Invited Session (I) - International Conference 2016
with Josette LeBlanc
Answering the Call to Vocation: An (ELT) Idea Igniter
Frederick Buechner calls vocation "the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need." Others, like Parker Palmer, call it "calling" and note that it often appears as an idea that won’t go away, while doing things we love, or helping others achieve dreams. For a while, we’ve been referring to these forces as superpowers and working with teachers to help them identify and unleash theirs. We’ve also been learning why people hesitate to do what they do best or take ideas forward. The reasons include lack of support, no access to tools, feelings of unworthiness, and the sense that it’s selfish to focus energy on personal passions or ideas that require risk. Yet, read Buechner’s definition again. In that place were deep gladness meets the world’s need is your calling and our way forward. In this workshop, we’ll help you identify superpowers, issue a call to vocation, and offer tools. Come with ideas or come ignite some.
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Invited Session (II)
with Tim Hampson
Teaching Life Through Stories
"If we want to grow as teachers – we must do something alien to academic culture: We must talk to each other about our inner lives" — Parker Palmer
Think of the last time you had a good conversation. Did you swap some stories? Of course you did. Storytelling is what we do. "We are storytelling creatures," says Jerome Bruner. We construct and reconstruct ourselves by telling each other stories, and the stories we tell help us process the experiences we have. Stories give our life structure, help us cope, and reveal to us a range of possibilities.
As teachers, we tell one another tales from our classrooms to share best practice, worst practice, make each other smile, and let off steam. This participant-centered workshop aims to do three things. The first is to simply meet other teachers and share stories with them. The second is to explore, through doing, some techniques to encourage storytelling in and out of the classroom. Lastly, we’ll explore the importance of storytelling and offer a place for the storytelling to continue.
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Biographical Sketches
Chuck Sandy is an author, motivational speaker, and educational activist whose many publications include Passages 3rd Edition and Connect 2nd Edition from Cambridge University Press. He is a frequent presenter at conferences and workshops around the world and online, cofounder and director of the International Teacher Development Institute (iTDi) and a founder of EdYOUfest, ELT idea igniters that he hopes to take worldwide. Chuck believes that positive change in education happens one student, one classroom, and one school at a time, and that it arises most readily out of dialogue and in collaboration with other educators. Chuck blogs on education, motivation, leadership, spirituality, and compassion at http://iTDi.pro/blog and is at work on a new book for Wayzgoose Press.
Josette LeBlanc teaches teachers in Daegu, co-facilitates the Daegu KOTESOL Reflective Practice SIG, writes for iTDi, and maintains the blog Throwing Back Tokens.
Timothy Hampson is passionate about empowering teachers, active in #KELTChat, and a founder of excitELT. He teaches in Shanghai and used to teach in Korea.
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Resources on the Web: Chuck Sandy
Chuck Sandy's Most Recent Essays
http://itdi.pro/blog/author/chuck/
Interview 2013
http://www.eltnews.com/features/interviews/2013/06/interview_with_chuck_...
Chuck Sandy's Amazon Page
http://www.amazon.com/Chuck-Sandy/e/B003206022/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_2
See the full list of Major Speakers at the KOTESOL International Conference at https://koreatesol.org/ic2016/Major-Speakers
