Training in NLP – the Resourceful Teaching Way

For over 13 years, we (Laura Szmuch and Jamie Duncan) have been offering training in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to teachers of English.
We have developed varied and interesting courses and workshops including the 130-hour Practitioner in NLP applied to Education. This course presents all the main topic areas of NLP together with the practical application of these to the classroom. Alongside this, we also cover such aspects of education as: motivation, setting and reaching objectives, discipline, the elements of effective learning, communication with students (and parents), conflict resolution, multisensory presentations and much, much more.

During this period, we have seen our students, who are also our friends and colleagues, grow and develop both in their personal and professional lives and pass on this knowledge in turn to their students and colleagues.
It is with great pride and pleasure that we watch how NLP has become a part of many teacher training programmes and how it is now present in sessions at educational conferences, on training courses and in the Methodology and Didactics syllabi of Teachers’ Colleges.

As we continued to grow and become better known, we also began to give training in Spanish to teachers of different subjects and areas; as well as to a variety of professionals in other fields who were interested in learning more about the novel work we were doing. What started as our dedicated, loving and intensive work with small groups of teachers grew and spread throughout Argentina and to other countries. We have long lost count of the number of people we have given training to in Argentina or abroad, be it through full-length courses, workshops, seminars, conference presentations or online training.

We are deeply committed to quality in education with the professional development of the individual in both her mind and her practice. We are convinced that all of us together can bring about changes and improvements in our field. We believe that education at all its levels will not really change and improve by imposing modifications from above, determined by the Ministry of Education or similar authorities. Education will change as a result of the internal reflective processes of teachers combined with their training in their subject areas. This reflection responds to the teacher’s need to find ways to help the students to learn more effectively and efficiently.
Quality of education and quality of life go hand in hand. Therefore, caring for the teacher at a physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual level is essential. A teacher who is centred and well-prepared internally is the basis for all educational change, whether it be at primary, secondary or university level or in training at the workplace. We know that the networks of support and encouragement we have been generating have assisted many people in the inevitable moments of crisis that today’s world presents us with.

Teachers, like many other professionals today, face constant challenges. Some manage to find strength in the practice of their profession, while others, unfortunately, succumb to a sense of resignation, apathy, frustration or impotence. The tools that NLP offer us together with all the other processes and techniques we have developed in Resourceful Teaching have empowered many people and it is our most sincere wish that this continue to happen.

We are pioneers and leaders in the training of NLP in the field of education and we say this with immense pleasure, satisfaction, humility, and with the conviction that this is part of our vocation. We are happy that all the time, energy and effort we have put into our project has seen it and the students we have taught blossom and thrive in their work and lives.

Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education

Our next Practitioner Certificate course starts on March 31 and consists of 16 modules to be held on Saturdays on a monthly basis in 2012 and 2013. 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!

To enrol or for further information: 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 March 31
Investment: 380 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.

Practitioner's Certificate - Course Outline

Modules:
1. Becoming aware of ourselves and the way we communicate
What is NLP? The Presuppositions of NLP. The big picture and the resources we have inside. Mind and body. Nutrition and the brain. Hemispherology. Communication – verbal and non verbal. Process and content. Rapport. Calibrating. Pacing. Leading. Logical levels.

2. How to engage the subconscious mind
V.A.K. and representational systems. Preferred learning channels. Eye Patterns. Remembered and Constucted experiences. Variety and difference in classes.

3. Precision Language
Language as the generator of actions and results. Surface structure and Deep structure. Deletion. Distortion. Generalisation. The metamodel of language. Questions to obtain complete and high quality information. Filters. Precision language. Affirmations.

4. Anchors
Anchors. Functional and dysfunctional anchors. Unconscious anchors. Spontaneous anchors. Spatial anchors. Contextualisation in the field of education. Installing anchors. How to call on resources when required. Group bonding. Magic moments. Introduction to submodalities. Programming motivation.

5. Discovering inner resources
Submodalities and how to work with them in relation to feelings, moods and physiology. Visualisations. How to transform undesirable states into resources. Stress relief techniques. The physiology of success. The submodalities of achievement.

