Achieve your aspirations and avoid burnout at the ELT Conference
9 December 2019


George Pickering Rachael Roberts plenaries

Achieve your aspirations and avoid burnout at the ELT Conference

Sometimes the gap between our plans and achievements can feel expansive. Projects can slip between our fingers leaving us feeling directionless and dissatisfied, or we fight so hard to make it work that we burn out completely.

Our first two plenary speakers at the ELT Conference next month will explore the latest research and personal experience to help you create a clear vision, bring the best out in your team and maintain good mental health for both professional success and life satisfaction. Especially with rapidly changing ELT markets and courses, plus global challenges uncertainty.

George Pickering will open the conference with an upbeat and energising session 'setting yourself up for success: 2020 vision and working practices' covering tips advice and ideas for getting things done. 

Then, after a day full of sessions for academic managers, directors of studies, curriculum managers and anyone manging teams or involved in course development, the first day of the ELT conference will end on a personal note.

Materials writer, author and wellbeing expert Rachael Roberts will share her personal experiences in the closing plenary to help you recognise and avoid burnout. Both in yourself and in your team.

We are pleased to have the Friday bookended by two experienced ELT professionals. Both George and Rachael have years of experience so will be able to deliver fantastic ideas from a position of understanding and empathising with the pressures and stresses of the delegates' roles.

English UK members benefit from discounted member rates and a special members-only limited edition early bird for the first 50 tickets sold for each day.

George Pickering

Setting yourself up for success: 2020 vision and working practices with George Pickering

Why is there sometimes such a big gap between what we plan to do and what we actually achieve? This talk will explore the most important factors in helping us turn our professional aspirations and those of our colleagues into reality. We will discuss how we can:

  • create a shared vision that motivates ourselves and staff
  • remain focused on our most important tasks
  • make technology work for us and not against us
  • set up the workplace for human beings not robots
  • follow up on what we and others learn in order to change our working habits.

This talk is based on the latest research into how we can bring out the best in ourselves and others at work and enjoy the process. You will leave the room with a clear set of options for making improvements in the way you and others work individually and collectively.

George is an educational coach, consultant and trainer who has worked in over 65 countries. He is the academic director of the English UK DELTM (Diploma in English Language Teaching Management) and a trainer on the IDLTM (International Diploma in Language Teaching Management). George is a British Council inspector (Accreditation UK) and is a trustee of IATEFL. He is an executive coach and has worked in ELT in both the private and state sectors.


Rachael Roberts 130x170

Recognising, avoiding and dealing with burnout: in yourself and in your team with Rachael Roberts

I have burned out badly not once, but twice in my career as an ELT teacher, manager, trainer and writer. The second time finally prompted me to start approaching life differently, and to train as a counsellor and, more recently, to start working as a life coach for teachers and other educational professionals.

In this session I will help you recognise the signs of impending burnout – in yourself and in your team - and go through a series of ways to deal with stress effectively and avoid finally burning out - looking at both practical actions you can take for yourself and your team, and at how to shift your mindset and eventually perhaps even the culture of your workplace.

Since 1989, Rachael Roberts has worked in Portugal, Brazil, Poland and the UK as a teacher, manager, teacher trainer and materials writer. She is also a qualified life coach, specialising in working with teachers and educational professionals. In her free time she enjoys language learning, meditation and mindfulness, and walking her small fluffy dog, Teddy.

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