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The teacher opens the door but the learners are the ones who must walk through it.

Who are we?

TESOL {Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages} Trainers is an organization that specializes in helping individuals and institutions that work more effectively and efficiently with people from other cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

We provide consulting and training to public and private institutions such as schools, universities, Adult Basic Education Programs, and organizations that work with non-native English speakers.

We help school districts design and develop systems and seminars that address the No Child Left Behind guidelines for all bilingual, ESL, and content teachers. We also assist in designing and delivering Spanish for Educators courses as well as ESOL courses for non-English speaking members of local communities.

We offer K-12 schools hands-on training in Differentiating Instruction, Best Practices, TESOL Strategies, Intercultural Communication, and many other topics based on needs. Likewise, we have coaching services which can include teaching observations and feedback, teaching models, In-house coaching models.

We work with universities and community colleges that have a significant percentage of English language learners. We provide an accredited Best Practices course, design and deliver specialized teacher training programs and college courses.

We also assist international K-12 schools in making sure their teachers are given the most effective professional development available. We provide consultancy, workshops, and on-going professional development to help schools meet the requirements of accreditation.

In addition, we provide the School for International Training's TESOL Certificate Course in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

For more information on the types of services we provide, please choose or scroll down.

	Coaching
	Course Curriculum Design
	Professional Development Seminars
	SIT TESOL Certificate

To download our brochure in PDF format, click below:

	TESOL Trainers Brochure - K-12 Schools
	TESOL Trainers Brochure - Colleges and Universities

Coaching

One of the best ways to promote sustainable change is through coaching. Helping teachers implement strategies and techniques by modeling, observations, and feedback sessions gives teachers an extra layer of support.

iCOACH is a program designed with specific institutional needs in mind. Teachers observe models of specific strategies and techniques, are observed implementing them, and receive feedback and mini training sessions throughout.

Teacher Education Awareness and Mentorship {TEAM™}: is a mentoring program that promotes professional development sustainability by providing a foundation upon which educational institutions create in-house learning communities by training faculty and staff members to be mentors for the rest of the faculty. Thus, as the training progresses, host-country mentors begin working with faculty in an ongoing basis to support the teaching staff and stimulate positive teaching practices across the curriculum

Reflective Teaching Practices: Reflective Teaching is an invaluable tool in developing into a more effective teacher. Through observations and reflective discussions, teachers explore how to become their own mentors.

For specific information on a professional development workshop for your institution or program, please contact, John R. Kongsvik.

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Course Curriculum Design

Tailored courses, curricula, and programs can be designed. In addition to the design we offer:

	Teacher manuals that explain in depth the each segment of the course, offers ideas, techniques and suggestions on how to help students achieve the course competencies.
	Teacher training that gives teachers a hands-on introduction to the curricula and ways to teach it. This gives teachers greater confidence and competence in teaching the content.
	Program support that connects teachers with the course creators to provide assistance to the teachers while they are teaching.
	Program evaluation that reviews the program and renders suggestions on how to modify the program to meet any changing institutional needs.

All courses and curricula are developed using experiential learning and learner-centered lenses. The result is:

Greater learner engagement

Learning-Outcomes focused

Supportive of learner autonomy

Responsive to learning styles and preferences

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Examples of Course and Curricula Design

Aligning Curriculum with ESL Standards: Understanding TESOL's ESL Standards for PreK-12, how to align them with state, district, or school curricula, and how to implement them effectively in the classroom is paramount to developing clear, measurable objectives that help increase student performance and success.

English for Non-English Speakers: Providing English language classes to non-English speakers support a school community, improves parental participation, increases communication, and helps non-English speaking children succeed.

ESL classes: ESL courses, curricula, and Bridge programs can be designed in a learner-centered manner that takes into account the culture and environment in which the courses take place.

Intensive English Programs {IEP}: Intensive English programs can make a big difference in the amount of time a person needs to become proficient in English. Summer IEPs can be designed and directed for schools and universities. A teacher training option promotes sustainability by training in-house teachers to teach the course in an efficient and effective manner.

