitioner course starts April

Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education

Our next Practitioner Certificate course starts on April 16 and consists of 16 modules to be held on Saturdays on a monthly basis in 2010 and 2011. This first level of training involves between 130 and 150 hours of direct training in the form of practical activities and guided practice. It gives students acquaintance with the methodology and many of the techniques comprising NLP and leads to an internationally recognised certificate as Practitioner of NLP in Education.
The Practitioner certificate with Resourceful Teaching offers you the chance to get an NLP certification and practise your English at the same time!

For a course syllabus and further details see our website: www.resourcefulteaching.com.ar or send a mail to jamiearg@gmail.com or lauraszmuch@gmail.com

Venue: Versailles, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
Time: One Saturday per month 9.00 – 17.00
Start Date: Saturday April 16
Investment: 310 pesos per module

The course includes written material and a full bibliography and morning and afternoon refreshments. As much as we encourage reading, the real value of NLP is the putting it into practice and our students have constant opportunities to employ what they learn in their daily work and lives.

To enroll, please contact us for an enrolment form. Your place is guaranteed upon payment of the first module.

Laura Szmuch and Jamie Duncan

NB: This course is also being offered in Spanish.

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3. Calendar of Activities 2011

We are publishing below a list of the main events for Resourceful Teaching for the next few months. As each date gets closer we will give you more information and we will of course be updating the calendar with new dates as they arise.
April 16 2011 Practitioner Certificate in NLP applied to Education starts, Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 30 2011 Curso en PNL, Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 14 2011 Master Practitioner in NLP applied to Education starts, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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4. Workshops and Coaching

If you would like a workshop or training in your city or town, please contact us soon as we have only a few dates available on weekends each year.
We can offer you workshops as listed in the website www.resourcefulteaching.com.ar or design something especially for your needs. In English and in Spanish. Please contact jamie@resourcefulteaching.com.ar or lauraszmuch@gmail.com if you are interested.

Laura is also available for Coaching. If you wish to advance in your career or personal life and wish to design a plan of action to do so, why not have a coaching conversation with her. Contact: lauraszmuch@gmail.com

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5. Subscribing/Unsubscribing to our e-zines in English and Spanish and an invitation to visit

To subscribe simply send a mail to: rtnews@resourcefulteaching.com.ar with your name and city stating 'subscribe' in the subject box. To unsubscribe, follow the same procedure but write the word 'unsubscribe'. We only send this e-magazine to those who have expressed the desire to subscribe by the above means.

To subscribe to the Spanish sister e-zine, send a mail to Laura at en.contacto.pnl@gmail.com
NB En contacto has different articles from those which appear in RT News and they are about NLP and other associated areas.

Visit our blog teaching resourcefully – nlp in the classroom
http://teaching-resourcefully.blogspot.com/


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