Tag Archives: reflection

Not just playing a part

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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 not even near finished, so many footprints, so many seminal events that one after another pointed me to the here and now. But I’ll share one of the them and how it set me off towards an understanding that we teachers need to know when to break out of our roles, our routines, stop “playing the teacher”.

It was in the early 90s and I was in the storied, most beautiful movie theatre in Toronto, the Runnymede. It was way past its hay day but still could make any movie special. I was watching a movie I’d missed years before when it appeared, “The Purple Rose Of Cairo” – one of Woody Allen’s most treasured films.

There is a scene where Baxter who is playing the lead actor in the film, spots Cecilia in the audience. She’s been coming to watch this same movie for weeks. He literally “walks out of the movie” and into reality. The scene has always stayed with me and listen to Woody Allen explain it in the video below.

In the days that followed, I thought and thought about the scene and it really hit me hard as a teacher. I realized I’d been sleepwalking through things. Playing the part. Handing out worksheets, ticking off boxes, giving homework and smiling and nodding and punishing like a teacher. I wasn’t real. From those days on, I began to awake as a teacher, to keep slapping myself and keeping things real in my classes. I started to have a compass within myself that told me when I was just playing a part and that I needed to “walk out of the dream and into reality”.

Thank you Purple Rose of Cairo and Woody Allen. One of those footprints that I walked in and which pointed me to where I am.

Reflective Writing: Thomas Farrell

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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 pour mieux sauter” – stepping back so to jump further ahead.

I had a great time, thinking about my own teaching practices and sharing my own struggles and development with fellow teachers at Brock University.  During the workshop I thought a lot about the question of: “what is reflective practice” and came to the conclusion that we too narrowly define this within our profession.  Most of us think that reflection is about writing long journal entries or attending day long professional development sessions.  I see it differently.   Reflective practice is the simple act of thinking about our teaching and it can happen while on the toilet, or those 5 minutes after the kids have scattered from class.  On the bus or a few notes to self written on our fridge.  While reading on a weekend getaway or flipping through a newspaper.  It isn’t just a formal act.  But most importantly, it is an act that results from teachers caring about their students’ learning – not their own career or development.

Thomas Farrell has written much about reflective teaching practices and I think he’d agree with this premise. His latest book on the subject – “Reflective Writing for Language Teachers“,  while focusing on the various writing genres (frameworks) that teachers may use for reflection, offers a very readable overview of reflective practice. As the last words of the book implore;

“We engage in reflective practice not because we want to teach our lessons better (although this is a good reason), but because we want to teach our students better.” (p. 154)

He writes  in Chapter 2:  Reflective Practice;

“… you can see that for me reflective practice means teachers taking on more personal responsibility for their classroom decision-making and , when deciding on specific aspects of their practice which they want (or need) to develop, not looking for teaching methods developed by others (so called experts or publishers). Instead, they will look into what works best for their students’ learning needs, thus ensuring a personal investment in development that is at times missing in many cases from the traditional top-down mandated professional development programs.” (p. 31)

What further impressed me while reading the book was his continual espousing of the view that “thoughtful reflection” in and of itself is not the goal, only a means.  Key is that it is done in a way that leads to constructive changes in teaching behavior – that it is reflection for action.

I found the book very well organized and really easy to dip into. Not something a teacher needs to read at one go.  Each chapter is structured into short parts with writing tasks that a teacher could do in their teaching journal.  Reflective writing while learning about reflective writing – a kind of loop feedback and an approach that would make the book suitable for a professional development course.  Particularly strong are the “Preamble” sections beginning each chapter. I really enjoyed how the author kept things personal and related his own experiences as they applied to the topic at hand. I gobbled these up and in fact throughout the book, you’ll find a lot of personal  backdrop and discussion based on experiences all English language teachers can relate to.

There were a number of sections that I wished were more thorough. In particular sections on teaching beliefs and the last chapter “Reflecting for Action”.  There might also have been a detailed section on blogging as a form of reflective writing in its own right (and I consider this blog my PhD in reflective practices!). Although I’m asking for a lot, I also wish that books like this would have an online community or forum where teachers could actually reflect/write and share with each other.  I’m an idealist I know but if your vision doesn’t exceed your reach – what’s a heaven for?

