TransformELT

The BLISS project is arguably one of the most successful among British Council large scale teacher development projects.The impact is clearly catalogued and there are multiple videos and reports for those who want to explore in more depth. 

The project monitoring and evaluation systems, the setup of which TransformELT’s Alan Mackenzie had an advisory role in, have been described in two independent reports (2016) as ‘first-rate’ and ‘exemplary’.

One of the main development tools was a series of Teacher Development videos filmed in Bihar, using state school facilities and starring local teachers. Through leading by example, these teachers showed what is possible in low resource classrooms with very large class sizes and a difficult climate.

Talent spotting teachers who can make new approaches work and giving them a platform to share their practices, inspires others and shows them that change is possible even in the most difficult circumstances.

Careful planning from the outset ensured appropriate timescales and project activity sequences were used. The rigorous monitoring system kept the whole project on track and ensured BLISS won repeated funding at a time when English language development projects were not most favoured by DFiD.

I’ve always been a visual learner, which has influenced me as a teacher as well. Therefore, as a teacher I’ve always used a lot of visual prompts, pictures, colourful slides in my PowerPoint presentations, etc.

One day a student changed my perception not only as a teacher, but as a person. Will joined my class. Will was 15 years old. He joined a group of restless twelve year-olds. Those pre-teens could not stand still and be quiet for a second. I had a hard time with them. What I was not expecting was the fact that Will was a blind student. How would/could I teach English to a blind student among twenty restless pre-teens? I was literally in a panic! I had received no training to deal with such a situation but I took on the challenge with all my heart. I vividly remember the class before Will joined us. I had an awareness-raising activity with the group, trying to elicit what being blind involved and the difficulties a person went through. I said that our new classmate would need their cooperation, because too much noise would probably make him feel lost. I taught them how to guide a blind person (my grandmother was blind and I shared my experience with them); we had this wonderful conversation and I asked them to close their eyes and taught them for some minutes in the dark.

I remember that the following class when Will arrived, those kids had a totally different attitude and behaviour towards the class, me, each other and Will. I was so proud of them! Will transformed our lives. As a teacher I had to adapt my teaching style. I started using more audio files and he helped me move out of my comfort zone. The students learned how to cooperate and respect each other. Many times we (myself included) asked Will what we could do to help him understand a particular topic or some visual prompts. It was quite a challenge to teach him prepositions of place without using translation. Explaining colors, talking about clothing and hair styles... I’ll always remember that experience.

Will transformed our lives forever. I’m so thankful for having met him.

We constantly tell stories about ourselves, both personal and professional. Narrative is a powerful means of gaining insight into the connections between past and present, and implications for the future. 

Individuals and institutions alike progress organically, often in ways that would have been impossible to predict, but can be perceived in retrospect when we tell our stories. 

At TransformELT we believe in the power of narrative to discover those significant moments, interactions and experiences that have triggered professional change.  Whether change for you has been a single event or a process of gradual assimilation and accommodation, telling your transformation story and sharing the stories of others can help you understand the way you think about your professional history and how it has informed your current practice.