6. Being aware of our students’ inner worlds and responding to their mental programmes
Association and dissociation. Sorting styles or metaprogrammes. Filters of choice and communication. People. Information. Place. Time. Things. Activity. Self-Others.

7. Perceptual Positions and Motivation
1º,2º,3º, and 4º position. Goal setting and successful outcomes. Well-formed questionnaire.

8. Conflict resolution
Techniques to detect and resolve symptoms, conflicts and obstacles which appear in people and organisations. Finding the Positive Intention. Internal and external conflict. Win-win model. Theory of constraints. Congruence.

9. Strategies
Forms we use to organise thought and behaviour in order to achieve an objective. Disney strategy. Detecting individual strategies. Applying strategies. Use in learning. R.O.L.E. model

10. Achieving continued growth
Generative technique to go from an unsatisfactory present state to a desirable future state. New Behaviour Generator. Theory of chaos. Theory of attractors. Resistance to change. Sorting Styles – the second layer: General-Specific. Internal-External. Towards Objectives-Away from Problems. Matcher-Mismatcher. Same-Different. Past/Present/Future Time orientation. Procedure-Options

11. Gaining deeper awareness and understanding
The fine points of non-verbal pacing. The Wall. Making new meaning of a symptom, behaviour or conflict. Positive intention as an agent of change.

12. Verbal magic
Reframing of content and context. Metaphors. The ontology of language. Introduction to beliefs

13. State Management
Convincer Patterns. Stacking and Collapsing Anchors. Protection and boundaries. Being congruent and aligned as a teacher.

14. Integrating the changes
Contextualisation of course material. Application to classroom practice. Feedback. The classroom as a system and as part of a system. Peak experiences and flow. Sponsorship. Future pacing.

15. and 16. Evaluation modules
Lesson plan. Conflict resolution. Practical techniques.

Each module lasts 8 hours

Dates for 2012

Module 1 - March 31
Module 2 - April 21
Module 3 - May 26
Module 4 - June 23
Module 5 - July 7
Module 6 - September 1
Module 7 - October 6
Module 8 - November 10

RTNews 117- Labels and teachers...

RT® News

A magazine on Neuro Linguistic Programming in Education
No 117 May 15 2011

Hello teachers,



Welcome to our latest issue of RT News. We are just back from a few days in Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina, where we were very proud to have been part of the 25th birthday celebrations of the IPI (Instituto Provincial de Idiomas). We gave three workshops in their
programme of teacher training, which was part of a week-long series of events and celebrations. It was a very rewarding experience to see how keen the teachers and teachers college students are in Ushuaia and Rio Grande and to have a chance to work with you all. Congratulations to everyone there for the excellent work and many, many thanks for the

impeccable hospitality. A special hug to Adriana, Nildy, Silvita, Martha, Susana and Ivanna for their attention and warm welcome.


Although we started our 2011 courses last month there is still time to join the groups. We are offering the NLP Practitioner course in English. Module 2 will be held next Saturday, May 21. The NLP course in Spanish will next meet in Saturday June 4. For details of the courses and how to enrol, please contact us at either lauraszmuch@gmail.com or jamiearg@gmail.com We are also starting the Master Practitioner in NLP for Education in June for those who have completed or nearly completed the Practitioner level training and would like to expand their skills and knowledge of NLP. It will be held in Spanish.


Hoping you all have a very enjoyable and enriching month,



Laura and Jamie


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1. Labels, positive reinforcement and teachers

2. NLP Practitioner courses

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. Labels, positive reinforcement and teachers



There is a children’s saying that goes “Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me”. This was taught by parents to children apparently in the hope of giving them a sort of protection against the taunts and cruel comments of bullies and other children. Some youngsters probably did benefit from repeating this phrase but others surely lacked the “teflon coating” or the “elephant hide” and were affected all the same. However much the jibe or criticism was flung in the heat of the moment and probably exaggerated for effect and however little it really applied to the receiver, chances are that that person did suffer something. After all, as we know in NLP, the words themselves are only a small part of the message and the tone and body language with which they are conveyed also contribute massively to the message. And still, there is no denying that words and the interpretation we put on them are also very potent.