If you get a chance, catch one of Thomas’  presentations/lectures – you’ll enjoy his ability to hold an audience’s attention and through humor or meaty facts get teachers thinking critically.   As he quotes Dewey that “reflection is a form of freedom from routine behavior because reflection emancipates us from merely impulsive, merely routine behavior” (p. 153) – you’ll get lots from this book to push you out of your own habitual teaching practices and beliefs.

Tom and I at TESOL Philadelphia

PS:   Visit Dr. Farrell’s webpage for more info. I’ve used reflective writing as a key part of my own courses. Read a sample of reflections my student teachers wrote using my own Zen and the Act of Teaching reflective teaching journal.

The End is the Start

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I ended my year and sent off my new teachers into the wide world of education. Fingers crossed. Lots to relate about my year pontificating and sharing, nurturing, cheerleading teachers to be, to be reflective about education and schooling.

Here though, I’d like to share how successful my “Project Zander” was. Read about this activity that I did my second week of teaching last Sept. Students write letters to themselves about their goals for the year and how they will see themselves at the end of the class. Then, they address them and stamp them. They are forgotten about and then sent after graduation/class end.

Today, I got my own letter that I wrote to myself then. Wonderful! Also got many emails from my students (no letters :) ) on how excited they were about their letters to self and how helpful it was.

Take a look at my previous post and if you ever get the chance – “do a Zander”!

This poem from the immortal Irving Layton – sums it all up and I shared this with departing students.

There Were No Signs

By walking I found out
Where I was going.

By intensely hating, how to love.
By loving, whom and what to love.

By grieving, how to laugh from the belly.

Out of infirmity, I have built strength.
Out of untruth, truth.

From hypocrisy, I wove directness.

Almost now I know who I am.
Almost I have the boldness to be that man.

Another step
And I shall be where I started from.

The benefits benefits benefits of repe repe repetion

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hands Over the length of my teaching career, I’ve changed in many ways. I think my journey mimics a lot of ELT teachers.

1. I have slowed down my delivery and instruction considerably. I used to just screech and scream through content. Now, I relax and pause a lot. I take time to enjoy the spaces together. I’ve realized students need things “a lot” slower and this leads to much more effective learning in the classroom.  See this previous post – In Praise of the Slow Classroom

2. I risk more, I try different things more. Yes, that would seem against the grain of time and tradition. Aren’t old teachers supposed to be “old dogs” without “new tricks”? Not teachers that have really kept developing and learning on the job. I now understand more deeply, how each student needs to learn in their own fashion and way. That’s why I have to deliver content in different ways and modify content much more thoroughly. In my beginning years, the whole class was a “glob” and I taught that “glob” in my one way – my way. Now, I use a multi modal approach and am much more conscious of hitting all the skills and allowing students to reach the objectives in their own way.

3. I repeat content more often. Even explicitly (there is usually a groan!). I’ve realized the value of this and where I used to just assume students had masters something, now I assess and if they haven’t we “re-do” in an alternative fashion.

If there are any “old dogs” out there – I’d like to know if your growth curve has been a long the same lines.

But my development as a teacher isn’t what I’d like to write about today. Rather, it is the shadow cast by my own realization that my development is based upon some sound principles. Throughout my years, I’ve become very interested in special needs and how special educators teach. Mostly because I truly and deeply believe that other than with very young children, we are working with “disabled” students when we teach a language. And we can learn a lot by listening to special needs teachers and the instructional techniques and approaches they use.

One of the epiphanies for me came upon reading Kenneth Dinklage, who as a counselor at Harvard, was stunned how many high performing students were atrocious at learning language. He wondered why these brillant A+ students and “brains”, just squeezed by with Ds in their compulsory foreign language courses. So he set out to get to the root of the problem. It wasn’t anxiety or lack of motivation or even study skills. It was the instruction! The students had a deficit in their L1 which caused problems learning a second language. Once Dinklage applied some of the techniques used by special educators – their language learning blossomed.
Ganschow and Sparks extended Dinklage’s research and identified the Linguistic Coding Deficit Hypothesis (LCDH) stating “that difficulties with foreign language acquisition stem from deficiencies in one or more of these linguistic codes in the student’s native language system.” Brown has since labeled it the somewhat generic, SLAAP (Second Language Acquisition Associated Phenomena). I’ve written about this in detail with some practice advice HERE.

