On Saturday 23rd January, International House held its first ever free online Training Day for Academic Manager and Trainers as part of its IH AMT Conference.
The event gave academic managers and trainers who are not currently working in an International House school the chance to get a taste of some of the great talks we had for IH members during the 2021 AMT, held from January 18th to 22nd. The programme aims to help participants address the current challenges faced as an academic manager or trainer, with presentations on Academic Leadership, Communication and Online Training.
Now, more than ever, International House would like to support the community of English language academic managers and trainers in our industry. Below you can find all sessions from the event available to watch on demand whenever you like – just bookmark this page and share with your colleagues and peers!
Welcome, Lucy Horsefield
A short session from the Managing Director of IHWO, Lucy Horsefield.
Academic Leadership in times of Covid19, Andy Hockley
All of us faced many serious challenges in 2020. In the midst of this unexpected and very difficult situation, amazing things were achieved despite all the challenges. However as the immediacy passes, we are left with a number of issues to deal with. Now more than ever it can seem that as leaders and managers we need to both plan for the future and deal with the present, dealing with all the issues that are bombarding us every day. How can we maintain a strategic approach during this time with all that we are dealing with and with such uncertainty about the future? How can we, at the same time, keep teachers and other staff motivated?
This talk will look at how clear and effective leadership continues to be so important at this time. I will present some models of leadership and connect them to the current situation. Subsequently I will suggest some practical approaches to turning these ideas into concrete actions which will help you to better lead your team.
Clear Communication, Sandy Millin
Communication is the keystone of management, with the quality of your communication making the difference between a team that resents every change you make and one that will follow where you lead. Clear, supportive communication is something I feel very passionate about, and have worked on a lot over the past few years. In this talk, I can offer various tried and tested tips to improve the effectiveness of online and offline communication with your team, hopefully leading to a more positive, supportive environment for all of you.
Due to technical issues, we have shared the same talk that Sandy gave at the IH AMT Conference so you're able to view her slides in the video.
Where’s the water cooler? The effect of learning communities in online teacher training, Shaun Wilden
With 2020 forcing a lot of teacher training online many educators are exploring what makes a successful online course. Peer to peer social presence, the psychological perception of people being present, is a regarded as a basic tenet of online education, especially in asynchronous courses. A plethora of research suggests the more a learning community can be established, the more trainees will enjoy their online experience. However, for this to be true then doesn’t everyone have to have the same expectations of learning community? Curious to find out, I undertook research to discover what the preconceptions and experiences of people taking courses on the IH World Online site were. This talk presents some of my findings and offers some suggestions to better inform both course design and tutor roles in online courses.
Leading and managing during a pandemic – what we’ve learnt about keeping teams together, Caroline Fonseca & Diana England
Many teachers have found that the working conditions the pandemic has created are not conducive to the creative, collaborative working environment we are used to. This session will look at what we’ve been doing to keep our teaching teams working as a cohesive, motivated community and ensure the quality teaching our students expect.
Q&A with Panel of IH Management Experts
Our last session of this free training day for Academic Managers and Trainers is a Q&A Panel lead by Shaun Wilden with panelists Chloe Pakeman Schiavone, Giovanni Licata, George Pickering, Monica Green and Andy Hockley. Questions for the panel covered the topics of hybrid learning, co-coaching, the effectiveness of online teacher training, the future of language schools, digital teaching, online inspections/observations, emotional support and managing stress and mentoring new teachers online.
