so there I was in 2003 as you can see me
in the picture in the middle of my
workshop on teaching English who drama
education and as you can see I was full
of energy and enthusiasm and passion for
my subject I’m sorry don’t notice the
guy is standing next to me I know he
looks very skeptic about all this but
what I wanted to do is look at the young
man standing behind him can you see that
I think he is my evidence that all that
work and dedication to my to my job
we’re worthwhile as you can see he’s
still rehearsing his lines for his
English improvisation with his own group
and that’s what kept me going witnessing
the students to embrace English not as a
subject which is compulsory and which is
done for an exam but something as a tool
that helps them to connect with the
global community with people from
various races nations cultures or
genders so that’s that ability to
witness to see my students progress
emotionally cognitively socially helped
me to stay in my profession for over a
quarter of a century
how long have all died some in this
moment so I came here to argue for my
for my profession I still believe that
teaching is a unique profession I would
say that its uniqueness is in its
familiarity to all of us we’ve all been
involved in various acts of teaching be
it parents friends siblings or just
colleagues in in our workplace no wonder
there are so many names for our
profession we are teachers lecturers
mentors supervisors coaches
trainers facilitators name it but most
mostly we are inspirational leaders I
also come to say that teaching is a
unique profession from the from the
aspect that what is granted in it for it
for example in no other profession there
in teaching you’re expected to stand
confidently in front of a group of
complete strangers and learn their names
in no time
in no other profession than in teaching
you are expected to catch capture their
attention within the first three minutes
of the lesson and keep them engaged with
their in the activities which they don’t
consider very interesting at that time
of their lives in no other profession
you are expected to raise their
confidence levels while your confidence
hasn’t hasn’t grown yet and in no other
profession you are asked to measure
promptly reliably objectively and
accurately a phenomenon so elusive as
learning is and I must say that those
challenges don’t go away with the years
of experience and that I can relieve
those anxieties with every new group or
semester or a course so you may ask me
why did you choose this this profession
what helped you to stay in this
profession despite its insecurities and
anxieties and I would say well teaching
more than any other job has managed to
to bring such a strong sense of self
fulfillment and self-worth when I
witnessed those precious moments of
making connections which I call learning
though lightbulb moments when something
new is learn acknowledged or appreciated
so in order to stay in this profession
and seeing learning through those making
connections
I created a kind of a personal theory of
go teaching which I’m going to share
with you and I call it five commandments
of God teaching so the first commandment
I would like to say is called know
thyself as you can see in this lovely
little picture of my little nephew who
is doing what you have to do as a
teacher as the first thing he sees is
trying to connect with your self-image
while he is connected with his even
mirror minute image and doesn’t care
about it at that time of his life we do
it’s that desire that we connect to our
self-image to ourselves
whatever this concept mean in our our
mind because we have a desire to go and
and reach that I’d yourself that desire
to be a good teacher and bring some
goodness and some stability into this
unstable and insecure world as a teacher
I must tell you that I feel this desire
to reach that either self can be quite
self-destructive I remember so many
hours of of preparing for the lessons
and then at the end it was all wrong and
it took me a while to get over it and I
must say it still it still hurts when I
see my students disengaged or
disinterested and I find it very
difficult to forgive myself for the
mistakes I make but on the other hand
over the years I think I have grown
quite comfortable with my public image
because I know it’s only just one part
of my personality that there are still
what mr. Eason says so politically
untapped reservoirs of my creativity
some dream of sports that helped me to
grow in my role I just
I believe in this because I I treasure
the moments when there is a sudden
silence in my classroom when a story
takes its place in the imagination of my
students I remember it was in 1996 when
I was teaching in a small suburban
school in in Columbus Ohio and I was
teaching English to a small group of
refugee children and in order to help
him to understand I was doing
storytelling so one day I was telling a
story about trolls and in order to help
them to visualize the characters
I brought some props so I brought a pair
of black grouse
I brought knitting needles and I
remember I brought a hat and there I was
studying the story when suddenly I
noticed that that that little Nigerian
girl who would never sit in the
classroom she had a special rubber ball
so she could jump around there she was
sitting next to me and looking at those
old black balls with absolute
fascination and I could see yes this is
that precious moment when I made the
connection with that fantastic
imaginative world of hers this is the
moment when I as a teacher kept in those
reservoirs of my creativity where my
dream of sports could come to light so
Thank You mr. Eason for such a poetry
the second commandment I would say to
become a good teacher is know of eye
learners or know thy students at the
beginning of every course I asked myself
who are my learners what kind of life
and educational experiences are they
bringing into my class how will they
work with me and how will they work with
each other how can I meet their needs I
still believe that it’s very very
important in the lesson that you value
moments when you’re
students tell you something about their
lives when they reveal their dreams and
