Борзых|Unstoppable CPD~Неудержимое Развитие Учителя

Scam update:

The bank has returned my money.

Still, here’s the screenshot from the initial chat with the scammers. Note that they were impersonating the user!

You know who called me the next day after the money was returned? «Росфинмониторинг». They had info about the card number I blocked with the bank.

The call was very short; I hung up right away.


Also: I have received a lot of support from people, which helped me minimize guilt-tripping. Even if you know and are prudent, you might make a mistake.

Be careful. 🙏

I got scammed this week. And I'm sharing it because I don't want it to happen to you.

I bought a course — a good one, no complaints about the course itself. The scam happened after the purchase.

I was tired when I paid and entered the wrong email address. So no confirmation email came. I asked in the course chat why I didn't have access yet. The creator replied quickly — check spam, check promo. Fine.

But then someone impersonating her DMed me.

🚩 Red flag #1: They sent me my own profile picture. Only bots do that.
🚩 Red flag #2: They asked for my payment receipt. I sent it — because I thought it was legit.
🚩 Red flag #3: They said my transaction "didn't specify the purpose," so I needed to request a refund myself and pay again. Who does that?!
🚩 Red flag #4: The link wasn't a bank link. I clicked it anyway.

Within minutes, three transactions went through — around 7,000 rubles total, all flagged as purchases in Vietnam. The bank blocked two more. Then someone called me pretending to be the bank, saying transactions of 200,000 and 500,000 rubles were being processed.

I had a full panic attack. I was shaking. I couldn't trust my own phone.

In the end: 3 transactions went through, we reported it to the police, and the bank says it'll take up to 2 weeks to maybe refund me.

What I learned the hard way:
🔒 Never click links — even if they seem to come from someone you trust. Verify through the official app.
🔒 Don't buy anything when you're tired or distracted.
🔒 No legitimate seller will ever ask you to "request a refund and pay again."
🔒 Your gut noticing something is weird = stop. Immediately.

Be careful with your money. Be vigilant. And yes — do professional development. Just not when you're exhausted.

Stay safe out there. 💙

Do you guys ever suffer from silent teens?

Trendy team know what to do!

~~~
Хочу поделиться событием, которое особенно актуально в начале учебного года, когда группы только входят в рабочий ритм, а speaking у подростков часто снова начинается с I don’t know, I’m fine, Yes и No.

4 октября Тренди Инглиш проводит бесплатный вебинар «Как разговорить подростков на уроке» для преподавателей.

На встрече Елена Пересада разберет, что в заданиях мешает ученикам развивать ответ, и покажут 7 практик для разминки, диалогов, вопросов, групповых обсуждений, AI и разговорных игр.

Важно, что это не просто подборка активностей: они покажут, как адаптировать приемы под уровень, формат занятия и конкретную группу. Несколько практик можно будет попробовать прямо во время вебинара.

После регистрации придёт в подарок PDF «3 speaking-активности без подготовки для уроков с подростками»

https://clck.ru/3W4iPK

Don’t miss your chance!

There is austere beauty in the emptiness of autumn.

A wistful silence that feels like the world is holding its breath.

Russet leaves fall, petrichor lingers after the rain, and bleak skies settle over fallow fields.

Soon, everything will be bare, quiet, and waiting: autumn’s melancholy at its most exquisite.



~~~

For my fellow teachers looking for a seasonal language upgrade: here are some C2 words and phrases to help students name what this season does to the world and to us.

Honestly, though, I’m feeling quite blue with seasonal depression right now. Does autumn bring you that sadness too? 🍂

Feeling tired, isolated, or unsure you can keep going?

You're not alone—and it's not about "fixing yourself."


RECONNECT • REALIGN • PROTECT is a free 6-session series (3 webinars + 3 interactive workshops) for English language educators across Russia.


Together we'll explore: 🔹 What fuels your motivation 🔹 What guides your professional identity 🔹 What you need to sustain yourself


You'll leave with your own Professional Well-Being Toolkit—and real connections with colleagues who get it.


Instead of asking "How can I change everything?" we'll ask:

What is still possible from where I am?

Join remarkable Donita and us by signing up here in comments or in my dm @IELTS_tutor_nb

This series begins with an important understanding: not every professional challenge can be solved through individual effort, positive thinking, or self-care.

Difficult circumstances are real, and some may be beyond an individual educator's ability to change.

Rather than asking, “How can I change everything?” we will return throughout the series to a more useful question:

What is still possible from where I am?

That question guides participants through three connected stages of professional well-being:

📍RECONNECT: What fuels me?
The goal is not simply to remember why we became educators, but to recognize what continues to make the work meaningful now.

📍REALIGN: What guides me?
Participants then turn to professional identity, values, priorities, self-efficacy, and the self-doubt that can arise when the educator we want to be does not fully align with the realities of our teaching context.

📍PROTECT: What do I need to sustain me?
Finally, participants will examine the finite professional resources they bring to their work—time, energy, attention, and emotional capacity.

The goal is not to leave participants with six sessions of information.

It is to help them leave with greater understanding of themselves as professionals, renewed confidence in what they bring to their work, stronger connections with colleagues, and practical strategies they can continue to use.


This is a free course.

Sign up in DM - or text here in comments - JOIN!

We're starting this Thursday, at 14:00


Webinars are recorded - so if you miss one, you can watch it later

The are workshops, too - and there are three options to attend the workshops:
• Thursday 8 pm
• Thursday 4 pm
• Friday 1 pm

There is one webinar and one workshop per month

Certificates are available upon completion the course.

Feel free to contact me to sign up for the course. We do welcome everyone!