To me, what it all meant was that I began to see many of the difficulties my students experienced in learning a language as something that could be overcome if I borrowed many of the ideas from special educators. One of the most important ideas is that of repetition.

Repetition is needed to learn a language and it is a basic remedial technique. Language is NOT a knowledge laden subject but is performance based. We have to do things over and over, listen over and over to achieve mastery. Just like driving a car or learning to pack a parachute. As a child, that’s how we learn too. Here’s a photo of the math notebook of the amazing mathematician, Kurt Godel. Look familiar? Even Godel has to master the basics and we should be doing this with our students. [as an aside, I really do hope one day to write about the implications of his incompleteness theorem to language - it is fascinating ] I’m sure you remember lots of this in your younger days, lots of copying and “mastering”. Godel

But I’m not advocating that teachers set up classrooms like this infamous Chinese way…. full of parroting and useless repetition. No. There are better ways to do this and here are a few of my ideas on how you can best make “repetition” part of your instructional toolkit.

On the Lesson Level

1. Chants and Drills. Yes, don’t do them a lot but do them! The key is to make them so the students have some freedom and personal input. Always allow for students to change the words or omit words (Substitution).

2. Controlled Practice. This is a standard lesson component and should allow students to repeat basic grammatical structures yet “push in” new content. Make sure the structure is always on the board for reference and get students used to repeating it (by rewarding them, ringing a bell etc..). Example. “Yesterday, I went to the ………. and ……….. ” – that’s the target language for use with a set of flashcards of places and things.

3. Repeat student’s phrases often in class. We call this echoing. It allows other students to hear the language again but also gives students a chance to process the language and repeat inside their own heads.

Teacher: “What did you do yesterday Mirka?”
Students: “I went to the mall”.
Teacher: “Oh, you went to the mall!”

Even better if the teacher doesn’t repeat but another student does. Recycle the language during the lesson. For example, in the above exchange, the teacher could ask other students – “What did Mirka do?”
Disappearing dialogs are also a great way to repeat language!

4. Review! Every lesson should at least end with the question – “What did we learn today?” Then, list the vocabulary, structures, ideas covered. Even better if you have time to end in a game, quiz. Even better if the students make the review questions! You could also make it standard to review the previous lesson at the beginning of the next.

5. Lesson Sequencing. Students really, really need to know what will happen each class. Make an agenda and stick to it! Meaning, every class, the students know what will happen the first 5 min. / the next 10 min. etc…. You do the same things EVERY class but with different content. I really, truly think there is too much variety and too much “different” coming at students in our English language classrooms. A predictable lesson sequence is vital and students need this kind of “repetition”. An example lesson sequencing might go like this.

0-5 min: Chit – chat, check student attendance, problems…
5-15 min. Review of the previous lesson.
15-25 min. Elicit background knowledge: Song/Story/Listening/Brainstorming
25-40 min. Controlled practice activity: Flashcards
40-60 min. Performance, presentation

On the Curriculum Level.

1. Recycling. Recycling of content is done by textbook writers but it isn’t always done well. Teachers need to be aware of the need to recycle into new units, the grammar, vocabulary and functions previously covered. Students need to encounter them in new situations, in order to master them.

So for example if the previous unit was about “Telling the time”. In the next unit, “Shopping”, the teacher should make sure to use a lot of “time” references and prepare lessons which insert this. Thus, the dialogue from the textbook could be changed to include times about meeting/opening/closing of shops.
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I know I’ve just touched on a few of the ways you can “repeat” and get your students learning more effectively. I think it an important thing for every teacher to think about and this summer might just be the time for such reflection. One site I recommend with all my heart and soul is Gary Bishop’s “Tarheel Reader”. It was created for learning disabled students but is perfect for ELLs because most of the books “repeat” and “repeat” and “repeat”. Here’s an example. It is a good starting point for reflecting on this important facet of teaching languages.