Spanish for Public School Employees: Having rudimentary competence is Spanish is a necessity for teachers, administrators, and staff. These classes can be designed for both short and long term purposes. Summer Spanish Institutes are useful in providing intensive language training before the school year begins.

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For specific information on a professional development workshop for your institution or program, please contact, John R. Kongsvik.

Professional Development Seminars

All workshops are tailored to the specific needs of each program/institution. Nonetheless, they all exhibit the following characteristics:

Experiential
All activities are hands-on approaches to learning that give participants the opportunity to explore and experience the guiding principles and strategies behind each seminar.
Adaptable
The activities and principles covered can be used under a variety of different learning experiences and environments.
Relevant
All of the workshops are tailored to the specific issues that interest the participants and are developed according to their needs.

Learner-Centered
The driving principle behind all seminars is that learners must be 100% involved in the learning process; thus, every workshop invites each participant into the learning experience.

Because of the experiential and hands-on nature of each workshop, participants leave with a firm understanding of the learning principles behind each technique, how it looks in context, and how they could use it in their teaching.

A credit and certificate option are available for most courses. Credit and certificates are endorsed by the School for International Training, a highly regarded, accredited teacher training college.

All seminars and workshops are designed with the specific needs of the institution. Below are examples of some of them.

	*Best Practices in Teaching:* Developing a solid foundation in the Best Practices in teaching can help educators use research-proven techniques to meet the needs of each of their students.
	*Differentiating Learning:* Modifying instruction to meet the needs of every learner can be a challenge. This workshop works with the theory behind differentiating instruction and practical strategies and techniques to make every teacher help every learner succeed.
	Four Skills: This highlights using the four skills {speaking, reading, writing, and listening} as a means of setting all learners up for success. It explores several easy-to-use techniques to give learners an opportunity to acquire the language.
	*Implementing ESL Standards in the Content Classroom:* It's not that mainstream teachers don't want to help their ELLs succeed; they just may not know how to do it effectively and efficiently. This workshop demystifies the standards, helps teachers see how they are already meeting them, and provides tips, strategies, and techniques for meeting them all.
	*Intercultural Communication:* This workshop promotes intercultural awareness and tolerance by discovering one's own cultural traits and how culture shapes our actions, society, and world view.
	Language Learning Tools: This workshop takes an extensive look at one or more of the following teacher tools: Oral Dialogue Journals, Oral Presentations, Learning Stations, Cuisenaire Rods, etc.
	Language Teaching Techniques: This is a hands-on, interactive look at effective communicative techniques and tips to insure success in all learners.
	Lesson Planning: This is helpful to both novice and experienced lesson planners as a means of exploring the factors involved in lesson planning, the ingredients to successful planning, and strategies to make them highly effective and efficiently.

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	Mistake Management: This seminar looks at the differences between mistakes and errors, explores strategies for managing mistakes, and highlights some effective, learner-based techniques for dealing with them.
	Multi-Level Learning: The fact is, every class we teach is multi-level in one or more ways. This workshop explores the challenges of working in a multi-level learning situation and provides strategies & techniques to help teacher meet every learner's needs.
	Promoting Learner-Centered Learning: We all strive for an environment in which the learners are the focal point. This workshop outlines tips on promoting a learner-centered classroom through versatile activities and strategies.

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	Seven Strategies for Success: Through a series of experiential activities, teachers explore 7 strategies to help their learners succeed as well as the teaching/learning principles they're grounded in.
	Special Topics Seminar: This, as any workshop, can be designed according to the specific needs of the participants. It may cover several themes or topics over the course of one or more sessions.
	Teaching with Textbooks: Using textbooks may only appeal to a certain number of learners. This seminar explores how to modify textbooks to create a more communicative learning experience that invites all learning styles into the class.
	Teaching Pronunciation: Most learners want to improve their pronunciation, but most teachers tend to shy away from teaching it. This workshop examines the reasons behind proper/improper pronunciation and strategies to help learners improve.
	Working with English Language Learners: With increasing frequency, more and more mainstream teachers are having to adapt their teaching to meet the needs of the English language learners in their classroom. This workshop explores a variety of easy-to-use techniques and their underlying principles.