I don’t want English teachers to feel lonely 💚

We spend so much time connecting with our students, but we often end up alone with our own questions, doubts, and fatigue.

Sometimes you just want to message a colleague:

What would you do in this situation?

Any material recommendations?

Who else is sick of checking homework late into the night?

Or simply share a cool phrase you caught in a film/podcast.


That’s why Alexandra Dunaeva and I are creating a Telegram community for English teachers 🎉


Inside, you’ll be able to: ✨ practise live English every week with Curtis, a native speaker, and stop worrying that your own level is slipping because you work with children or lower-level students
✨ explore up-to-date vocabulary, idioms and pronunciation
✨ discuss real-life teaching situations
✨ get materials and resources we’ve developed, including ones from Delta
✨ master AI tools for your work
✨ share experiences, get inspired and, sometimes, just have a good moan.
Cause do need it from time to time!)

We welcome teachers of any experience level. The main thing is a desire to grow and develop.🌟


The membership fee is currently 1,500 ₽ a month.

If you feel you’ve been missing exactly this kind of professional circle, send me a private message or drop a ➕ in the comments. I’ll share all the details 🤗

No filters.

Happy birthday to me! 🥳🎈🎂

Happy to be celebrating it in Tbilisi.

Death by lesson planning.

So familiar. I used to spend from 4 to 6 hours on a single lesson prep.

And they sucked.

Then, I really learned about lesson outcomes - and lesson steps.

Not the buzzwords. The realzies.


Since I’m a slow learner, it didn’t happen overnight. I tired, stumbled, made mistakes, but I kept going.

How to spend less time on preparing games and have more engagement in the class?

My rule of thumb when it comes to lesson planning:

1️⃣see the big picture first (why are they learning English? What’s their point B? And C?)

2️⃣See the nearest milestone (on the roadmap from A to 😎

3️⃣ What language subskills need most work right now?

4️⃣What content can I employ to teach those skills?


Now, the fun part.
Don’t reinvent the wheel - check for that content, perhaps it’s already out there - and you can adapt it to your learners.

I mean, don’t spend hours writing games/activities - just google for them. And use current textbooks. Alternatevely, adapt your textbook with AI.

I constantly learn about current methodology to stay on top of my game - and this really helps to minimize lesson planning - because I know where the student is going.

I understand what is happening in their head.

And from my reading I know whether it’s okay or we need to change tack.

Stop preaching and give me the tools!

Sure. I’ll be happy to share my books, ideas and online resources here in comments:

Provide your context: age, level, aims + type of English (general, business, exam, ESP, etc)

If you have a specific question, reach out to me personally @ielts_tutor_nb


Let’s free up valuable teacher time! ♥️

inspired by @infoasis

Small no more.

I've been working a lot to get my numbers: conferences, certificates, books, trips, contacts. But honestly? Those ain't everything)

After achieving my Delta, I faced a wave of burnout so powerful it made me feel as if earning it was insignificant.

Insignificant.

Ever been there? Collected all the shiny things, built the network, stacked the credentials… and still felt hollow?

And I realised that from that point, regardless of what I do, I would be small.

Because I was small.

How did I know? Apathy after a win. Exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix. Desire to climb the next mountain... Sound familiar?

I had neglected my body, my emotions, and most importantly, myself.

And only after I learned to actually notice myself, have I seen a shift.

Since 2020, working with teachers has shown me a common struggle: self-neglect, overwork, and burnout.

So what do I actually do now?

🔺I check in with my body before I check my messages.

🔺I set boundaries even when they feel uncomfortable.

🔺I remind myself daily: my worth is not my output. Not my conferences, not my certificates, not the books I read, not my contacts.

Recovery isn't a luxury. It's the only way I keep going without breaking.

But the real question is when was the last time you actually noticed you?

Like, really stopped, looked in the mirror, and asked how you're doing?

It took me hitting empty to finally get that. 💔

And I know that shift is absolutely possible. Because I lived it.

Only you can make a difference in your life.

Small no more. That's the line I keep coming back to.

What's yours?

Inspired by @infOasis

We sold a course live on stage.

Right after, we broke down exactly why you wanted to buy it.

This weekend, Ekaterina Safonova and I gave a talk about CPD. Why we do it. And what we pay for it. ⚡

We kicked off with a Delta-style test. Four questions. I didn't tell anyone, but I'd completely made up two of them, mashed some terminology together, and framed it all as
Let's check your professionalism.


These kind of tests bring in the impostor.

Then we brought in a third speaker, the wonderful Alexandra Kondratyeva. We imitated a live call, selling a course.
In her script, we had coded in 19 different marketing tactics, and three most prominet were scarcity, low financial barrier, framing.

After the call, Katerina and I unpacked it.

Why did you buy it?

Because the course promised me help raise my prices. That was the hook.

So I asked:
Is your current education not enough?
Do you really need another certificate just to set a higher rate?
Do you have to suffer more, pay more, burn out more—just to charge what you're worth, today?

We really have to think about this.

Obviously, I'm all for professional teachers. Professionalism matters.

But the industry is so good at sniffing out our impostor syndrome. And it sells us course after course that we don't actually need. We burn out studying, on top of burning out in the classroom by working too hard.


We also shared some research we did: teachers' qualifications, experience, and their prices. The uncomfortable truth is there's almost zero link between how qualified you are and what you charge. It's really sad. Honestly, very sad.

❗️One thing stood out: students, especially adults, are often ready to pay more. We just aren't asking. We're scared to.

I think that has to change.

If you'd like the slides, just say the word and I'll send them over.

Thanks for reading. 💛