References:

Dinklage, Kenneth T. “The Inability to Learn a Foreign Language.” Emotional Problems of the Student . Ed. G. Blaine and C. McArthur. New York: Appleton, 1971.

Ganschow, Lenore, and Richard Sparks. “Profile of the Learning-Disabled Student Who Experiences Foreign Language Learning Difficulties: Curricular Modifications and Alternatives.” (Revised title: “Impact of the Foreign Language Dilemma on College Bound Students with Specific Learning Disabilities.”) MLA Convention. Chicago, 28 Dec. 1985.

Teachers Talking About Teaching

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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 many happy afternoons reading their amazing entries about their lives in the trenches (while watching sports – got to be honest!).  I was truly inspired and proud of these groups of young teachers- each bringing to the profession,  their own kind of reflectiveness, sincerity and thoughtfulness.

I asked some teachers to share their reflections and share with other teachers their writings. To my surprise, many stepped out and we’re willing to share.  So here it is – a slim volume of their reflective writings on many topics contained in the book.  I hope you enjoy dipping into this now and then.  My BIG thanks to all my former students!

Download and read the Zen Reflective Journal PDF ebook. Also get a POD hard copy, see below.

Letter to Self

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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 letter to themselves, saying why they got an A in the class. They write about who they will be after a year in class. I give them an envelope and stamp and then collect the letters which I’ll post in May, at the end of Teacher’s College.

I’ll let Benjamin Zander explain fully (like only he can) in this video excerpt.


Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

I am doing this for many reasons and not just for the surprise and joy of getting a “real” letter! I think it will foster and nurture a level of reflection but also, it will help tamper down the competitive demons that seem to plague both teaching and especially “becoming a teacher”.

The students seal their letters and I won’t be reading them. This is for themselves only and they are the only ones to be surprised or disappointed by the letter they’ll receive. We get what we put in ….

I’m writing this blog post because I also, in the vein of being a teacher that “participates” with students and practices his own constructivist principles, wrote a letter. I wasn’t intending to share it on this blog. However, I left my folder with lesson notes/plan and the letter at home. I couldn’t read it to my students. So alas,this compromise. Find the letter to myself below, for student reading but might be of interest to any and all teachers. Please forgive the length!

May 02, 2012

Dear class,

I deserved my A because I gave it my best shot.

What I mean is that given whatever our circumstances as teachers, we really have that as our yardstick and measure. I don’t agree a lot with the current mantra of “weed out the bad teachers”. There are no good or bad teachers – we are all adrift in the wind of our own circumstances and the only heights, the only bar we need climb over is that – we did our best.

This year I challenged myself in several ways and that’s why I got an A.

One. I asked my students to be responsible for their own learning and to be their own engine and light. I challenged them with the task of taking the curriculum provided and learning it of their own volition, curiosity and need. It was tough at the beginning but with time, students saw the classroom as a place of inquiry and thought, where their battle was only with themselves. And they grew more responsible and receptive of that freedom I gave them.

I deserved my A for avoiding teaching by numbers and allowing teachers to grow into their own teaching skins, boots, beliefs.

I got an A because I came prepared to my classes. Sometimes less, sometimes more – but that’s life. My best was done.

I got an A because I think I modeled a type of teacher we might want in our schools and profession. One constantly engaged in professional development, transparent and sharing ideas and resources. There is no finish line.

I deserved my A because I learned from my students and didn’t just teach them. When one teaches, two learn.

Lastly, I got an A because despite the dark, wretched winters here, I kept seeing the cup half full. Kept the class thinking and positive. Kept engaged and engaging knowledge. Kept being happy to come to class and have a place to be a teacher. It was never a chore but an honor.

It’s been a great year. I’ve developed so much. Like a tree, I have one more circle added and that will forever embrace and mark me.

