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feedback
 amazing
conference
an
email exchange from a comprehensive
 school
teacher
attendee
the
diary of an energetic comprehensive school teacher
Amazing
conference
Unfortunately I couldn't make
the conference call, I will stay in touch, I think what you
are trying to achieve is fantastic. I thought the conference
in London, was amazing, it turned out to be very unexpected
to meet so many like minded people. Very different from the
usual childcare conferences. I definitely was drawn to your
conference, and am deeply thankful I made the effort to come,
as I had had a crisis in my life the previous evening and
wondered if I could make it. So I benefited from the wonderful
energy that filled the room that uplifted my spirits. I actually
arrived home feeling inspired re-energised and regained faith
in human beings! That some do still care.
Ms M Shaftoe, Community Services,
London Borough of Lewisham
An
email exchange from a comprehensive
school teacher attendee
Dear
Alan
I thought you and The Energy Alliance may be interested to
hear what has happened to me since attending the conference
on November 11th. Just to recap, I have been a teacher in
comprehensive schools since 1975 and as I said at the conference,
recently I have become concerned if not disillusioned about
the whole way main stream education is going generally. I
have also been 'embracing my Spiritual path' for the last
10 years or so and I have been trying to incorporate my Spiritual
understanding into my teaching. I was therefore keen to hear
how other people were working with the 'New Kids'.
I really enjoyed the conference
and found the speakers inspirational, however at the end of
the day I was still not sure how I was going to apply the
ideas into my own situation i.e. working with classes of at
least 30 children with a range of special needs and abilities.
One class in particular was a major cause of concern for both
myself and other teachers in the school. Although it was a
class of 11 year olds, almost half of them were not registering
on the scale in terms of reading and writing and as their
English teacher, this was manifesting in a whole range of
behavioural problems too. I was also trying to deal with low
self esteem and lack of confidence etc. I am sure you can
see the general picture here.
It all came to a head the week following the conference when
a fight broke out in the lesson between a boy and a girl.
I have had to break up several fights in my teaching career,
but I have to say it has never been between a boy and a girl.
To me this fight was no accident as it was what I needed to
get the Head and others in the school to realise that if we
did not do something now, then we would be opening ourselves
to a whole range of problems as the children went further
up the school.
I can only describe what happened
next as being like a whirlwind of synchronicity. Another member
of staff told us of a school he had worked at where they were
trying a different approach to teaching low ability children
and within the week I was visiting it along with the teacher,
the Head and the Head of Year 7. Basically their aim was to
create a small group of these children and keep them together
for several of their subjects so that they can really identify
as a group. They were also being given a more intensive programme
in terms of literacy input, having identified learning styles
etc. I am sure you can imagine the results they were getting,
not only were they more confident but they were also improving
in terms of reading and writing ability too.
My Head was so impressed that
by the end of the visit he had agreed that we should try a
similar thing at our school and straight away he was arranging
when we were going to meet to start planning it.
You need to realise that things usually take a long time to
get off the ground in a school like ours, especially as we
are short of money and so this is often the excuse for not
changing things.
Cutting a long story short,
within another week, we had met to discuss ideas, look at
timetables etc and I had been given the job of running this
group which we are hoping to start the second week in January.
It will have 24 pupils in it but there will be another member
of staff teaching with me as well as a trained teaching assistant.
Not only has this meant me changing my timetable in that I
will be teaching very little of my main subject, but I have
also agreed to go back to almost full time teaching again
- I have only been teaching three days a week for the last
5 years, as I have been teaching Spiritual Courses on the
others. I feel very excited about all of this as I know it
will give me an opportunity to make changes in terms of how
these children are taught. It may only be a small step in
terms of mainstream education, but as we know every journey
has to begin with a single step. I also feel that I will have
the opportunity to marry together the 'spiritual' with the
main stream, in ways that they can understand.
I am wanting to use some educational
coaching techniques with them, having qualified for this 5
years ago but never having been given the opportunity to use
it before. With this in mind, I have been trying to buy on
line your Coaching and Buddy system pack for £29.97
but unfortunately there seems to be a problem on the site
and it keeps timing out before I get to the page where I pay
for it. Could you tell me what I should do about this as I
really am keen to use these ideas?
I am going to close now as
I know this is quite a long email and I thank you for reading
it. May I thank you all again for the work you are doing and
I know that my story is just one of the results of the energy
created at the conference.
Thank you
Louise Hopkinson in Cornwall
Dear Louise
WOW what a MEGA email, thank you so much, I can feel your
energy for this new opportunity to bring to the fore all your
experience, desire and passion, many congratulations for creating
it.
