The aims of educational coaching
To enable You to strive by gaining insights into your unique self and removing mental and emotional barriers from the way towards Your success.
Sounds heavy and serious, ha? What it means is that you can get support in finding out who you are; what you really stand for and what it is that you are good at. You will also be supported in learning how to make your dreams come true. Well, all in short, anyway.
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Educational Coaching Programs can take different formats. Below you can find information and pictures of the various programs we have run under the umbrella of Educational Coaching at various institutions.
Find out more about the various Edu-coaching programs at the links below:
Educational Coaching Training Program
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Kidz Dream Factory Program (a description)
Our purpose as educators
The quality of the work we deliver as teachers depends mostly on the relationship we can create with our pupils. We cannot reach them without touching their souls. No matter how badly they may behave if we can see the beautiful uniqueness about them we can support them to grow, change and blossom into that specialness of who they truly are. Education and educators main aim is to enable and encourage growth, – emotional and personal development, increase in mental capacities and development to maturity – the emergence of a healthy personality.
For being able to see our pupils for who they are (or can be), though, we must find the way to support their opening and showing us their depth.
General information on Dream Factory Project
In 2008 Ildiko Kudlik and Emil Minev created the Dream-Factory Children Project for children with the intention of giving children and young people the opportunity to learn how to be independent, spirited, encouraged people who know how to lead their lives with confidence and success. Our program is full of playfulness and practical exercises.
We intend to enhance the importance of gaining valuable information on our special talents and uniqueness, living who we truly are, expressing out specialness in the world and becoming members of the international community of the EU.
Our experience makes us confident that as the result of their participation on this program participants will be more confident in their dealings in life, will have better results in their studies, will get clearer in what they want to achieve and how to do that.
Techniques and methods used naming just a few: non violent communication for children developed by Jonai Eva Hava; Stephen Covey – 7 habits of highly effective teens; neuro-linquistic programming; enneagramm; humanistic psychology; art therapy techniques; different coaching techniques; etc.
We intend to support the children to learn about positive thinking and its advantages; to become motivated and creative in different areas of our lives; to achieve success by persisting and focusing; to recognize and let go of what does not work and adopt what does; to enjoy life by participating and contributing. We emphasize the importance of creative living based on personal goals and recognizing unique talents. We also aim to support the children to find creative ways to constantly learn about and develop themselves so they can contribute to the emergence of a new more conscious generation.
Dream Factory Project contains two types of sessions; weekly meetings and weekend workshops held at school or community premises.
3-Weekend project
The program
First weekend.
1) Day of Goal setting on the basis of positive self-assessment
- Who are you anyway?
- Dream big! Take risks!
- Discover your treasures and live your dreams!!
- You are not alone! – your support system!
- Dare to make mistakes! Learn from them!
- Be – Do – Have
Second weekend.
2) Day of EU and Communication:
- What value does it have for you? (personal value system)
- How do you see this? (Different prospective)
- Boundaries
- Can you hear me? (communication techniques)
- How are we similar? (the world, EU countries, languages, cultures)
- Giving and receiving
- How are you seen? (different forms of feedback)
- How do you judge others?
Third weekend
3) Day of Creativity and Creation:
- Give what you want to receive!
- Choose from the catalogue of the Universe! (visualization techniques)
- Treasure mapping (your vision for the future)
- Trust Yourself!
- Gratefulness! (a Message of Loving to the Universe)
- What are you taking with you from here? (next steps)
The program of the Weekly Project built upon the spirit of the 3-weekend program but tailored specifically to the needs of the pupils of one class, broken down into weekly sessions.
Dream Factory Pilot Projects in Hungary
Weekly School project at Diadal Street Elementary School
Between 2008-2011 the Bridge-Hid Charitable Organization ran two pilot projects aiming to measure the effectiveness of developing emotional literacy and self-awareness in the classroom of 10-12 year olds.
The school pilot project contained 6 sessions of 1,5 hours on a weekly basis. These sessions became part of the class’s ‘curriculum’ for approximately two months and was added to their time table. Class supervisor teacher took part in the group sessions in the capacity of participant and observer as well in order to gain deeper understanding of the process.
Besides running weekly session for the pupils we intended to train the class’s supervisor teacher to be able to run such sessions herself without trainer supervision in the future.
Sessions were carried out in workshop style. During each session pupils were asked to sit in a circle, teachers and trainers included. After an introductory warm up session and setting goals for the session we executed different exercises. The exercises were collected around a specific topic we wished to discuss and experiment with during the day such as creativity; support systems, giving and receiving; discovering special talents, etc.
Techniques and methods used are listed above.
Results
During and after six sessions we gained greater understanding of the needs of the pupils towards better achievement. Some pupils especially boys found healthy ways of expressing their frustration and communicating their needs for attention and being listened to. Some of the issues they need to face at home got surfaced as well as peer pressure issues. By being aware of cases and issues like this the teacher felt competent to support all involved more effectively. Pupils had opportunities to discuss, handle and let go of some of their deep seated issues that overwhelmed them just because they did not know how to approach them. From feedback we learnt that pupils had fun and felt appreciated and cared for by participating in the sessions. Also they expressed that these sessions provided them with an opportunity to learn interesting facts about themselves and felt these had a positive impact on how they felt about themselves. Teachers expressed their surprise at how much information they gained about their class and class dynamic. They also felt closer to their pupils and more capable of supporting them with their academic issues as well as their personal ones. The teacher felt more equipped to encourage individual pupils to achieve by understanding their pupils more on different levels. These sessions gave a great opportunity for all for expressing positive regard towards one another and positive feedback on each others’ uniqueness that supported class cohesion immensely.
Monthly meetings at The Bicske Orphanage, in Bicske, Hungary
Trainers of Bridge-Hid Charitable Organization tailored the 3-weekend Dream Factory project for the special needs of the orphanage located in the outskirts of Budapest, Hungary. The leaders of the institute asked us to hold regular meetings for different groups of children from a variety of age groups using the topics of the 3-weekend program and beyond. The program was held with the support of the employees of the institution on its premises but not in a school setting. Therefore meetings with children were loosely organized and attendance of children was secured entirely by our team.
Our team ran different day projects instead of set weekend programs, over the course of two years with great success. Children and young people’s attendance was over 80% compared to other school or institution organized program where regular attendance was below 50%. We used art, creativity, movement and music to approach the kids often with deep seated issues. Our main work lied in creating rapport and a trust based relationship with them. On such foundation we could run different workshops and day-programs under the umbrella of Dream Factory Project. We called these programs Dzsuker Talent Mentoring Program partly because most of the kids were from some ethnic background especially gypsies and the word ‘dzsuker’ means super, cool, special in Roma language.
Results
In general our team worked with 10-25 kids aged 5-19. Most of the kids were underachievers with severe emotional and mental challenges. Two of the smaller children who had severe learning disabilities and communication problems started to communicate using drawings, music and movement. Their speaking abilities improved greatly as well. Amongst the teenagers there were 5 who joined international programs, learnt English well enough to take part in them and travelled to different European countries to meet others of the program communities. One of the kids entered into higher education studying music and dance for a Bachelor Degree. Having the platform to share and talk about peer and relationship issues there were no unwanted pregnancy problems amongst the youngsters in the program. After having clarified their goals, most of the kids stayed within some educational settings studying for their A-levels or entered vocational training.
