Gerhard Erasmus

73 POSTS
Gerhard Erasmus started blogging for Pavilion ELT in December 2019. He moved over to blog for the new look Modern English Teacher in January 2022 where he will continue to write about teaching and management issues, ways to teach pronunciation and other teaching/teacher training techniques. Gerhard has been involved in ELT management since 2006 as senior teacher, academic manager, and director of studies. He is currently based in Taiwan where he is Director of Studies and Course Director at a language school and teacher training centre. He is also a Trinity Certificate TESOL, TYLEC, and Trinity Diploma TESOL tutor. Alongside all of this, Gerhard is Coordinator of IATEFL LAMSIG (Leadership and Management Special Interest Group) and draws lots of his inspiration from the connections he has built with managers and leaders in ELT from across the globe. His management interests involve learning and development of managers, specifically those starting their careers as teachers, and it is also the focus of his current Educational Doctorate studies.

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Difficult situations – difficult conversations

When I started in management, I dreaded having difficult conversations with parents and students. I even couldn’t sleep the night before! Experience has made conversations like that much easier, especially if we keep reflecting and learning from them.

To manage or not to manage? Is that really a question?

In his first blog for Pavilion ELT, Gerhard Erasmus talks about how as a manager, he aims to provide his teaching team with as many opportunities and skills as they are ready for because when the next big promotion comes up, they better be ready. He says he celebrates their promotions probably more than they do themselves, even feeling like he’s succeeded when they succeed! Consequently, when he had a discussion with one of his teachers fairly recently – someone he rates quite highly as a teacher – he ended up being slightly annoyed by the fact that this person had avoided taking up opportunities to present on training days or mini-conferences they’d arranged and also declined becoming a line manager for a part-time teacher. This led to a bit of a rethink... read on to find out what happened next.

Road to management – Is there a map, please?

Following up on his first blog on why teachers might not want to manage, Gerhard Erasmus aims to help future and current managers develop their own road map to help them develop the skills and expertise needed to transition effectively into management. The post looks at skills that teachers have developed that can transfer into management, qualifications that can support the development of management skills, and how to utilise your current role as a teacher to develop the skills you will need as a manager.

Is everything OK? Individual resilience as response to admitting it is not

Over the last few months, there have been significant changes in how we teach, how viable our organisations are, and how we view ourselves as teachers. This post looks at why everything is not just OK and how to find what makes us resilient by accepting the uncomfortable challenges we are facing.

Academic vs non-academic roles in a school – Is it a 50/50 balance?

Does the staff member running the non-academic side of a school really need an ELT background? Here, Gerhard Erasmus looks at the scope of non-academic management – and how an understanding of the other areas of the school feeds forward and back into the academic team.

The sales funnel: finding and selling to the right customers

How can you ensure a consistent flow of students into your school? Do you know where they all come from and their profiles? Do your teachers? Why is this important? Gerhard sheds light on the sales funnel and its application to help anyone’s ELT operation become more successful.

Making the most of inductions

How many schools use inductions to get their new teachers settled in, and are they truly effective? In this post, Gerhard Erasmus discuss why we need inductions and suggests a revamped induction process with tips about ways you can adapt yours.

How to design your value proposition

Whatever your role in the ELT industry, understanding exactly what service you offer and how that meets your customers’ needs is vital. But how can you do this effectively? We reveal how having a value proposition can greatly enhance your ability to match what you do to what your customers want.

Can you stop fidgeting?

They fidget. They make noises. They randomly walk around. They cannot concentrate. They underachieve. And, they drive me mad! This blog post looks at how ADHD or Tourette’s might appear in the classroom and explains ways to understand rather than control the behaviour.

From teacher to writer: five tips to get started

Teachers design materials for their own classrooms and share them with colleagues and friends. For many, this creates the desire to design materials for publication or share their work more widely. This blog post looks at how to get going once you have decided to be an ELT writer.

Recently versus lately – can colligation help explain their differences?

Do you ever get into knots explaining the differences between similar words? Or perhaps you just focus on what the word means, and what words commonly appear with it? Gerhard looks at how to explain the subtler meanings of words via colligation and how to use it in your classes.

Affordances – Learning about management through management

What do we mean by affordances? How can we use them to help us become more better managers or leaders? As we explore how affordances can provide learning opportunities for learning about management and leadership you will discover the answers to these questions and much more besides.

Trust as a two-way street

Trust between teacher and students; teacher and manager; leader and team (and even in the team) is the glue the holds organisations and relationships together… and is a key characteristic of leadership. So, how can you build trust? And, can there ever be too much trust?
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