Can I send this
email to the speakers who will be so excited for you and needless
to say if there is any other support we can give please don't
hesitate to ask? I'm attaching the Goal Setting and Buddy
programme with my compliments and I know you know how valuable
the parents are in supporting your work, so you will find
there is a section at the end specifically for the parents.
What worked best
for me in engaging the parents was to have a meeting with
all the parents and key staff including the head to brief
them in what you will be doing and how they can best support
their children. I can't remember if it was you that energetically
prepared the room and pupils for the highest outcome and potential
or not but I know it's worked for me.
Please let me
know if there is anything else you need.
WOW what a 2007
you are going to have - many congratulations.
Love
Alan
PS I thought I'd updated this programme with the 'Power of
thought' module but I don't seem to have that copy so I've
sent you another programme which incorporates it. Also an
extended version of the Success Diary.
PPS I'm not sure if you have already sent me a feedback form
but if not I would be grateful if you would when you get time.
Dear Alan
Thank you so much for your support here and of course for
the Goal Setting and Buddy programme and other information,
it is so kind of you and what a wonderful example you are
of 'someone who practices what they preach.' I really do thank
you from my heart and yes feel free to send the email to the
speakers and anyone else whom you think may be interested.
I know there is
going to be a lot of work and planning here for me to do,
but I have to say I feel so excited about it and as you rightly
say, it has re-kindled my passion for teaching again. I have
taken on board what you said about the parents and I have
added that to my list of things to discuss with the Head on
the first day back next Thursday.
I am going to be keeping a
diary/record of how it all turns out and if it is OK with
you, I will send you updates from time to time.
Finally, I did send a feedback
form on the conference, but I will send another in case it
got lost in the ether!
Thank you again and may you
long continue to be inspirational
Love
Louise
PS I forgot to say that when
myself and the other members of staff went to visit the other
school working in different ways, the Head drove us and as
I had a 'captive audience' I was able to fill them all in
on some of the things discussed at the conference. They were
very interested and I ended up giving them the website details
of all the speakers as they were keen to 'learn more' Who
knows where that is going to lead, I think it could be a case
of 2007 being a hold onto your hat year!!!
Dear Louise
WOW another fabulous email thank you so very much, I am drawn
along by your energy and enthusiasm. I would absolutely love
your updates and if you feel I could help with a visit, I
would pop down and meet some of your colleagues. One of the
attendees was a physician and he has written a wonderful independent
report on the Conference, attached.
Do you think your colleagues
would be interested in the DVD we showed at the start? I am
re-working it with excerpts from the conference and also a
DVD of the whole day.
Thanks, I will forward your
email to the speakers, would you mind if I put it on the website
as well?
I don't think I need to encourage
you to keep doing what you are doing I can feel you are on
a roll!
Love
Alan
Hi again
Alan
Another thanks for the email and the report. I would like
to think that there will come a time soon when my colleagues
are open to watching the DVD of the 'New Kids' but I feel
I have to do some teaching by example first as most of them
will want to see results before they open themselves to too
many new ideas. However I am confident that this will happen
for as you say things are really on a roll at this end. As
soon as I feel they are ready, I will be in touch and the
same applies to a visit from yourself.
Please feel free to put anything
I send on the website and I thank you again
Love
Louise
Fantastic Louise
just let me know what needs to happen next.
Thanks I will be putting your emails on the website and let
you know when it's live.
Love
Alan
The
Diary of an Energetic Comprehensive School Teacher
Louise will be recording how
she created her intention following the conference.
Friday
12th January 2007 - The Head or the Heart
Friday
19th January 2007 - Out of Your Comfort Zone
Friday
January 26th 2007 - One Step at a Time
Sunday
4th February 2007 - From One Extreme to the Other
Friday
9th February 2007 - The Day Arrives
Sunday
25th February 2007 - Time to Reflect
Sunday 4th March 2007 – Opening up the can of worms
Sunday 11th March 2007 – Reflections
Sunday
18th March 2007 – A whirl of a week
Sunday
25th March 2007 – Reasons to be cheerful
Sunday
1st April 2007 – A different sort of a week
Tuesday
17th April 2007 – At last the holidays
Sunday
29th April 2007 – Return to school
Sunday
6th May 2007 – An amazing week
Sunday
13th May 2007 – The highs and lows of it all
Sunday
20th May 2007 – They say God works in mysterious ways
Sunday
27th May 2007 – A funny sort of a week
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