All text is © Martin Richards, Sweden 2022 unless otherwise stated. (2)
Martin Richards was trained at an experiential PCGE, Post Graduate Certificate of Education, teacher training course at Sussex University, UK, to be a Mathematics Teacher. He taught at a Secondary School in the UK and a Primary School in Sweden before he became an independent English trainer in Sweden. He was trained by CTI, the Coaches Training Institute, to be a Co-Active coach, gained the CPPC, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach certification and the ACC, Associate Certified Coach, credential. For a time, he was a teacher at an International School where he combined teaching with coaching. As part of his volunteer work, Martin has delivered inspirational talks to teenagers called ‘Choices to be proud of”. During the final phase of his coaching career, he coached educators in Sweden on behalf of the Swedish education authority. After he retired, Martin re-wrote and re-published, 'The Coach in the Classroom' and 'Coaching Conversations' under new titles. (3)
This book explores the many ways a coaching approach can be applied in schools and colleges, with the intention that when people read about the beneficial effects of coaching – as seen through the eyes of the heads, teachers and students represented in the stories – they will wish to learn more about coaching skills and use them in their classrooms. How will this will happen? School leaders learn about coaching when they attend leadership training, or get a coach for their personal development. School leaders readily understand that all their staff will benefit from being coached. In some schools, teachers are coached by an external coach, others by someone in their leadership team, their head of department, or their colleagues. In some schools, teachers coach their students, in class and in scheduled weekly coaching sessions. School leaders and teachers are natural-born coaches. After a few hours coach training, they discover that they have been coaching in almost every lesson when they (4)
as a whole people. In this book, you can read about Rick – an experienced teacher and certified coach – who has become an informal mentor to two students, Anthony and Rick whom he met whilst coaching in their schools. Anthony is learning to become a teacher. Khaled wants to change the world. Seated by an open fire on a mountainside at the wintery end of the year, Rick tells stories from his work giving inspirational talks to teenagers and from coaching teachers. (5)
Rick Midwinter - the Educator who returned Rick was born in Kent, the Garden of England, the son of a carpenter and a housewife. At 5 years old, he was sent to school. It happened in the autumn of 1961. Rick was shocked and scared all day. All week in fact. Until he had been sent to Primary School, he had been happy at home playing trains and riding his rocking horse. At school there were coloured blocks and rods; there were questions, and answers that he often got wrong because he was too busy playing. He loved art and could mix colours on paper for hours, but someone would interrupt and tell him he was “Done” and it was “Time”. He was not off to a very good start at school, and things did not improve much. Teachers repeatedly nagged him for not paying attention in class or for coming to school wearing long trousers instead of the humiliating school uniform shorts he was supposed to wear. His classmates mocked him for having sticky out ears, and the head (6)
a girl’s face. Rick remembers that day, standing in the head teacher’s office, holding out his hands to receive a swish from the cane. Rick held fast to his story of accidentally kicking the ball, and was tearful and genuinely sorry for the girl’s discomfort. “Do what you have to do,” he told the head teacher. She paused, holding the cane in the air, and reconsidered her verdict. She had based her decision on the stories a member of staff and a crying girl had told her. She didn’t know this boy at all. Could this scrawny boy deserve the cane? She decided no. Primary School ended and Secondary School began, like the second act of an awful play; with a change of location and new characters playing the old roles. Rick was nagged by the teachers, this time for talking. This boy could talk! And he knew when to drop a line that would make the whole class laugh out loud. That was how he coped with his classmates mocking him for having sticky out ears. He had learned to make them laugh so they will leave you alone, most of them anyway. At least he was allowed to (7)
this school. Rick did not trust his teachers, and least of all the headteachers. At the Primary School, the teachers had all been women, but at Secondary School they were mostly men. He learned the game they wanted him to play - pay attention in class, focus on your own work, and hand your essays in on time - those were the rules of the game, enforced by stiff stares and the occasional raised voice, or a point of the finger. There was also the cane, but Rick never saw it being used. He played the Secondary school game well in English lessons, writing his heart out for the English teacher. On Friday afternoons, the teacher would read a chapter from “The Lord of the Flies” to the class, with all the voices like a BBC radio play. Every time there was an essay to write, he would issue Rick with a new exercise book, saying, “You’ll probably need this.” Rick grinned as he accepted the unspoken challenge of pouring out his stories into another book. This was where his love of English was born. There was another game he was really good at. Mathematics! This was a subject where everything added up, literally. It all made sense. (8)
algebra, and Science was experiments. Rick loved experiments. Rick’s Science teacher had a way of squeezing the science out of every incident and experiment, even ones that involved illicitly stretching garden worms. Rick recalls his spontaneous adaptation of the Young’s Modulus experiment where the thin copper wire that was to be stretched to breaking point, was swapped out for an unsuspecting garden worm. The worm was already dead. Rick wasn’t a monster, just a curious teenager. A very curious one. The Science teacher had come into the room and caught him with the worm in mid-stretch. After a few seconds of eye-rolling and a deep breath to compose herself, she gently asked, “Which weights did you start with”, “How will you measure the ongoing extension of the worm?” and “How will you record and analyse the results?” This was where his love of Science was born. Rick loved too the way his Maths teacher managed to encourage him to excel. No boring repetitive calculations for Rick and friends. His Maths teacher put him to work solving problems. There was no ‘keep your eyes on your (9)
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