aspirations because that’s your moment
that’s when you can take those and link
them to your lesson to discussions to
your course I believe that knowing my
learners I can aspire them to become
independent learners I remember coming
here I’ve brought a lot of assumptions
and values with myself as a European
teacher knowing my learner’s means that
I had to learn that not all my learners
can read and write in in their native
language I had to learn that not all of
them have had a chance to have any
primary education or I had to learn and
that all of them take it as a norm than
men and women can work and study
together but interestingly I’ve learned
that the correct use of apostrophe is
more of a problem to ladies because of
English and non-native so I’m not
surprised that some educational
secretaries made it there as their
political mission but I also learned to
be fascinated by misconceptions and
confusions of my students so I know now
according to my students that the 5th of
November is a special day here in
England you the English are absolutely
crazy about fire girls so you decided
that you dedicate one day in the year to
the display so you can enjoy them to
your heart’s content the third
commandment is let your students know
each other it seems obvious but you know
how difficult to get use to get you
collaborate with each other it’s
sometimes difficult to find out why
students don’t want to work together but
I believe if they know each other that
might help them to overcome those
but I also use in a very strong argument
that we as human beings don’t choose who
our tea makers will be or who our bosses
are going to be we just need to work
together letting my learners know each
other means that I don’t have to be the
only person who supports them guys them
or judges they’re learning as a good
teacher
I should plan in my lessons special
occasions that him that empowers
students to become leaders of their own
learning I remember a lesson in English
when I I was I was supposed to teach
about English adjectives and I thought
how am I going to do it so I came within
an idea of bringing music so I brought
about three or four CDs to my classroom
but in fact after because I thought well
they’ll have a good discussion but after
about two songs suddenly my students
started to jump out of their seats their
mobile phones in their hands and was
saying Daniel Daniel listen to my music
oh look at my music and then I realized
oh yes music that’s a fantastic
collection it’s a connection between and
my students but also among my students
of about of my own students so that was
their lesson and they could present
their own music explain why they like
the music and why they value that music
so I think in that moment I tapped to
the reservoirs all my students
imagination creativity and experience
because that gives them that power of
being pride proud of themselves the
fourth commandment
is the commandment about being able to
be open to to new ideas
I hope you like my picture is the time I
come from when I share it to my students
they say or what did you do why did you
come to Bolton Daniel asked my husband
these English people terrible so be open
to ideas is all about acknowledging that
all those years which I observed other
teachers teaching have made a
considerable impact on my own teaching
on my own actions of my own judgments
when I am in the classroom and in fact
it is an idea that we all think what is
good teaching or bad teaching even
before we are we are doing our teacher
training course so be open to new ideas
means that I have to challenge my own
convictions what it means to be a good
teacher
just because these strategies work for
me as a student being open to new ideas
also means that I have to be confident
enough to take risks and trial new
approaches I was in fact brought up in
then Germany Czechoslovakia and the
model I saw in front of me was a very
authoritarian teacher so there were no
occasions for any discussions and forget
for the freedom of speech I was in fact
always in trouble with teachers so when
I became a teacher you can imagine how
unhappy I was with that public display
of my personality because I didn’t
didn’t agree with that so I tapped into
my passion into the into the theories of
drama and education theatre and
literature and brought dolls on stage
into my into my classrooms and then
but when I came here to the UK 12 years
ago to my horror I found out that I am
NOT a qualified teacher anymore that my
subject English as a foreign language
doesn’t exist outside the private sphere
and that my love for Shakespeare came
because considered as an elitist
privilege though I I come from a very
working-class family I couldn’t
understand that but to be open to new
ideas meant that I I learned how to how
to teach different subjects so I started
to support adults with literacy I
started to help adults to learn how to
study and become independent learners I
also helped students to to identify some
aspects of dyslexia when no one in my
institution could do that for me so to
be open to new ideas means that you grab
those challenges and you take take leaps
into darkness because you know that at
the end that what makes you feel alive
and curious in your job and my final
commandment is the commandment about
embracing the community of other
professionals as you can see I don’t
feel I don’t look very lonely there but
I’m I would say that as a teacher there
are moments in your life when you might
feel very lonely especially if you’re a
new teacher coming to a very busy
college environment or if you are
teaching in different community centers
around the town and then there’s no one
else except you I remember mornings when
I was frozen to death waiting for a
security guard or a cleaner to open the
building for me but embracing the
community of professionals means that I
can find friends online
I can go to workshops or conferences
I can organize as you can see
conferences for others and for their
children for the students
so today I came here to to share with
you my personal theory of commandments
of good teaching and I would like to
leave you with a question what are your
commandment
[Applause]
