CALL Text Book

I can't wait sharing this message with you, dear friends and collegues. It was posted by Dave to the Webheads list in response to Hala's querry.
Read it and give thought about progress, problems, changes and roles...

"When I look at what I offer to the CALL students , I find myself doing more than they expected. I never take it as a "job" with a salary. I teach CALL with,what can I say in English? Passion? Yes, you can call it that! Any further suggestions, pleeease?"

Many people, especially in the Webhead group, have the problem that you've run into. It's not a problem of finding a book. It's a problem of who you are and the role you're playing.

1. Teachers teach
2. Good teachers teach with books
3. Great teachers write books
4. Enlightened teachers see beyond books
5. Visionaries change the world

Many teachers don't notice how their role has progressed and then they don't understand some of the problems that they run into or what they should have done about them. I say "should have done" because, as you will learn later, you missed something.
Visionaries don't just know their subject, like "CALL", but understand revolution. They understand the dynamics of change, change management, bureaucracy, resistance, fear, leader accountability, inertia, the safety of adhering to the status quo.
Your role is not to just come up with a good idea. Your role is to engineer a change of thinking. A revolution.
You have to take into account the thinking of your boss and his boss. When he is challenged, how will he justify allowing this to his boss?
You have to consider colleagues. Will this in some manner make them feel threatened? If even it is just you doing it, will they think it is too odd and criticize you to superiors? We should never fear criticism, but sometimes criticism is a sign that we haven't done enough to promote a new idea and enough criticism can kill even the greatest idea.
You even have to consider students. Is it such a different way of thinking that students will not have confidence in it? Students are very often  conflicted. They may hate boring old text books but at the same time feel safer using them and afraid of something that is very different.
So you have to engineer change. You have to regularly point out the problems with the old traditional way. You have to constantly mention new research pointing to the new way. You have to highlight news about the advantages of the latest trends.
Bring it up when you drink coffee together. Send an Email with the link to an article. Share with colleagues the latest news. Win allies.
You have to do this every month, every week, maybe every day. Subverting people's confidence in the old cumbersome ineffective traditional ways and showing them a better way.
Your problem is not just finding some other schools that don't use a CALL book. That is just the beginning of the kind of problems a person like you is going to face.
Such is the life of a visionary. Such is the life of a world changer.

Dave

Then, there comes an inspiring message:

Hi Dave,
Thanks alot for ur very inspiring and motivating words !! I have challenged many things to become a teacher, and when I became a teacher, I had to challenge many dogmatic beliefs to enjoy teaching and let my students have an unforgettable and enjoyable learning experience as well !!
I have always suffered from criticism as a result of trying to make a change. I had many people around trying to discourage me and sometimes make fun of any effort I do to make a change as they believe a traditional way of teaching is avaialble and so easy !!!But before losing hope, I joined "becoming a webhead" course and this wonderful group of webheads !!! Since then,I have had a great power of going on with great self-confidence and deep belief that I have to keep doing the best for my students . But what's really important as u pointed out in ur words 'To engineer a change of thinking', we have to work hard for it.
It's also important to look at criticism as u said as 'a sign to show we haven't done enough to promote a new idea'which can help us work harder before it turns out to kill our ideas, even if they are great ones !! So thanks to u, I'll struggle more in my school instead of trying to find a better one !!!
Webhead