Tagged: professional development

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Teaching As An Invisible Act

[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...

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Coming Soon.

After this post, the cat will be half out of the bag. I’ve been thinking a lot about my future, the next deep dive.  The last year I’ve been consulting and helping companies build great products. Also wrote a cool “Teaching English In English” course...

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So You Want To Be A Teacher?

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...

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5 lessons for educators from “McFarlane”

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...

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Conference Qualities

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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FREE: Zen And The Act Of Teaching

Zen And The Act Of Teaching is a reflective journal about the “art” of teaching for inservice or practicing teachers. I created it because of my deep belief in the need for a practical book that would help teachers to reflect both in discussion and writing,...

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Recent Community Discussions

We have a dynamic, busy and very professional discussion group on LinkedIn – ELT Professionals. If you haven’t joined, please consider doing so. Here you can get resources but on our discussion threads, you’ll get valuable advice and info. constantly. The community is well moderated...

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50 Best Practices For Language Teachers

                     50 “Best Practices” For Language Teachers                     “It’s a funny thing. The more I practice, the luckier I get.”                              – Arnold Palmer Through practice and experience...

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Featured Resource: New Teacher’s Checklist

It isn’t easy being a new teacher in a new school. Even harder if  you are traveling thousands of miles and landing in a very foreign culture/land. As a teacher, there is so much you have to get done, start thinking about right away. Even...

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50 Things To Do The First Week Of School

“Every journey begins with a simple thought.”                                                       – anonymous A new school year or semester on the horizon can be overwhelming. So much to do, so little  time!  However, don’t fret.  Most can be done during the first crucial week in class – a...

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50 Ways To Use Images In The ELT Classroom

  50 Ways To Use Images            In The ELT Classroom                    “Where words are restrained, the eyes talk a great deal.”  – Samuel Richardson Images can get students to learn a thousand words...

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Teaching English Magazine

For those who don’t know yet or haven’t stumbled upon it – I’ve been curating a cool magazine that is available free to all. I spend a lot of time reading and this magazine shares only the best articles about the teaching profession. It’s a...

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Not just playing a part

I’ve been working on a new post this weekend, a reflection on my own development as a teacher and all the footprints that truly led me to where I am right now. Something for myself but which other teachers might find some truth therein. I’m...

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Keeping going …..

Today, went out for a nice bike ride with “my old man”. He’s almost 70 and he kicked my butt! Truly. I’ll admit I’m not in great shape anymore but watching my dad, “power in” the last 20 k of our ride, me lagging behind...

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Teacher Training

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...

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Joking Matters

I’ve spent the weekend reading the Heidegger and a Hippo walk through those Pearly Gates, the sequel to the amazing Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar. Amazing books that combine commentary with jokes. As I’m reading, I was thinking of how jokes so...

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Teachers Talking About Teaching

I just finished up my school year, sending off a new group of teachers into the possibility that is teaching / education. This year in my course, my students did some reflective journal writing using my book Zen And The Act Of Teaching.  I spent...

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Gus the Bus (Driver)

GUS the BUS (Driver) full screenI want to thank those readers who’ve written asking me about when I’ll be blogging again. Honored. I haven’t been blogging for several reasons; marking students’  work (Philosophies of Education), my work with EnglishCentral (stay tuned for major developments) and  just...

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Letter to Self

I just got home after an absolutely stunning fall day with my preservice teachers class – Education and Schooling. This year, I’m again using an old trick I learned from the amazing Benjamin Zander. I’m getting them to write letters to themselves. They write a...

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The main reason for P.D.

This morning spent some time reading and thinking about professional development for teachers. It’s an important issue – especially these days with the public demanding we root out “bad” teachers and set up systems of evaluating teachers. Most good educational systems ask teachers to (even...