For specific information on a professional development workshop for your institution or program, please contact, John R. Kongsvik.

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SIT TESOL CERTIFICATE COURSE

To learn all about this course, click here!!!

More Information

For specific information on a professional development workshop for your institution or program, please contact, John R. Kongsvik.

To download our brochure in PDF format, click below:

	TESOL Trainers Brochure - K-12 Schools
	TESOL Trainers Brochure - Colleges and Universities

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About the Consultant: John Kongsvik has spent the past 16 years teaching and teacher training in public and private institutions. For the past 7 years, John Kongsvik has trained and coached teachers nationally and abroad in TESOL methodology, Sheltered Instruction, Best Practices, and Differentiating Instruction. He has trained trainers and coached coaches. John has designed curricula and professional development programs for schools, public programs and universities. Moreover, he runs a Teacher Training Institute in Santa Fe, NM in conjunction with the School for International Training, one of the most well recognized teacher training institutions in the world.

All courses, workshops, and trainings reflect experiential learning, interactive teaching, reflective teaching practices, and research-driven strategies and techniques that promote learner-centeredness. Due to the experiential nature of all courses, all participants leave having experienced the technique as a learner, explored the technique as a teacher/learner, and examined it for use in the classroom as a teacher. As a result, they leave with a deep understanding of the strategies and a clear vision of how to use them in their context.

Guiding Philosophy: The design and implementation of these courses are based on the principles of experiential learning, learner-centered teaching, and reflective teaching practices. All course design is centered on providing students with the support they need to achieve the objectives of the course. The curriculum in each course is designed to be highly interactive and engaging.

Scope: The objective of this project is to implement a Coaching framework, iCOACH™, for the College of the Marshall Islands. The course also will also help participants develop skills to support the learning and success of all teachers and students regardless of their native language, challenges, or needs. Included in the proposal package are:

All supporting materials defining and exemplifying each facet of the Coaches responsibilities and routines.

Two day information gathering session at the end of AY 2006-2007 (Can be done in conjunction with the following phase).

Two full day workshops at the start of AY 2007-2008 to introduce iCOACH™, and its components to the participants.

Four follow up on-site trainings throughout AY 2007-2008 (dates TBA).

One full day workshop at the end of AY 2007-2008.

Optional intersession support via the online Blackboard Learning Platform.

Overview of iCOACH™

COACH

Role

Responsibilities

Connect

Coaches primary goal must be to connect with her colleagues. In doing so, a Coach is able to let their peers know what role they play, what skills they have to offer, and how they may be able to help. The first step in any coaching relationship is to create a sense of trust and mutual respect. From that, grows a positive relationship of sharing, support, and success.

1. Coaches must inform teachers of the role a Coach plays.

2. Coaches must foster a safe environment of trust.

3. Coaches must educate teachers on what skills a Coach can offer.

4. Coaches must learn from their teachers on how best to support them.

Observe

Coaches are keen observers. They observe their fellow teachers as they interact with their subject, students, and strategies. They observe the students as they work in the learning environment. Finally, and equally important, they observe themselves and how they interact within the learning community.

1. Coaches observe teachers in order to help them grow, not to evaluate them.

2. Coaches observe students in order to meet their needs, not to assess them.

3. Coaches observe themselves in order to adapt to the needs of each individual teacher and every unique situation.

Assist

Coaches assist teachers on a variety of levels. They assist in the understanding of strategies and the learning/teaching paradigm. They assist their peers in planning and implementing strategies and techniques. Coaches also assist by modeling positive teaching practices and in any technique their teachers are striving to develop.

1. Coaches assist teachers as colleagues not as experts.

2. Coaches assist teachers in planning not to do the planning for them.

3. Coaches assist teachers in modeling based on their level of comfort.

4. Coaches assist teachers in acquiring positive teaching practices using varying degrees of support depending on the teacher’s needs.