in the picture in the middle of my
workshop on teaching English who drama
education and as you can see I was full
of energy and enthusiasm and passion for
my subject I’m sorry don’t notice the
guy is standing next to me I know he
looks very skeptic about all this but
what I wanted to do is look at the young
man standing behind him can you see that
I think he is my evidence that all that
work and dedication to my to my job
we’re worthwhile as you can see he’s
still rehearsing his lines for his
English improvisation with his own group
and that’s what kept me going witnessing
the students to embrace English not as a
subject which is compulsory and which is
done for an exam but something as a tool
that helps them to connect with the
global community with people from
various races nations cultures or
genders so that’s that ability to
witness to see my students progress
emotionally cognitively socially helped
me to stay in my profession for over a
quarter of a century
how long have all died some in this
moment so I came here to argue for my
for my profession I still believe that
teaching is a unique profession I would
say that its uniqueness is in its
familiarity to all of us we’ve all been
involved in various acts of teaching be
it parents friends siblings or just
colleagues in in our workplace no wonder
there are so many names for our
profession we are teachers lecturers
mentors supervisors coaches
trainers facilitators name it but most
mostly we are inspirational leaders I
also come to say that teaching is a
unique profession from the from the
aspect that what is granted in it for it
for example in no other profession there
in teaching you’re expected to stand
confidently in front of a group of
complete strangers and learn their names
in no time
in no other profession than in teaching
you are expected to catch capture their
attention within the first three minutes
of the lesson and keep them engaged with
their in the activities which they don’t
consider very interesting at that time
of their lives in no other profession
you are expected to raise their
confidence levels while your confidence
hasn’t hasn’t grown yet and in no other
profession you are asked to measure
promptly reliably objectively and
accurately a phenomenon so elusive as
learning is and I must say that those
challenges don’t go away with the years
of experience and that I can relieve
those anxieties with every new group or
semester or a course so you may ask me
why did you choose this this profession
what helped you to stay in this
profession despite its insecurities and
anxieties and I would say well teaching
more than any other job has managed to
to bring such a strong sense of self
fulfillment and self-worth when I
witnessed those precious moments of
making connections which I call learning
though lightbulb moments when something
new is learn acknowledged or appreciated
so in order to stay in this profession
and seeing learning through those making
connections
I created a kind of a personal theory of
go teaching which I’m going to share
with you and I call it five commandments
of God teaching so the first commandment
I would like to say is called know
thyself as you can see in this lovely
little picture of my little nephew who
is doing what you have to do as a
teacher as the first thing he sees is
trying to connect with your self-image
while he is connected with his even
mirror minute image and doesn’t care
about it at that time of his life we do
it’s that desire that we connect to our
self-image to ourselves
whatever this concept mean in our our
mind because we have a desire to go and
and reach that I’d yourself that desire
to be a good teacher and bring some
goodness and some stability into this
unstable and insecure world as a teacher
I must tell you that I feel this desire
to reach that either self can be quite
self-destructive I remember so many
hours of of preparing for the lessons
and then at the end it was all wrong and
it took me a while to get over it and I
must say it still it still hurts when I
see my students disengaged or
disinterested and I find it very
difficult to forgive myself for the
mistakes I make but on the other hand
over the years I think I have grown
quite comfortable with my public image
because I know it’s only just one part
of my personality that there are still
what mr. Eason says so politically
untapped reservoirs of my creativity
some dream of sports that helped me to
grow in my role I just
I believe in this because I I treasure
the moments when there is a sudden
silence in my classroom when a story
takes its place in the imagination of my
students I remember it was in 1996 when
I was teaching in a small suburban
school in in Columbus Ohio and I was
teaching English to a small group of
refugee children and in order to help
him to understand I was doing
storytelling so one day I was telling a
story about trolls and in order to help
them to visualize the characters
I brought some props so I brought a pair
of black grouse
I brought knitting needles and I
remember I brought a hat and there I was
studying the story when suddenly I
noticed that that that little Nigerian
girl who would never sit in the
classroom she had a special rubber ball
so she could jump around there she was
sitting next to me and looking at those
old black balls with absolute
fascination and I could see yes this is
that precious moment when I made the
connection with that fantastic
imaginative world of hers this is the
moment when I as a teacher kept in those
reservoirs of my creativity where my
dream of sports could come to light so
Thank You mr. Eason for such a poetry
the second commandment I would say to
become a good teacher is know of eye
learners or know thy students at the
beginning of every course I asked myself
who are my learners what kind of life
and educational experiences are they
bringing into my class how will they
work with me and how will they work with
each other how can I meet their needs I
still believe that it’s very very
important in the lesson that you value
moments when you’re
students tell you something about their
lives when they reveal their dreams and
aspirations because that’s your moment