Words and the thoughts themselves carry weight. They are not merely innocent combinations of letters and sounds and meaning. With words we not only describe but also create our world. Therefore, when someone is repeatedly told (or tells themselves) how beautiful they are, they will get to believe it. Someone who is labelled as useless will also be affected by this message and his or her behaviour will reflect this sooner or later. If I tell myself I am a loser, I attract “losses” and even if these would not be regarded by others as defeats or negative moments, I will probably find a way to interpret them as such or at least find the part in them that can be considered as “failure”. Obviously, there is a whole psychological history behind the way we choose to view ourselves and our performance in the world, which may benefit from reflection and internal work, if we find that we are not content with our lot in life.



Our role as teachers presents us with many situations in which we can reinforce the positive or negative images that a student has of him or herself. Indeed, it is arguable that as educators, one of our most important functions is to encourage our students to find the tools and beliefs with which they can learn and grow. It is a useful practice to find something positive in all of our students as learners and to promote and encourage this. But do we always do so? How frequently do we retire to the classroom after a challenging class and say things like: “Those slowcoaches in X grade never get a thing I teach!” or “What a knucklehead that Johnny is!” or a lot worse. Obviously, we would never dream of saying it to the students’ faces, but isn’t it true that we are probably thinking these things in our internal dialogue as we patiently work through the lesson with them. Our “hidden” thought is probably not so hidden after all and our intention and judgement will subconsciously find a way through. At a very deep level, the students in question will perceive that they lack our complete support.



Sometimes the message is not so hidden. There are people who use irony or other forms of humour to mask a criticism or a jibe and while everyone may be laughing, part of that person will have received the meaning of the subtext.



This is not to deny that some students have many more challenges to learn than others. Of course we will have groups that delight us with their ability to pick things up quickly and make fast improvement. But to be fair to all our students it is very functional to look for what we can praise in a student and reinforce what they show that helps them to learn. Focusing on the positive will also help us to feel less frustrated when progress seems slow and will allow us to notice the features of the learner that are overlooking.



How much nicer it is to be working with students who may seem like “diamonds in the rough” waiting to acquire their own polish and shine than “lead weights, empty vessels or a bunch of blobs”.



When our intention is to raise, encourage or elevate the other, consciously or unconsciously, the other will respond positively and in that way we all benefit.



© Resourceful Teaching 2011


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2. NLP Practitioner courses


Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education



The second module of the Practitioner Certificate course will be held on May 21. The course 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

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.


NB: This course is also being offered in Spanish (Módulo 2 – junio 4).




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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.
May 21 2011 Practitioner Certificate in NLP applied to Education Module 2, Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 4 2011 Curso en PNL Módulo 2, Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 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/

NLP Practitioner Course, starting in April

Learn skills and techniques to help you to …


… Be more effective in the classroom!

…Understand your learners more completely

… Set and achieve goals

… Better manage the constant changes school life brings us

… Communicate with others with elegance and effectiveness

… Discover more talents

… Live the life you want to lead



All this and very much more can be experienced on the



Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education

Our next Practitioner Certificate course starts on April 16, 2011 and consists of 16 modules to be held on Saturdays on a monthly basis in 2011 and 2012. 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 jamie@resourcefulteaching.com.ar or lauraszmuchcapacitaciones@gmail.com



Venue: Versailles, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Time: One Saturday per month 9.00 – 17.00

Start Date: Saturday April 16




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

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
________________________________________
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
________________________________________
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.

________________________________________
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

________________________________________
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

________________________________________
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/


RT® Resourceful Teaching is a registered trademark.

RTNews 114

RT® News

A magazine on Neuro Linguistic Programming in Education
No 114 December 29 2010

Hello teachers,

2010 is now all but over and we look forward to the New Year. As we always say, the summer holidays are an important space for us teachers to recharge our batteries, relax and pamper ourselves. This is even more essential in these days of change when we need all our energy and skills to face the challenges of the classroom and enjoy the journeys of learning and discovery that our students and we ourselves are embarked on.