Sincerely,

Your teacher, David

If you liked this post, you may enjoy, “Reflective Now, Reflective Then”

24 hour giveaway: Zen and the Act of Teaching ebook

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I’ve been pleased as punch by the feedback for this reflective journal. It will be mentioned and highlighted in several publications this fall as well as the hard cover book being used in several training programs.

Here is the ebook for your own review. The giveaway is over but please consider becoming an EFL Classroom supporter to get this book and many more books and resources.

Those becoming an EFL Classroom supporter through a lifetime donation get this book and many more (like the Teach | Learn techbook) as part of their paid access. Please consider supporting our community!

Reflections on “Being A Teacher”

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I’m sitting in one of these chairs, in “god’s country”, lakes and rocks and trees, trees, lakes, rocks, rocks, rocks, lakes, trees, trees, no people.  Divine. My last few days before beginning a return to the classroom.

I’ve spent the evening, refreshed by the lapping of the lake and solitude of nature,  reading “Getting Schooled” by Garret Keizer, in this month’s Harper’s Magazine. If you have the time, you can read nothing better about education and what it is to be a teacher. He hits on so many points, things that got my own brain sparking in light of the fact I’ve been out of the physical classroom for a year and my own head is filled with preparations for my first days back with new teachers in waiting.

I’ve now been a teacher exactly 20 years. No breaks. Year in and year out – often summers too. The last year I’ve been without much of a regular paycheck but it wasn’t a break – I remained committed and engaged each and every day online and through my own efforts to help teachers use technology.  In light of this anniversary and catalyzed byKeizer’s own article – let me sum up the things I’ve learned. Most mentioned in his fine article that I couldn’t hold a candle to. This list will have to do.

 

1. Teaching is  about human beings  and relationships.

Despite technology. Despite all the “wires” connecting people, schools, classrooms – this will always be the case. We begin there. We end there.  The past year I’ve been so connected to teachers and students around the world. Hundreds. Yet a vital bloodline is missing and that is the face to face. The small things that happen in a classroom, amongst the classroom community. That’s why I’m returning.

If there is any one thing wrong with our educational system, it is that it doesn’t cultivate and focus on building  more towards creating relationships between students, between students and teachers and between teachers. Students are batted around like shuttlecocks. Teachers never have time to truly get to know their students (but are told this is what a good teacher must do???). Everyone in the educational system lives fractured, fragmented days that sweep by. Let’s think more about making it different. And this isn’t something technology will cure.

 

2. Teaching is  “deep” and qualitative.

The reality is like the saying, “Education is what remains when all else has been forgotten”.  It is as wise a saying encapsulating the core of teaching, as any I know. Teaching is ephemeral. It is an enculturating process and we would do well to respect that, nurture that. It is as I infer in point 1 – about relationships and character building and creating great citizens, decent people. Not about remembering facts or writing a dazzling essay or dunking a basketball. These are all just means towards this one end. Let’s keep teaching about nurturing this “deep” wellspring of life and we’ll respect more its limitations. Let’s get this higher purpose back into our schools and classes.

 

3. Teaching is a tough, thankless profession.

Yes, those are the hard facts. As Keizer points out, too often society just expects teachers to be underpaid, overworked. Not realizing this indeed translates into poorer schools. You can’t have the captain of your ship making little and unrewarded. No matter how you applaud his efforts and shake his hand – he’ll end up not caring and the rest of the crew will go  maurauding.

Teacher’s  days are deadening. They kill the best of teachers. Marking, wiping noses, smiling when you want to scream, finding lost items, running here and there, all to the sound and weight of a heavy key chain. Need I go on?

What we need is earnest action to remedy this fact. Teachers staying with the same class longer. Teachers teaching content less (less stuffing of straw) and being more “with” students. Teachers need more time for the preparation and rehearsal of the drama that is a classroom.

 

4.  There is a thread that weaves through all.

Despite appearances, the students remain the same.  We talk so often about “digital natives” and how students are so different, in so many ways. We are looking at appearances, the fancy new hat and not the arms, legs, body that is always there.

I’ve learned that the simple things remain. Literacy, numeracy, nurturing thinkig skills, equity and equal opportunity, watering happiness, engendering a love of learning and curiousity, priming the soul of a student so they will learn of their own accord. All the rest is not dross but we shouldn’t get carried away by all the new programs, acronyms and the next educational “reform”.