Collect

Coaches collect data. They collect information on what is working, what isn’t, and, of primary importance, why. They collect information from their fellow teachers that highlights how they may best be of assistance. They collect information from the students that points towards which approaches are most beneficial in helping every learner succeed. They collect data on themselves in order to direct their own growth as coaches.

1. Coaches collect data to gain insight into how best to help teachers.

2. Coaches collect information to target their efforts and support.

3. Coaches collect information to raise the awareness of individual teachers.

4. Coaches collect information to improve their ability to support the teachers in and out of the classroom.

Help

Coaches help raise the level of awareness. They help teachers identify strengths and challenges. They help them build strong reflective teaching practices. They help their fellow teachers make concrete action plans in order to create positive, sustainable change in their teaching practices. They help themselves become more aware of their interactions with their peers and what effects these interactions have.

1. Coaches help teachers identify their strengths and their challenges.

2. Coaches help teachers create targeted personal action plans for growth.

3. Coaches help teachers raise their awareness of self, students, and subject.

4. Coaches help one another identify their own strengths and challenges and how to address them.

Objectives

By the end of the first year of iCOACH™, participants will be able to:

Use the Experiential Learning Cycle {ELC} as a means of reflecting on what happened, why it happened, and how past experiences affects future interactions.

Introduce the ELC to peer teachers as a vehicle for positive change in teaching practices.

Promote a safe, collaborative, and healthy working relationship with peers.

Use constructive communicative techniques in speaking with peers about the teaching and learning paradigm.

Observe with objectivity all facets of the learning environment including teachers, students, and their interactions with the content.

Deliver knowledge and skills to teachers in a learner-centered manner.

Encourage the use of effective teaching practices using the 4-step model: Teacher does as students watch; teacher does as students help; students do as teacher helps; students do as teacher watches.

Give teachers feedback in a manner that supports autonomy, growth, and responsibility.

Identify the level of support teachers need based on individual needs and environments.

Assist teachers in planning to implement strategies and techniques in the classroom.

Assist teachers in identifying what is working, what isn’t, and possible future actions.

Model strategies effectively inside and outside of the active classroom.

Collect and use data as a means of identifying areas which need short and long term attention.

Help teachers identify their own strengths and challenges.

Help teachers create observable personal action plans to stimulate positive change.

Project Outline:

Phase One: Information Gathering Sessions

Dates: Two Days of Observation of teaching practices at the end of AY 2006-2007 (This can be done in conjunction with Phase Two).

Description: The initial phase of the project is to meet the current teachers prior to the implementation of iCOACH™.

Purpose:

To meet current teachers personally.

To observe teachers in their work environment.

To collect data from teachers, students and administrators on their needs surrounding this initiative.

To discuss with teachers their experiences, their strengths and the challenges they face.

Comments: It is imperative to take into consideration the needs of every facet of the learning community. By meeting with these individuals, the program they will use the following year will not be foreign boxed solution but a familiar, welcomed initiative.

Phase Two: Introduction to iCOACH™

Dates: Two Full Day workshops prior to the start of AY 2007-2008

Description: The initial phase of the project is to introduce Coaches to iCOACH™

Purpose:

To provide Coaches with an overview of each aspect of iCOACH™.

To introduce the Experiential Learning Cycle as the framework for working with teachers.

To uncover the fundamental aspects of reflective teaching practices and their benefits for ISTs and teachers alike.

To discover ways to create a safe, supportive collaborative environment.

To develop strategies designed to communicate the Coaches job.

To create a framework for speaking with teachers about teaching and learning.

To explore past successes and challenges.

To create personal action plans for individual growth for each Coaches.

Comments: Beginning with an overview of the initiative, iCOACH™, and grounding their work in the Experiential Learning Cycle and reflective teaching practices, participants acquire a baseline from which they will be able to recognize their own strengths, their own challenges, and create observable action plans to meet those challenges. If we are asking our teachers to adapt their approach to teaching, we must be willing to adapt our own.