As a resolution for the New Year we want to project postive thoughts and outcomes. By being proactive in the way we view life and situations in our schools, homes and other places we inhabit, we can have a tremendous influence. Instead of buying someone else’s view of things, it is very functional to CHOOSE how we view each situation and to KNOW that this choice also extends to how we react to any given situation.

We will be considering various functional ways of interpreting our work and the way we interact with others during the next few months.

If you would like to JOIN us for our February trainings, be sure to check RT Week 2011 in part two below. We have some great new workshops, which will give you ideas and inspiration for the new academic year.

We would also like to THANK everyone who has given their support to us this year, whether it be by attending our courses, or participating in our online spaces such as our Facebook page, or in our blogs.

Finally we take this opportunity to wish you, our readers,

A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL

NEW YEAR!!!


Until next time,

Laura and Jamie


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1. A Focus on Solutions

One of the first things we learn with NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is that each of us perceives the world in different ways. A different way or different ways? Different ways. Each of us has more than one way to perceive the world. An obvious example is when we view the world as a parent, a teacher or as someone’s child. We can take these three positions at the same time but each one is subtly different and will influence what we notice and give importance to.

In NLP talk, these are called “Frames”. It is as if we change the picture when we put a different frame around the basic painting. These frames mean that certain things get more emphasis, some features are given a special highlight and other things fall outside the frame. You already know that we use our sensory channels to give and receive information in the world. Some people use their visual channel most, other prefer their auditory channel and others their kinaesthetic channel. This is an example of a frame. If I am very visual I tend to give priority to what I see whereas what people say or what I feel may get less attention.

Other examples of the same sort of limit we put on our processing of the world include: our use of mainly positive or negative language (imperatives, affirmatives, positive modals vs don’t, can’t, mustn’t, negative terms), the types of values and beliefs we follow in life (eg, abundance vs. scarcity), the metaphors we use (life is a struggle vs. life is a fairground), the stories we have constructed about the world and the role we play in them.

Becoming aware of the frames that we or others use is just the same as noticing the news about our favourite film star, or in the case of language teachers, always perceiving the grammar mistake. It is something that we have programmed ourselves to become aware of. Before we were teachers or before our star became famous we never thought about these issues but as our interest grew our brain began to act like a sensor and started to “flash or beep” each time it came across something related to them.

Once we start to identify the frames others use we can acknowledge them and thereby start to enter into rapport with that person and to understand what is happening to him or her. We can also identify our own favourite frames, keep those that are useful to us and change those that no longer serve us. And we can help others to notice that there we can always choose different options in the way we view the world.

A useful practice is to notice what sort of frames work for other people in different contexts and if we like them, we can borrow them. In some societies, a focus on solutions takes a higher priority than in others and it is this approach that we would like to comment on today. A focus on solutions means that whenever we are confronted by a problem or something that does not entirely work or fit, we automatically programme ourselves to find a solution so that both we and others can resolve the problem happily and to our mutual satisfaction wherever possible.

A solutions focus means that we are proactive and rather than waiting for someone to come along and find an answer, we start to work out that answer for ourselves.

When we think about applying a solutions frame to our work in education, this has several implications. It means that we orientate ourselves to finding what will serve or work to overcome a problem. It does not mean that we focus on what doesn’t work but rather try to use models of what does work and apply them to our new situation. If our students are restless and need a stretch, why not give them some Brain Gym or a stretching session or a run outside even if it is not traditionally accepted in the school. If it helps them to concentrate and learn, then surely that is what teaching is about? Many people become stuck in a sort of blame game or a finding fault cycle when things go wrong and they heap example of failure upon example of failure, shortcoming upon shortcoming and reason upon reason. This is all very well as perhaps the problem does have causes that do not originate with us. But the point is that while we sit and gripe the problem remains…. unsolved.

