Martin's SECOND Mastermind Monthly

The first Mastermind Monthly filled up quickly. I am offering another at a DIFFERENT TIME.

Bring coaching concepts to life in your classroom and school, with the support of virtual colleagues and a Masterful Coach and Experienced Teacher, Martin Richards, the Author of this Newsletter.

INVITATION - for Teachers of all 'shapes and sizes'

We meet online starting on Monday, September 2nd for 4 weeks. The link is a direct invitation that shows the dates and local times that you can add to your calendar. Further Masterminds will follow in October and November this year.

JOIN HERE APPLICATIONS CLOSED Sept 2nd

• Discussions We share what's on our minds and give answers from our hopes more often than from our fears. We listen, a lot. We take the time to pause and reflect. We go slow, because there is depth is slowness, and we need that. Silence is powerful.
• Focus We each take one thing to focus on each week in our classrooms and schools, and are willing to share mistakes, brick walls, breakthroughs and triumphs with our group.
• Fees Not required. Your contribution is your time. At the end of the month you will be invited to donate the value you have received and can afford.
• Book Optional, can be bought here . Money goes to Martin Richards, the author.
• Topics covered in previous Newsletters and Meetings: Positive Language, Humour, Asking more than Telling, Asking Open-ended Questions, Asking for feedback, Learning from Mistakes, Learning Experiences, Agendas, Agreements, Goal-Setting, Role-Models, Working with Values and Beliefs

When Push come to Shove

How can words handle the rough and tumble that teenagers get up to in the corridors? Perhaps you can ask some Curiosity Questions? This happened in a Secondary School.

They were fighting in the corridor. And they were both bigger than I was. Sixteen years old, full of testosterone and with minimal self-control.

Fighting? Well, it was more of a pushing and shoving match. But now they had gripped each other at the shoulders like two elk, antlers locked.

That might not have been a problem if it wasn’t for the class of youngsters looking on at them, with a mixture of awe and fear in their eyes. As the only teacher in the vicinity, I had to do something, if only to protect the little’uns. I walked towards the two elk.

“Oh, and what are you doing?” I inquired as though they were idly playing marbles.

They grunted at each other and spoke to me in single words

“He. Started. It”, they both said.

I was sure I would never get to the bottom of whether it was Push or Shove that started it. And I didn’t care. All I wanted was for them to stop, and for me to avoid getting hurt in the process.

“What made you push him?”, I asked one, and immediately asked the other. “What made you shove him?”

“He said I was a …”, garbled one, and shoved.

“He called me a …”, stuttered the other, and pushed.

“Oh, and how did that make you feel?”, I asked them both.

By now they were standing almost still. Their arms were still locked around each other’s shoulders. They had stopped struggling. It had become more of a hug. It was getting embarrassing. I grabbed the advantage.

“And how often will you let him decide how you feel?” I asked them both. Neither could answer. I’m not sure I could have answered the question either.

“Aww, we’re just friends”, they both said and hugged each other. In a manly way.

“Well, go and be friends elsewhere,” I suggested. “You are scaring the little’uns.”

They galloped down the corridor and outdoors, to be friends out there I supposed.

It was at that moment I became fully aware that the little’uns were looking at me with a mixture of awe and fear in their eyes.

“Line up outside your classroom,” I ordered. They scuttled into line and stood there like tin soldiers and waited for their class teacher to arrive.