Category: Prof. Development
Posts about being a better teacher or student.
I just returned from visiting Nicaragua and some schools, universities there. In the more “prosperous” north but the poverty was still very evident everywhere. Even in the schools themselves. This is saying something for I’ve been living in Guatemala the last 6 years – and...
[Finally renewing my blogging. Don’t worry, been blogging A LOT but just not here on my personal blog. You’ll hear about it soon and meet my team, see my posts and musings – starting a TEFL News Magazine. More on that in the coming weeks...
I’ve always been a big advocate of continued reflection by teachers, especially regarding their own beliefs vis a vis teaching and learning. Especially the continued development of one’s philosophy of education. I don’t think we pay or give much attention to this in teacher training...
Preface: I wrote this in the year 2001 while living in Kyiv, Ukraine and participating in the Ukraine without Kuchma movement. I lived just off of Maydan Nezalezhnosti on Lutheranskya and demonstrated, threw my stones and wandered the tents on Khreschatyk. It was a heady...
Reading. It’s been something I’ve been passionate about as an educator. Probably ever since I picked up a copy of Frank Smith’s “Understanding Reading” in anticipation of Teacher’s College some 30+ years ago. In the interm, I’ve read, studied and become convinced that technology can...
A story to begin. For a good number of years I worked at a large teacher training institute in Korea. For the largest school board in the world. We were responsible for training both Korean and foreign English teachers. I had a lot of opportunities...
I just finished speaking in Brazil on the topic of a level playing field for all English language teachers – regardless of their passport, their L1, their color or accent. A look both into the wide spread and institutional “neo-racism” (as Adrian Holiday calls it)...
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been a teacher for 30 years. Ups and downs but always felt proud to be a teacher and part of this profession. Lately, reflecting a lot on my journey, pecking away at my always unfinished book about education “School’s...
A number of years ago I wrote a post titled, “5 lessons for educators from “The King’s Speech”. It was well received and today I thought I’d write a few similar thoughts after watching the movie, “McFarlane“. I totally expected the movie to be a...
Isaiah Berlin related that there are only two types of people, foxes or hedgehogs. I’m a hedgehog. A generalist. A slow plodder that sees the bigger, wider picture. When it comes to language learning, this has been very handy. It’s valuable to cut through the...
I’ve had some free time these days to rethink my role in education and in particular ELT. So think of this post as the start of my St. Augustinian “Confessions”. English language teaching is great! It’s given me so much and I’ve traveled the world,...
I am doing a bit of a U-turn in terms of my interests and career in education. All for the better. Trying to be more “on the ground” and give back more than I receive. Last week I spent a few days visiting schools and...
You may be a construction worker working on a home You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome You might own guns and you might even own tanks You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks But...
This is not a post about teachers being funny and capturing students’ attention through jokes, humor. Rather, it is about the premise that a teacher can learn to teach in a class. I have changed so much over my 30 year teaching career. My beliefs...
I attended a good number of conferences this spring, online and offline. Like I’ve done previously, I just have to comment on a lot of things I don’t think help the cause of making good teachers. I won’t dwell on those I’ve mentioned before. Read these...
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I attend quite a few conferences. The last year many as just a fly on the wall – attending sessions, taking things in …. I’m lucky, I know – able to travel and experience face to face professional development in many times exotic settings. I...
This past weekend, I was rereading some Tolstoy and an old essay of Isaiah Berlin popped to mind. He uses an old story of Archilochus about the Hedgehog and the Fox to compare Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The Hedgehog is driven by one idea, knows one...
Writing storybooks or making picture books is a great way to reinforce grammar and vocabulary. It also gives students confidence and pride in “producing” something visible and tangible to measure their English language learning experience. See more bookmaking resources here. There are several steps to...
Summer is a good time for teachers to read a little about their profession, think, ponder and grow. See my list below and please comment and add your own recommendation. The list are books written by a teacher about their life and times as a teacher....
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