Often times we wait for the authorities, for the famous “they” to come to the rescue and solve the mess “they’ve got us in”. And sometimes we end up waiting a long time. It is far more rewarding to say, “This is the way things are, this is what we want …let’s find a way of bridging that gap”. We often see that teachers in poor schools or rural schools are tremendously resourceful in finding ways to give their students the best lessons possible even though they have very few tools and elements at their disposal. They are almost obliged to work with a solutions frame. If there is no power, how can we do an activity that requires light or electricity? If we have no books or paper, what can we use instead? In more established schools that sort of flexibility may not exist as we take for granted so much more. By training ourselves to find solutions, we start to think outside the box and enhance our creativity leading to answers that perhaps nobody considered or imagined. (This topic features in the last of the RT Week workshops “Outside the Box” on Thursday 10 February at 14.00 in which we look at applying this to the classroom). Developing this skill also means we get to become a good model for our students who learn that they too can solve problems effectively.

A solutions focus is more than just having a plan B or being good at improvising.


It involves:

a) Knowing where we are at the present

b) Knowing where we want to go or what we want to achieve

c) Ascertaining what tools and resources we have to help us

d) Being open and creative so as to generate a variety of feasible alternatives

e) Letting our creative mind flow uninterrupted

f) Knowing who will be affected by our actions

g) Keeping in mind the greater good

h) Making sure that everyone wins and that nobody loses

i) Being able to work out how to put our dream ideas into practice

j) Doing it

k) Being able to assess how our solution worked

l) Trustiing ourselves, others and the universe!

Most of this is a question of practice and being prepared to have a try and see how things work out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

With the comments on many aspects of education becoming increasingly frustrated and pessimistic these days, surely it is time to apply a solutions focus even more to help make the transition from a conventional means of educating students to one that really serves each and every one of them.

© Resourceful Teaching 2010
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4. 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.
Feb 7-10 2011 RT Week 2011, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Feb 7-12 2011 Curso en PNL, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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5. 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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6. 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, leave your details on www.encontactopnl.ning.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/





RT® Resourceful Teaching is a registered trademark.

Resourceful Teaching Week 2011

RT WEEK 2011
February 07 – 10

Resourceful Teaching workshops for teachers
Pioneers in training with NLP in Education
For those who want much more than new teaching techniques...

Giving you ideas and a space to reflect, develop, grow and thrive in the classroom!

Workshop programme

Workshop details

Monday 8 Feb am Teaching the students of today
The profile of students today, particularly teenagers and children has changed considerably from those of a few years back. What are their common characteristics and how do these affect their learning? What do we teachers need to bear in mind to help facilitate successful study
Monday 8 Feb pm Memory and learning
Learning depends mostly on a well trained memory.
How do you help your students encode, store, and later retrieve what you have taught them?
Drawing from the latest investigations in the fields of Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology, in this workshop we will work with some very effective techniques to enhance your students’ learning processes.

Tuesday 9 Feb am Learning English with GANAS
NLP techniques to help your students come to class with GANAS, learn English, and enjoy the process.
In this workshop we will address some of the biggest challenges teachers face on a daily basis: how to reach all students, respect their learning styles, make learning memorable and set stimulating goals. There will be some theoretical input plus activities and reflection.

Tuesday 9 Feb pm Irony or Coincidence?
In this session we will explore the fascinating world of synonyms, words that look alike or words that are often confused. Discover the subtleties of meaning and usage in these vocabulary items.

Wednesday 10 Feb am A Passionfruit Smoothie
This practical workshop blends a variety of language activities and exercises with students’ own interests and passions to create new ways of learning and practising language. Fun and ideas for students to express their individuality and yet still be part of the group.

Wednesday 10 Feb pm Creative Writing for YOU
Is your own writing limited to the marking of students’ compositions?
Or maybe the projects for your academic training?
When was the last time you really enjoyed writing creatively for yourself, in English?
In this workshop you will have the chance to flow as a writer and you will learn wonderful techniques to help your students in their own creative writing.

