Our Suzie In the News

From the Portsmouth Evening News
To see original click here

Our lovely Suzie Coates has left for a huge adventure - the Portsmouth Evening News tells the story better than we could so here is the story as reported in last weeks Portsmouth Evening News:

Caring Suzie’s happy to give up time for others

Suzie Coates at a fundraising gig in December.

 

Published on Friday 25 January 2013 12:55

Inspirational Suzie Coates gets great enjoyment out of helping others.

Now the 38-year-old will use her skills as a teacher trainer to help people give a better education to children living in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Suzie, of Southsea, has given up her job at Language Specialists International, based in Lord Montgomery Way, Southsea, so she can spend a year in Ethiopia.
She will embark on the once-in-a-lifetime trip, which has been arranged through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), at the beginning of February.
The organisation gives people the chance to work abroad and help those who are less fortunate.
Suzie will spend time with teachers at a training college in Gigel Beles, a village in the north west of the African country.
She will share her ideas about how to get the best out of students and she hopes to learn new things from them too.
As part of the project Suzie has to raise a minimum of £1,500 for VSO.
Suzie has raised part of the cash through a concert at The Registry, in St Michael’s Road, Southsea, which saw performances from The Uncountables, a band made up of her former employees.
Suzie also had a go on some DJ decks.
A bake-off at her old workplace before Christmas also raised £250.
‘I am sure this trip will make me appreciate everything that I have more,’ Suzie explains.
‘I’m feeling nervous about how different the culture will be and the sense of isolation.’
‘The experience will be tough going because Gigel Beles is five hours away from the nearest town and a day away from the capital.
‘The thing that will pull me through is knowing that I am going to make a difference to people’s lives,’ Suzie says.
‘I get a great sense of enjoyment out of doing that.
‘I’ll also keep in touch with my friends over the internet while I’m there.
‘They’ve been extremely supportive about what I am going to do.’
Suzie spent four years at Language Specialists International and prior to that she taught adults abroad in countries such as Egypt, Australia and Hungary.
‘I was in teaching and and teacher training for a long time.
‘I got to a point where I decided I wanted to help people who really needed it,’ she says.
Suzie adds: ‘I just enjoy that line of work.
‘It’s very rewarding and I feel like I’m taking the next logical step.’

Suzie Coates - going up in the world

A hugely deserved promotion was announced last month to Suzie Coates – our new Senior Teacher Trainer for GE.

Suzie is really popular with staff and teachers alike and we were all delighted for her getting the recognition she deserves.  In her new role she will be giving more workshops to the staff and along with ADOS Lewis will be in charge of teacher development and mentoring for the General English teachers.

For the last 10 years, Suzie has been teaching and has been in countries as diverse as Hungary, Australia, Egypt and the UK. She says “Meeting people and learning about other cultures is the best thing about being a TEFL teacher.

“My most memorable experience in teaching? That would probably be celebrating New Year in Australia with Japanese and Swiss students back in 2004 and then getting chucked in the pool!”

We asked Suzie what advice she would give to anyone thinking of going into teaching: “I would say find a school with a really good training programme if you can and then work really hard for the first couple of years.  After that it all falls into place.”

How does she see her future? “I’d like to continue all the things I love doing: skiing, diving, travelling and being outside.  Career-wise I have a DELTA but I think I would like at some point to do a Masters in some aspect of EFL, maybe looking at the psychological side of learning”

The scoop! Before she became a teacher, Suzie was a professional violinist.  And her claim to fame? “I appeared playing the violin in an Oscar winning film – ‘Shine’ but… if you blink you’ll miss me!”

LSI Hosts the First IELTS Conference in the UK

 May the 19^th and LSI holds the first ever IELTS conference in the UK.

LSI has a fantastic reputation for their IELTS courses, and, with a published IELTS course book author as head of the team, the classes are constantly full.

In May LSI hosted the ‘IELTS Conference – Ideas and approaches for teaching IELTS’, led by three of our very own teachers and a guest speaker and attended by over 50 different visitors from ten institutions.

All the speakers generously offered advice and tips on how to make the potentially dull exam classes lively and interactive, each drawing on their many years of experience.

‘We were very proud to be able to showcase our school and what we have to offer.  It was great to meet everyone and as teachers we really enjoyed being able to share what we have and also to hear from others’ says Lewis Richards.  Teacher, teacher trainer and co author of ‘IELTS Advantage: Writing Skills’, Lewis outlined practical ideas and approaches for teaching IELTS writing, addressing the difficulties of how to make IELTS writing more interactive and student centred.

Senior teacher trainer Suzie Coates looked at how to help lower level IELTS students improve their speaking for the exam.

One of our most popular IELTS teachers Fiona Lewis focussed on methods of training students to improve their listening skills, giving practical tips and advice.

We were delighted to have multi-published author of IELTS and Medical English course books Sam McCarter as a guest speaker.  Sam looked at the difficult subject of reading and how to make this more interesting and dynamic, which would surely be welcomed by teachers and students alike. ‘Sam was just so generous with his time and knowledge and everyone really appreciated the time and effort he put in to come here and share his ideas’ explained Lewis.

The day was rounded off by an informal and interactive session where everyone was able to share ideas and talk about the problems they face in teaching IELTS.

As Lewis says "What made it really special was the way everyone joined in and shared ideas, we couldn't have hoped for a better day".