"When one teaches, two learn"
I just got home after a morning of observing two classrooms. One was wonderful, a place that all students would long to be in. One was dreadful, a place that students would only just barely tolerate and where one student actually said, when asked to...
As a teacher trainer, one of the things I have trainees do many times, is to reflect on themselves, their personal qualities and their accomplishments. Just this little bit of reflection sets a teacher on more solid ground from which to progress. You can do...
One thing that has slowly happened to me in my own development as a teacher – I’m now less absolute and sure of myself. Now, that may seem a contradiction and that after 25 years meandering through the fields and mountains of schools, classes, education,...
In the mid to late 90’s I was teaching new immigrants to Canada, downtown Toronto. It was a government program and all new immigrants with lower level language fluency would get paid for up to a year, if they regularly attended language lessons. I’ve written...
I had the luck to start teaching English at a school where I basically had free reign to teach as I saw fit. It was just after the fall of communism in the Czech Republic (then still Czechoslovakia), a beautiful spa city, Karlovy Vary. I...
If you’ve been to any of my training sessions, workshops, presentations – you’ll know I often start with a story They are a perfect way to frame conversation and get us thinking about our teaching. We are hard wired for narrative and I think for...
Throughout my teaching career, I’ve often found myself in what I term, “the rut”. Not bored of teaching nor unexcited but rather teaching without any “spice” and just going through the motions. Settled is what I call it. Finding myself feeling like I’ve figured it...
Please see my Teacher Training page for loads of presentations I’ve created and delivered throughout my teaching career. My new glossary is also a steadfast reference. This list and video library of Educational Thinkers has a lot of valuable learning. Please be sure to...
The other night I watched an interesting news program profiling a doctor who writes out prescriptions for exercise to many of his patients. He writes out what they should do every day and like medicine, expects it to be done and completed just like we...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Differentiation I have thought about this long and hard. I’m not a big proponent of using “tech for tech’s...
There is one thing that too often gets left behind in all the post it notes stuck on the door of educational reform: Teacher – student relationships. Not enough do we hear the message that what education really is about is what invisibly transpires...
May 1st has come and gone but how many of us teachers really challenged our students to learn about the place and importance of “the working class” in our teaching? How many of us challenged students to think about how we get the things we...
I’m sitting in the airport in Toronto, heading out to the ISTEK ELT Conference in Istanbul. Looking forward to my presentations there and at other universities in Turkey. I’m especially excited because of the focus / theme of the conference – “Through their eyes: Understanding...
Scott Thornbury offered up a stimulating blog post this week titled “R is for Representation“. About how textbooks don’t represent the world of the student, the spaces they live and walk among, the people they know nor the dreams they have for themselves. I won’t...
I spent a few contemplative hours this morning going through some of my dozens of notebooks of poetry and philosophy/aphorisms, written over the last 30+ years. As I was reading one, I came across this list of points on “How To Learn English”. I remember...
A number of recent events have had this question swirling around in my head. First and foremost, the recent ELT Blog Carnival I hosted and promoted. Not too many entries and not a lot of interest from those I emailed about it. “Too busy” everyone...
Over the last 5 to 10 years, I’ve been developing new ideas about how we should be teaching in our classrooms. These ideas have changed as the possibilities and promises of educational technology have become reality. The most fundamental of these ideas are always...
Metaphors are powerful things for teachers. They are the very building blocks of thought and allow us to see what isn’t there, to connect on a higher level to hidden realities. Cynthia Ozick in her timeless essay, “Metaphor and Memory” talks of metaphor as...
Last week I watched the “Reinvent Learning” roundtable with Howard Reingold. As I walked and ran on my treadmill (got in a good 14 k), I listened to the pronouncements of all the experts about what is happening or should happen in education right now....
Last month I attended a weekend course on Reflective Practice led by Thomas Farrell. This year, one of my own goals has been to attend to my own professional development instead of leading workshops, giving presentations and all that. As the French say, “reculer...
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