Thursday 11 Feb am Is it all about LOVE after all?? Or isn’t it?
Why are you a teacher? What made you choose to pursue this profession? What makes you stay? Where do you derive satisfaction from? What are your rewards?
These questions and many more will be a part of this reflection session, in which we will try to determine how your motivation to teach can be developed, nurtured and, above all, cherished and treasured.
Thursday 11 Feb pm Outside the box!
How can we help stimulate students to reflect and develop their imagination? To stretch their thinking?
In this session, we take different activities, texts and tools to practise cognitive skills and develop the student’s potential for creativity and insight.


Each workshop lasts three hours. AM: 9.00 - 12.00 PM: 14.00 - 17.00.
Venue: Gallardo 719, Versailles, Capital Federal.

Please enrol by by e-mail: rtcourses@resourcefulteaching.com.ar
jamiearg@gmail.com or lauraszmuch@gmail.com
or by phoning (005411) 4641-9068

There are limited vacancies per workshop. Enrolment is only guaranteed by payment of fee.


Special Discounts:
Five people enrolling together are eligible for a discount of 10% on the whole week
Students currently enrolled in Teacher Training College $30 per workshop

Note: Fees are not refundable but can be transferred to another course or to another student where applicable.

Recommended article and web page

Applying NLP to special education students
by Deborah Roundy
Taken from: http://www.nlpiash.org/Articles/RecentArticles/tabid/250/EntryID/19/Default.aspx

Many other excellent articles on this page...we recommend it!!!

IASH member Deborah Roundy is a special education school teacher who has incorporated NLP into her teaching style. Following is a series of short articles introducing NLP, primarily oriented for parents of special education students.


Why NeuroLinguistics?
In 2007 I saw an NLP coach for some health problems. As I was taught new ways of organizing my thought processes I was able to allow both diabetes and liver disease to leave my body. This was a fascinating process.

Although I had gone for my personal health I soon found, as any good teacher does, I was making direct application of my learning to my classroom. My students were gaining new tools for learning and were happier.

This is why teachers are encouraged to continue to take classes. Furthering our education is a part of renewing our teaching certificates. Good teachers charge up their batteries as they learn new things and then discharge those batteries by charging up the learning of their students.

I realized there was a wealth of knowledge in the study of NLP and I had just scratched the surface. I wanted to share that knowledge with my students.

The catalyst for this was the death of a student through natural causes. With administrator and parent permission, I helped the the students to work through the death of their classmate using the NLP well-formed grieving process. I watched them mourn their loss, support each other, then refresh pleasant memories and create a memorial to their friend. When they left my classroom they were grounded and secure. They knew whom they could contact for more help, and many parents reported to me that their child had gone home and asked for parents’ support.

This was a contrast compared to previous experiences around students who passed away. I had been able to give my students a wonderful gift of learning how to grieve, accept loss, create special memories and move on. The children were well grounded and secure in their acceptance of her death and, more importantly, of the value of her life to them. They were secure in the knowledge that their families were there to support them and knew how to request that support. I had a tool I had never been taught in school, a program for an incredible life skill.

I started researching and found that NLP was a fairly new field used primarily in business, management training, executive coaching, sports, health, and therapy to model and create excellence. I found NLP little used in the school setting. Some teachers are using it and are enthusiastic, however it takes a lot of modifying to use it in the classroom setting. The greatest use for most teachers is for their own personal growth and teaching skills. I started looking at NLP programs such as the Disney Model of Creativity, TOTE, and Circle of Excellence and realized that these programs could be broken down into skills to be taught to my students.


Creating Excellence
NLP Presupposition: Choice is Better Than No Choice

Ana has a problem. She has to ride the bus every day and it is a bit of torture. The ride seems very long for a special ed student with ADHD.

Ana came in one morning very upset. Another girl was teasing her and wouldn’t let up. I called the bus garage and the true story emerged. Actually Ana, with her incessant talking at a low cognitive level, is the instigator. Because she does not understand, she does not understand that she is the problem.