that’s when you can take those and link
them to your lesson to discussions to
your course I believe that knowing my
learners I can aspire them to become
independent learners I remember coming
here I’ve brought a lot of assumptions
and values with myself as a European
teacher knowing my learner’s means that
I had to learn that not all my learners
can read and write in in their native
language I had to learn that not all of
them have had a chance to have any
primary education or I had to learn and
that all of them take it as a norm than
men and women can work and study
together but interestingly I’ve learned
that the correct use of apostrophe is
more of a problem to ladies because of
English and non-native so I’m not
surprised that some educational
secretaries made it there as their
political mission but I also learned to
be fascinated by misconceptions and
confusions of my students so I know now
according to my students that the 5th of
November is a special day here in
England you the English are absolutely
crazy about fire girls so you decided
that you dedicate one day in the year to
the display so you can enjoy them to
your heart’s content the third
commandment is let your students know
each other it seems obvious but you know
how difficult to get use to get you
collaborate with each other it’s
sometimes difficult to find out why
students don’t want to work together but
I believe if they know each other that
might help them to overcome those
but I also use in a very strong argument
that we as human beings don’t choose who
our tea makers will be or who our bosses
are going to be we just need to work
together letting my learners know each
other means that I don’t have to be the
only person who supports them guys them
or judges they’re learning as a good
teacher
I should plan in my lessons special
occasions that him that empowers
students to become leaders of their own
learning I remember a lesson in English
when I I was I was supposed to teach
about English adjectives and I thought
how am I going to do it so I came within
an idea of bringing music so I brought
about three or four CDs to my classroom
but in fact after because I thought well
they’ll have a good discussion but after
about two songs suddenly my students
started to jump out of their seats their
mobile phones in their hands and was
saying Daniel Daniel listen to my music
oh look at my music and then I realized
oh yes music that’s a fantastic
collection it’s a connection between and
my students but also among my students
of about of my own students so that was
their lesson and they could present
their own music explain why they like
the music and why they value that music
so I think in that moment I tapped to
the reservoirs all my students
imagination creativity and experience
because that gives them that power of
being pride proud of themselves the
fourth commandment
is the commandment about being able to
be open to to new ideas
I hope you like my picture is the time I
come from when I share it to my students
they say or what did you do why did you
come to Bolton Daniel asked my husband
these English people terrible so be open
to ideas is all about acknowledging that
all those years which I observed other
teachers teaching have made a
considerable impact on my own teaching
on my own actions of my own judgments
when I am in the classroom and in fact
it is an idea that we all think what is
good teaching or bad teaching even
before we are we are doing our teacher
training course so be open to new ideas
means that I have to challenge my own
convictions what it means to be a good
teacher
just because these strategies work for
me as a student being open to new ideas
also means that I have to be confident
enough to take risks and trial new
approaches I was in fact brought up in
then Germany Czechoslovakia and the
model I saw in front of me was a very
authoritarian teacher so there were no
occasions for any discussions and forget
for the freedom of speech I was in fact
always in trouble with teachers so when
I became a teacher you can imagine how
unhappy I was with that public display
of my personality because I didn’t
didn’t agree with that so I tapped into
my passion into the into the theories of
drama and education theatre and
literature and brought dolls on stage
into my into my classrooms and then
but when I came here to the UK 12 years
ago to my horror I found out that I am
NOT a qualified teacher anymore that my
subject English as a foreign language
doesn’t exist outside the private sphere
and that my love for Shakespeare came
because considered as an elitist
privilege though I I come from a very
working-class family I couldn’t
understand that but to be open to new
ideas meant that I I learned how to how
to teach different subjects so I started
to support adults with literacy I
started to help adults to learn how to
study and become independent learners I
also helped students to to identify some
aspects of dyslexia when no one in my
institution could do that for me so to
be open to new ideas means that you grab
those challenges and you take take leaps
into darkness because you know that at
the end that what makes you feel alive
and curious in your job and my final
commandment is the commandment about
embracing the community of other
professionals as you can see I don’t
feel I don’t look very lonely there but
I’m I would say that as a teacher there
are moments in your life when you might
feel very lonely especially if you’re a
new teacher coming to a very busy
college environment or if you are
teaching in different community centers
around the town and then there’s no one
else except you I remember mornings when
I was frozen to death waiting for a
security guard or a cleaner to open the
building for me but embracing the
community of professionals means that I
can find friends online
I can go to workshops or conferences
I can organize as you can see
conferences for others and for their
children for the students
so today I came here to to share with
you my personal theory of commandments
of good teaching and I would like to
leave you with a question what are your
commandment
[Applause]
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