I look at my students today and they remain the same as 20 years ago. What I do will change but not fundamentally. Sure, I realize as does Keizer that because communication is so ever present, because our students never experience being alone, they in some ways are different. They eschew reading, they want more visuality and social learning. This I will give but I also know that for the most part, despite these fancy new hats, they remain the same skin and blood and bone.

 

5.  Teaching must end up empowering students.

Poverty, violence, nihilism, despair are the lot of so many students in our schools. They live in broken homes and are raised by broken spirits. How to break the cycle? A better world calls. We have a duty to empower students and inject into them the necessity of being agents of change. Teachers need this too, for that matter.  We have to break the cycle and students have to be ready, like Keizer ends his essay, “ to learn everything you can about Carthage.”

We need to create citizens that are prepared to take their own destiny into their own hands and not to act robotically and to the beat of the drum that doles out pay checks. Life is too short for us not to make it better. Teachers can make it better through “cultivating their own classroom garden” and growing students that find out the power of their selves.

I say this with reluctance, I hate moralizing. But sometimes as a teacher we must raise our voice and clear the air. Teaching is, no matter how we hold our hands over our mouths and deny it – a very moral act and profession.  We are models from which lives are sculpted.

……………………………

I’m shutting off this machine and going to enjoy this beautiful day, with my whole family here with me.  Again, as Keizer so well describes, even more beautifully for never directly saying it  – the days, the years pass by so fast. We need to celebrate our lives as teachers by being happy therein. Wherever, whenever.

Now on to the next 20 years!

Reflective Then, Reflective Now ….

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past-present-future-300x281Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
– T. S. Eliot

Right now, I’m living in the same city as I went to Teacher’s College, years ago. It’s been making me think of how far I’ve come and also paradoxically, how “little distance” I’ve traveled. I’ve written about the things I’ve learned through the years and my own teacher development. But right now I’m thinking about – what has remained?

I’ve been skimming through the reflective journal I kept 20 years ago, as I did my practice teaching at Nipissing University Teacher’s College in North Bay, Ontario. What I’ve read so far, really made me conclude that in terms of my beliefs and values – I haven’t changed that much as a teacher. Strange but true.

It is kind of spooky (but useful) to peak into one’s soul from many years ago. A glimpse of what you were. It’s a nice little mirror that I can hold up and see the changes and also similarities in mind and mumbling…. So in the spirit of reflectiveness and transparency – here is a selection from my little blue journal. I’m not typing it out but giving you the real deal. Scanned and in my own scratch. A testament to what I was as a teacher and what I am now….

Teaching Journal 1991

If you liked this post, you might like: Then and Now and also this great then/now photo essay.

Zen and the Act of Teaching

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A few schools have purchased this book – I think that is an accomplishment. I’ve had innumerable conversations about the contents and a few people will be mentioning in forthcoming reflective teaching books.

Here’s the book in presentation format (click the photo). It’ll give you an idea of what can be printed and used as part of teacher journaling / journeying and professional development.
zen

Zen and the Act of Teaching

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zenI’ve been digging through my old teaching diary from teacher’s college (1990). Interesting to note how much I still believe and how much has fallen into the dustbin of “doing it for awhile”.

Part of writing a journal is this discovery of one’s teaching self not just at the moment but down the road. Invaluable to have a mirror to look back at oneself – to see where you zigged when maybe you could have zagged, ran when you could have walked. All for the aim of improving where one is going.

In this spirit, try out the presentation version of  my reflective teaching journal - Zen and the Act of Teaching . Get the bound copy through Lulu. It is great for a lone teacher or as used already by several courses – as a supplement to a teacher training course or practicums in TESOL (wish I’d of had it around for my own graduate practicum students!). If you like the book – please leave a review on the purchase page. Thanks in advance.

And lastly – if at IATEFL this week – please take in my friend Thomas Farrell’s plenary. He’s written some very important books on ELT and reflective teaching (here’s a review of one), always full of great practical teaching examples from his own time spent in the trenches. Plus, you’ll seldom experience such a “human” and enjoyable presenter.

