Monday, September 28, 2009
Jobs are important, they are the door to $$$$ and it is important even if you have a secure job, to keep intouch with what is happening in the ELT (English Language Teaching) job market. I’ve been a student of this biz for awhile and will be coming out with a new site that is [...]
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
“Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.” — Jules Renard
“ideas to get your student’s pencils moving”
Writing is and isn’t an easy thing to do in the classroom. Especially nowadays when students don’t have long attention spans and are more and more “digital” and visual learners.
However, it is a vital skill that opens up [...]
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Teaching writing isn’t easy but despite being a “high order skill” it is an invaluable thing for any student who will work in an all English environment. Or for any second language speaker who’ll communicate online (or by snail mail – people still do that, you know!).
Fortunately there are many online sites to help teachers [...]
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Today I spent a little time helping out another teacher with resources for teaching about the planets. I thought I’d take a moment and just share here too…. This is fascinating stuff for kids of all ages and if you can get them doing any of the following, you’ll be successful.
1. Project – get groups [...]
Saturday, September 12, 2009
I heard whispers of this when I was leaving my Public School teaching job in Toronto 4 years ago. But I never thought it would become a reality. Low and behold it did!
What am I going on about? Well, Canada’s first “Africentric” school, rubber stamped and approved (but with a few trustees who resigned and [...]
Sunday, September 6, 2009
I am of late, a very big fan of culturally specific content. What I mean is English teaching material that uses the student’s own culture and environment as the backdrop and “content”. I live and teach in Korea right now, so I have been using a lot of Korean subjects and Korean culture by which [...]
Thursday, September 3, 2009
As many here know, I’m a teacher in Korea. I constantly get asked questions about teaching here — about visas, cost of living, requirements, job conditions etc…. Always happy to reply to the best of my ability.
John at JetsetCitizen just published an interview with me covering much of this. If you are wondering about teaching [...]
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The teacher must orient his work not on yesterday’s development in the child but on tomorrow’s. – Lev Vygotsky
At a lecture last week, I mentioned Vygotsky and several teachers were curious and asked me for more information. It got me thinking about my own relationship with this collossus and sharing some of his “necessary” words [...]
