This episode’s vocabulary
Culmination
noun — the point at which an event or series of events ends, having developed until it reaches this point.
Reinforce
verb — to make something stronger.
Massively
adverb — extremely or very much.
Superior
noun — a person or group of people who are higher in rank or social position than others.
Questions and answers
Rory will describe a time when he changed his opinion. He will say when it was, what his original opinion was, why he changed it, and explain how he felt about it. Rory, hello.
Hi.
Are you ready?
Yes.
OK, fire away.
So a major change in mindset for me occurred a few years ago, just a few years ago, actually. It wasn't a specific time and place, more like the culmination of various ideas and concepts that I've been learning about. Originally, I thought that teaching could only be effective if done in a group with a course book. But my previously held beliefs were challenged when I read a book called "Teaching unplugged", and that was just the start of the process. I had to reinforce this new set of ideas with actual practice, and I did so when I was teaching my classes after that. I kept thinking, like, why not take a chance and make a change? So I did. And I haven't looked back since, actually. It wasn't just about reading the ideas that helped, but it was also having the opportunities to try them out and the encouragement to do so. Everybody finds lessons straight from the book to be quite dull and unengaging. So I was really looking for, like looking for ways to challenge that, I suppose. And this worked in conjunction with encouragement from my superiors and colleagues who were very keen on promoting this kind of way of going about things. At first I felt a little nervous about it, since it could all go so horribly wrong and look massively unprofessional. But with time, patience and more than a little bit of good luck, I felt really confident about it and I still do. And now, I hardly ever use a book in my lessons. And you can see this. I even put some on my Instagram and it all matches up and aligns quite nicely. But yeah, I think it sort of started with "Teaching unplugged" and all of the different processes described in there. But like I say, there were other forces in play at the time, I guess.
Do you often change your opinion?
No, not really. This is very unusual for me. -