If still curious about POD and self – publishing. Please visit my own ebook store and support EFL Classroom with a purchase. Thx.

The #1 … (difficulty in being a teacher)

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Number One** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1.

The participation in the creation of something which is invisible.

There are so many things that make a teacher’s life difficult. To name just a few of the thousand: noise, planning, snotty noses, mouthy kids, stuffy classrooms, things that don’t work, things that do work but are just a pain in the ass, parents that don’t care, parents that care too much, bureaucracy driving you crazy, 24/7 on your mind, marking, judging, keeping up, poor food, lousy pay, being a prisoner to the curriculum, nobody sharing, nobody caring, a clock that ticks too loud, the memory of what could be ….. need I go on?

However hard all this is – it pales in comparison to what I think makes teaching so difficult – that it is essentially, “invisible”. You are participating in the creation of something so precious, so valuable but which so few will ever notice or recognize.

Before becoming a teacher, I spent a good 8 years building things. Houses, warehouses, factories and finally skyscrapers. Loved it. Loved mostly the sense of going there and there not being anything. And then, slowly, magically, through your own sweat and blood (and yes, I bled), there was a building, walls and doors and windows and a roof. It was uplifting, it kept me going.

But imagine creating kids you can never love?

Imagine creating something that always leaves?

Imagine even worse, enriching and nurturing life that no one sees?

Yes, we are artists of the invisible. Days of sweat and toil for something we can’t see – only that which we believe. And that is so difficult.

If someone near to you doesn’t recognize how valuable and how hard working you are – print this out and have them read it. At least this piece of paper will be evidence of all that you’ve invisibly and deliciously added to the world. Print this out to show the world that you have immensely contributed.

But it is hard – participating in “the invisible”.

I remember years later, as a teacher, driving by those buildings I brought to life. I’d smile every time. One time, a giant Toy’s R’ Us factory north of Toronto, I did go inside. I went and sat in the lounge and started chatting with some of the staff who were taking their coffee break. Amid our banter, I mentioned “I’d built” this building, spread out the blueprints and from what wasn’t there, made something appear. I asked them if they ever thought about who had sweated and worked so hard to make this building. They mostly grinned and said, “No”, “Oh my god”… Then they wondered/wandered back into their own thoughts.

It was hard that. That they could not see how much the steel men had contributed – Claude, my boss’ son even cutting open his leg after falling from the scissor lift. It was hard. But not near as hard as being a teacher, always saying good bye and always having so little to show others. At least in this case – there was a building.

Can you see the hidden tiger?

hidden-tiger-illusion

Sharing Yourself (Online)

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profileAs a teacher trainer, one of the things I have trainees do many times, is to reflect on themselves and their accomplishments. Just this little bit of reflection sets a teacher on more solid ground from which to progress.

You can do this many ways. Many times, I get teachers to write out a mini educational philosophy (see mine in this post). It could be a series of reflections like my Zen and the Act of Teaching.  However, I also think it good if teachers have the opportunity to share with others, “who they are” and online tools offer some great ways.

First, one caveat. Facebook is something I don’t recommend teacher’s using to share their online self. For many reasons but mostly for how complicated it is to control the flow of information on the site.  I know others might have a different opinion but that’s my feeling after using it extensively. Also, cluttered and “too active” for this sort of thing.

One basic way to share oneself online is for teachers to fill out a profile online. This could be something extensive by way of making a website (try weebly for this!). Here’s my own profile website. However, you can also do something quicker by filling out an online profile. Here are some options for this, with my own examples.

1. Google Profiles:  Probably the easiest and clearest. What doesn’t google do good?  Here’s mine , the process is easy. You just need a gmail/google account.

2. FlavorsMe: You get a full page to personalize and share your online self. My example.

3.  DooID:  Probably for those with a more serious online presence. Nice, well designed “badge” with contact details. Also, a nice password can be given to selected information so not everyone can see it. My example.

4. LinkedIn: This is an absolute must for anyone making ELT a career. Post your resume and connect with likeminded professionals. My example and also, join our ELT Professionals around the World group!

