Thursday, November 26, 2009
I don’t share much of myself here. But I do believe I should and will try to open up more….I’ve no secrets
Today, while searching for some other poetry, I came across one of my own poems! Wow! Yeah, I wrote poetry for many years. Essays too. Published in small journals (big in Canada [...]
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Today, I’d like to share a very personal story. A story told at the U. of T. commencement address in the 1980s (which year eludes me – I’m getting old!) by Gyorgy Faludy. My mentor – an Hungarian poet, writer, educator, thinker without equal. Read more about Faludy here. Here are some photos of his [...]
Sunday, November 22, 2009
When I was a young(er) teacher, quite cut off and alone in a town in the Czech Rep. — one of the books that were my best friends was “The Dimensions of the Present Moment” – a collection of essays by the Czech immunologist / poet , Miroslav Holub (more on him HERE). In one [...]
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Who Am I?
I don’t say much about my own professional (or personal ) life. However, I really believe and always encourage teachers to do so with their students. For many reasons, primarily to model and encourage students to speak about their own lives and beliefs – to create community within the classroom.
So in this [...]
Someone once quipped that genius was “seeing the obvious”. Or as William James added, “the ability to overlook the irrelevant”. Well, by that criteria, I think I’m up there with Einstein and Hawkings because not a day goes by without me being astounded by the power of the written word.
I am reminded of it and [...]
I just did a write up about the top 5 “funniest” videos about language teaching/learning. Well received and I got lots of nice comments. So – I’ve decided to continue the series and reveal some more “gems” buried here in the hundreds of videos on EFL Classroom 2.0
I really think a BIG part of teaching [...]
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
There are a few constant questions I get from many people. One in particular is “So, what is the best place you’ve lived?” I’m always a bit puzzled by it and have to reply truthfully, “Anywhere there are good people”.
You see, teaching and also travel, is all about “people”. At least that’s what I’ve come [...]
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Time for some levity. Us teachers need to laugh at ourselves, our profession a bit. This is an absolute must. So here are a few of the classic videos I’ve laughed at over the last few years. My top 5.
Each video has to do with learning English or teaching English. If you want to watch [...]
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
MIXTUBE
We have a lot of music here for language learning and teaching. Too much to even begin to list! (actually I have listed it HERE!)
However, here is one other hidden resource – our Mixtube list of Lyrics. A vast collection of great videos with only lyrics.
I find when teaching, a video with lots of imagery [...]
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
I’ve always loved Charles Bukowski. Though much of his writing is “off” when he hits it – he’s dead on. God like.
I was reading today, thinking about the writing process and Bukowski’s wonderful poem, “IF I Taught Creative Writing” came rushing back to me. So here it is below. Along with a recent Bukowski video [...]
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