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Ian Bell

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Profile: I'm closer to the end of my career than the beginning but continue to gain a lot of satisfaction from the classroom. Most of my current and ex students seem happy when we bump into each other and I enjoy that too. I still feel that I have a lot to learn but there are a number of things which I'd encourage any teacher to think about if they want to be happy too. NLP taught me that everyone does the best that they can. It may or may not be great, but if you can grow to believe that, it gives you more confidence in your students and more respect for them. They respond to that and become better learners. As a young teacher I was very interested at putting the student at the centre of their learning experience. I enjoy the challenge of finding ways of adapting to their needs. The training I did at Pilgrims provided a fertile base as did my Diploma training and going to conferences talking with peers. Perhaps more than anything, learning to ask students how they do things gives wonderful insights and strategies... Of course I spent many years teaching teachers how to use the TOEIC test and I contributed (at least in France) to the development of a strategic vision of what language learning may be in higher education. These days I mix teaching and testing. Most testers don't let on that its perfectly feasible for teachers to make and validate reasonably accurate tests... and most teachers don't take the time to find out. If you're interested, get in touch with me. It might encourage me to finish the Testing Basics book I'm working on. I'm an ordinary member of EALTA which is Europe's foremost testing organisation. You might want to join too... Click Here

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