I had recently done a 3 Square time line with another student and asked myself, “How can I apply the same type of solution to a very different problem?” Instead of a past-present-future I did one with present-immediate future-farther future.

Ana and I discussed the problem from her perspective, using the presupposition that the “map is not the territory.” We then went to the third block and discussed several options. I told her to be creative and come up with all of the ideas she could. She did, and we then filtered them and wrote out which ones were safe to do. She could entertain the idea of bopping the girl on the head, but she couldn’t actually do it. I have written down such options for normal kids, but special ed kids often cannot filter fantasy from reality. I had to make an accommodation for her disability.

We then discussed the next step and she chose the one she felt best about and put it into her immediate future.

The most interesting thing was how this empowered her. She now felt like she had further options and had control of her life. She reported back several days later that things were much better. After almost a year, I haven’t had another complaint.

Our Maps
Presupposition: The map is not the territory

This week I took my Special Olympics athletes on a school field trip to a museum and a warm spring swimming pool. We were going with other students from the school and there were five buses going. In years past my group had caused a delay for the other groups. This year our district had purchased a couple of small buses that teachers can drive, and we took a small bus so we would not hold things up. I had downloaded several maps to guide me because I knew I would be on my own. I could not follow the other drivers. We had to wait for a late bus to arrive with my students on it, then get a wheel chair on and secured before we left.

When we arrived at the museum we found, to our surprise, that we were the first ones there. I was worried because we had left a half hour later than the rest of the group. We enjoyed our museum visit, and had the entire museum to ourselves to explore. The other buses arrived as we were leaving. They had not taken the time to download the maps and information, had driven to the wrong museum, found it closed and taken the disappointed students to the swimming hole.

The maps I had downloaded served me well in several functions.
They were created for a purpose.
They use codes, pictures, symbols and words to create a mental picture, giving it meaning.
Each map has a specific point of view: highway, topographical, and so on.
The map creates a world in map form.
The map highlights some things and hides others, making it easy to use.
Details unnecessary for the purpose of the map are left out.
The map gave me a tool to reach my destination

One of the fundamental presuppositions of NLP is that the map is not the territory. We mean by this that each person sees the world by a different map. The map describes the territory as he sees it, not as it really is. Each map is created by the experiences we have had previously and by our family, our culture and even our history. Many believe that our maps are even in our genes.

Dennis Wood, in “The Power of Maps,” wrote, “this, essentially is what maps give us, reality, a reality that exceeds our vision, our reach, the span of our days, a reality we achieve no other way. We are always mapping the invisible, or the unattainable or the erasable, the future or the past, whatever-is-not-here-presence-to-our-senses-now and, through the gift that the map gives us, transmuting it into everything it is not…into the real.”

My students also use maps of their world and each has his or her own map, distinctly different from any other. We can use the same functions of paper maps to compare and contrast with maps of reality belonging to each student.

Their reality map is created with a purpose. As my map helped me make sense of the roads to get to my destination, so their reality maps help them make sense of the experiences of life and travel to their destination.

The maps use pictures, symbols and words to give the reality map meaning. Reality maps have symbols, too. They may be a loving or angry teacher that begins to symbolize all teachers. Or they could be words. If the student has always had a good experience in art and the teacher says it is time for art, the reality map will say that this, too, will be good. But what of the student who has had others make fun of his art work? The teacher says “time for art” and wonders why the student rebels, not knowing that the student’s map of reality contains symbols she is not aware of.

Each student is the creator of his own reality map. But he has a lot of help along the way. His parents, teachers, friends and enemies all play a role advising the student on what to put on the map and where.

The reality map creates a world in map form, but the map is not the territory. Using the art experience from item 2 above, let’s say the student did not understand the assignment and the children in the class laughed at him, but in our reality, the student is a talented artist. Still the student’s reality map denies his talent as it has “I can’t do art” drawn on in indelible ink.

As I drove I looked out at the beautiful winter landscape and was aware that my map left out the incredible beauty that I was feasting on. Likewise student’s reality maps leave out the beauty of life. The student may know it is there but cannot get it on the map. The student may understand that for others art is a favorite class, but cannot seem to draw that onto his own personal map.

