This blog post is part of the Sponge Chats video series.
Last week I had the pleasure to sit down with newly-into-the-teacher-training-industry Rachel Tsateri. We spoke about her journey into teaching and training, some mistakes and difficulties along the way, and how she is planning on establishing herself as a trainer now. We also went into detail about why she started her blog The TEFL Zone, her plans for the future, and some book recommendations (see below)!
Every teacher is at a different stage in their career, and trainers are no different. It was quite insightful to speak with Rachel as she is at the beginning of her teacher training career – quite different to Borja and Chris. Her perspective will be very relevant to all teachers that are really thinking about moving into teacher training, and the best thing is she is more than happy to blog about her experiences throughout ‘the move’, including completing the Nile MAPDLE.
Make sure to check out the Sponge Chat on Youtube or Spotify, and let us know what you think.
If you’re a newly qualified teacher looking for support, you can contact Rachel here. She can offer free training sessions, which will help her practise what she’s learning on the trainer development course.
Rachel’s book recommendations
- Advising and Supporting Teachers by Mick Randall with Barbara Thornton
- Classroom Observation Tasks by Ruth Wajnryb
- ELT Lesson Observation & Feedback Handbook by Jeanette Barsdell
- Ian McGrath, Feeding, leading, showing, throwing
- Kontra, E.H. (1997) ‘Reflections on the purpose of methodology training.’ ELT Journal 51/3
- Language Teacher Education by Jon Roberts
- Professional Development for Language Teachers by Jack C. Richards and Thomas S. C. Farrell
- Teaching Teachers: Processes and Practices by Angi Malderez and Martin Wedell
- Teach English Teacher’s Workbook Adrian Doff
- Trainer Development by Tony Wright and Rod Bolitho
- Waters, A. and Vilches, M., 2000. Integrating teacher learning: the School-Based Follow-up Development Activity. ELT Journal, 54(2), pp.126-134. (This is for the totally awesome island metaphor!)
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