This is a question that faces many classroom teachers. Is the “slower” student who just can’t seem to acquire English suffering from a learning disability (LD)? Or is this student just going at their own pace or in need of more English input and maybe differentiated instruction? How to know, how to decide?
Dinklage [...]
I recently attended Kotesol’s National Conference. It was themed upon “Reflection and Prof. Development”.
I had a great time (thanks to all who attended my own following day workshops!) and sat in on some excellent lectures/presentations. But the highlight was the opening plenary by Dr. Thomas Farrell. I was taken with his very practical focus and [...]
As a post-methodist (and not of the religious kind!!) I’m really big on getting students producing language and talking. CO2 is what I call it. Comprehensible Output for 2 people (communication). We all need to give our students more CO2 – forget the oxygen!
In that vein, I’ve promoted extensively both Voicethread and Voxopop. Two [...]
Yesterday, during a teacher training workshop, I was reminded of a theory I had about “great teachers”. Long ago over many beers, in a pub in the Czech Republic, I outlined the idea that a great teacher was a “heretic”, a kind of rebel with a cause. Great teachers broke all the rules because they [...]
I usually stay on topic but more and more lately, I’m becoming a bit of a preacher in my workshops and lectures. It happened today and so I thought I’d share a bit about my philosophy of education and what I think is paramount for all teachers – English as a second or foreign language [...]
This post is meant to compliment the following post – The Evolution of EFL Classroom 2.0.
I seldom comment about this “little engine that could” and how surprised I am at how just a little passion can go a long way….. There is a lot more going on here than meets the surface and I’d like [...]
It isn’t easy to get students speaking sometimes. But it is well worth it! It is truly the road towards a fluent, confident speaker of English.
I remember when first confronted with a “silent” class. They were really passive and not willing to speak. After lots of trial and error I finally came into class gagged! [...]
As you probably know – I have really tried to share Peace online through Project Peace. I’ve also collected lots of great videos for supporting, teaching peace with our students. So important.
Today, I watched again, an amazing video about a simple man, Derek Houston, who made a difference. Interesting voice too – a Newfoundlander in [...]