The student’s reality map does have a purpose. It is a tool to lead the student somewhere. It gives the student’s life order and certainty. I don’t have to worry about art. I know I don’t like it. I no longer have to worry whether I like art or not.
As teachers we realize that each student has his or her own reality map. That map serves a purpose. It gives structure, order and certainty to the world for the student. We also understand that the map may not be an accurate representation of the world for that student, but is merely a tool. One of our purposes of teaching is to give our students a more accurate and functional map of reality and help our students create the maps they will need to be successful in their future.

(The idea for this article was gleaned from a slide show by Charles Faulkner found at www.nlpco.com Charles is an author and developer of NLP books, seminars and programs.)



Presupposition: If what you are doing isn’t working, do anything else
I have a darling little girl in my class named Ana May. I have worked a bit with Ana May. She comes in to school in the morning with no meds down her system and the worst case of ADHD one can imagine. Her brain is totally not in gear.

One day a boy came in sporting proudly his newly dyed blue hair. Ana May told him that it was ugly. He was hurt, and he is the type who blows up. I have chipped plaster in the walls to prove it.

Could I do it? Could I effect a change?

I escorted them back into our private room and let them talk. Talk they did. I could see and feel the anger. He had a right to his anger, she had attacked him personally.

My mentor had told me, if you remove something you will leave a void. I did not want to leave a void. These kids feel and react to voids or emptiness. They have no social restraints and no idea how to fill their voids so they hit out or cause problems trying to find a way to fill the void.

I got an idea. I had them imagine the anger they felt and give it a color. Hers was brown, his blue. I stood behind and had them place the color out in front of them with their imagination and asked if they wanted to get rid of it.

I then had them both imagine themselves as happy and in a positive state. We then together swished and superimposed the happy, positive image over the angry color, pushing the angry color away and replacing it, or filling the void it had left, with a positive image of self. We did this several times to make certain it would stick.

I then sent the blue-headed boy off to class. As he walked through the class room the aides overheard him say, “That was cool!” The anger was gone and he was calm. What was more important to me is that it seemed to hold. For the rest of the year this boy did not have another blow-up, though he had had them frequently before. I had provided an alternative way to behave and he then applied it himself to other situations.

I kept Ana May a bit longer and had her work on impulse control. She also is making progress and I am happy to say is doing better.

This program is a loosely applied NLP pattern called the SWISH. It accepts that there are things we no longer want, but leaving them will leave a vacuum in us somewhere. We therefore replace the thing we no longer want with a well-formed outcome. In this situation we replaced anger with a well-formed outcome of a happy, positive self image.


Presupposition: The Map is not the Territory
This story came to me off the Internet on a joke page. It is a story of “the map is not the territory.”

An elementary school got a new librarian. She prided herself in teaching the children responsibility. She decided that instead of checking out children's books by writing the names of borrowers on the book cards herself, she would have the youngsters sign their own names. She would then tell them they were signing a "Contract" for returning the books on time.

Her first little customer was a second grader. He looked surprised to see a new librarian. He brought his allotted four books to the desk and shoved them across to the librarian, giving her his name as he did so.

The librarian pushed the books back and told him that he was supposed to sign them out himself now. The boy laboriously printed his name on each book card in neat print, and then handed them to her with a look of utter disgust.

Before the librarian could even start her speech he said, scornfully, "That other librarian we had could write."

I laughed and thought how often we see the world from our adult eyes and forget that our students see the world in an entirely different and sometimes utterly delightful way.

This can lead to challenges. We expect the children to know the reason they are going to school. We expect them to know that they will need a job someday to support themselves and be contributing members of society.

We forget that the reason they go may be because they are “supposed to.” School may have no meaning to them. If we can create that meaning and let them have a bit of our map to enlarge their map with it will help them focus with greater depth and enthusiasm on the real reason they go to school. Part of the job is to create larger, more detailed maps for our students to carry into their future.