Phase Three: AY Academy

Dates: Four follow up visits throughout AY 2007-2008 (dates TBA).

Description: The third phase of the project focuses on building Coaches skills and deepening their understanding of the iCOACH™ model. It involves observing the Coaches in their working environment and providing explicit modeling when appropriate and/or requested. Each Coach will be observed on an average of four times during the academic year depending on their needs and those of the institution.

Purpose:

Different aspects of the iCOACH™ initiative: Connecting, Observing, Assisting, Collecting, Helping.

Increasing participants’ understanding of the Experiential Learning Cycle and reflective teaching practices.

Specific topics based on the immediate and future needs of the Coaches.

To observe Coaches implementing the strategies and techniques in iCOACH™.

To model positive coaching practices.

To gain feedback on the successes and challenges Coaches face.

Comments: Learning is not linear but cyclical. Providing participants with continuous opportunities to deepen their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and awareness supports their growth and provides an excellent model for working with their colleagues. Providing observational and modeling support to Coaches increases their ability to create positive change within themselves, their peers, and the students they serve. It also serves as an explicit model for the principles espoused in the iCOACH™ initiative.

Phase Four: Post-AY Academy

Dates: One full day workshop at the end of AY 2007-2008.

Description: This is the wrap up stage in the iCOACH™ initiative.

Purpose:

To help Coaches reflect on their successes and challenges during the academic year.

To share experiences with fellow Coaches.

To create an individualized action plan for the next academic year.

To assess the effectiveness of the program and the support offered.

Comments: After the first year of the program, Coaches need an opportunity to stop, share, and reflect. They also need a structure for identifying the successes they’ve had, challenges they’ve faced, and an opportunity to create an action plan for the next year in this role.

Revised: 10/10/07

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School for International Training and SIT are registered trademarks of World Learning, Inc, all rights reserved.

iCOACH™

PROPOSAL

Consultant: John R. Kongsvik

TESOL Trainers

Client Contact: Steve Malmberg

The College of the Marshall Islands

April 27, 2007

Introduction: The following proposal pertains to the implementation of a Coaching model specific to the needs of the College of The Marshall Islands. In addition to the Coaching model, all support materials will be created for use by the full time teachers working in this institution. In order to provide the maximum level of support, teachers will receive on-going training and support in their implementation Best Practices using iCOACH™ {Connecting, Observing, Assisting, Collecting, and Helping}

Rationale: Providing teachers with on-going and targeted support helps teachers create positive changes in their teaching practices, helps them alter their approach to planning, teaching and assessing. Introducing and training coaches in a uniform manner of interacting with teachers helps coaches grow in their abilities to provide teachers with the best support possible in the varied situations and levels they find themselves in.

Benefits: The benefits of ICOACH™ are as follows:

Participants develop strong reflective teaching skills.
Participants show demonstrable confidence in using the Experiential Learning Cycle as a vehicle for supporting change.
Participants build knowledge of how to create a safe, supportive learning environment.
Participants develop skills in being about to communicate their strengths and challenges.
Participants learn how to interpret data objectively and use the data to promote changes in their approach to teaching and learning.
Participants expand understanding of positive teaching practices.
Participants portray demonstrable confidence in using Best Practices in the classroom.
Participants demonstrate competence in employing Best Practices in the classroom.
Participants improve in their ability to plan using Best Practices.
Participants receive key strategies in giving and receiving feedback.
Having a uniform Coaching System throughout the college facilitates training, success, and accountability.
Participants may have the option of receiving graduate credit for successful completing of iCOACH™ from the School for International Training {SIT}.

All supporting materials defining and exemplifying each facet of the Coaches responsibilities and routines.

Two day information gathering session at the end of AY 2006-2007 (Can be done in conjunction with the following phase).

Two full day workshops at the start of AY 2007-2008 to introduce iCOACH™, and its components to the participants.

Four follow up on-site trainings throughout AY 2007-2008 (dates TBA).

One full day workshop at the end of AY 2007-2008.

Optional intersession support via the online Blackboard Learning Platform.

Overview of iCOACH™