5. Who Hub – interesting variation and interview yourself by choosing the questions and answers. Here’s my in depth interview with myself!

6.  Other options: These offer a lot of different approaches to sharing yourself online.  Retagr / Card.ly / Gravatar / DandyID

Classroom Management Styles

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Socrates said, “know thyself”.  Shakespeare, “to thine own self be true”.  I think both apply directly to any teacher that wants to be effective in their job and enjoy their work/self.

This is why I’m a big believer in reflective teaching practices. (see my own teaching philosophy HERE) But it is more than just thinking about what happened in the classroom – it is also about thinking about who you are and how best to use your talents in the classroom.

Classroom  management is a topic where a little bit of reflection goes a long way. Most problems arise because the teacher really doesn’t know who they are (and consequently the “why” they are doing what they are doing). Good classroom management needs consistency and that can only come with knowledge of “thy self”.

Here’s a nice classroom management quiz that will give you your classroom management style. Read the styles at the end and reflect on which one (actually what blend) really is YOU.  You’ll need a pencil and piece of paper to keep score.

View full screen


Towards Reflective Teaching

Zen and the art of classroom management
a-z of classroom management

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Teacher

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I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time – years actually. Finally, here in the airport with time to kill and waiting for my flight “home” to Canada, I have the time and motivation.

Teaching English as a “profession” and living in multiple foreign countries has so many advantages. We hear about them and read about them all the time. The cultural differences, sites of interest, the exotic local appeal, new experiences and stimulations. However, there is a dark side to this “adventure”, the dark side of being away from home and loved ones.
Career EFL teachers are in a constant state of divorce from their own family and friends. We feel guilty for being away as our parents get old (at least I do), for missing family gatherings, from being estranged from “our self”. We feel like a leaf adrift on a big lake. This is the downside of being a long distance teacher.
It isn’t talked about much but remains there behind the scenes as we go about our lives in foreign countries.
I’m leaving Korea today, in a few hours. Been here for 5 years and truly, all things being equal, I’d stay here the rest of my life, if not for my family. Lots of negatives to life in Korea but that’s par for any course. I had a great job, lots of freedom to develop as I wanted professionally, was / am well respected. Why not stay? Well, finally I had to do the right thing and “be home”. My parents are still healthy and well but I owe it to them to spend time in their later years, to be there. I’m not saying that is a call everyone need nor should make. But it is my own call. Still, my point remains. Us EFL itinerant teachers traveling the world have to deal with this kind of personal backdrop. The pay can never compensate for this.
You don’t read too many bloggers writing about this “thing” we all feel. This estrangement and displacement we feel. I’ve felt it and on this afternoon, pushed by the divided emotions of departure, declare it. It is a lot easier with technology, the internet, skype etc…. but still it doesn’t dent this iron strong feeling.
I guess that is life, bittersweet. There is sadness and happiness in all experiences. The sadness of leaving and the happiness of arriving. It is for us teachers to manage it all, the best we can. Let us struggle towards paradise, each in our own way, as “long distance teachers”.
photo courtesy Allan1952 on flickr.com

Zen and the Act of Publishing a Book (part 1)

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Jeremy Harmer made a comment in defense of big publishers the other day.  He said, “the cost of producing a book is horrendous these days, the investment staggeringly high.”

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu. I took that as a challenge so within 8 hours I CREATED and PUBLISHED a book. Not some frothy, blablabla book but something substantial and which practicing teachers or teacher training programs can use. This book and wisdom came from my own experience using reflective writing in my teacher training courses.

Later this week in a detailed post, I will describe the steps I took to both publish AND market this book. I think it will be highly beneficial to all – writers or even those who might still be only thinking about it, “one day”. 

Admittedly, I have a sound tech background and so could do all this quicker than the regular Joe – however, it isn’t difficult and the costs and investment AREN’T staggering – unless you want to justify your billion dollars in profits (after expenses / before taxes – Pearson’s 2009 financial statement).

Get the book on Lulu to order or download. (and be so kind as to write a review/comment!)
Also, everyone who is supportive enough to





whatever amount to EFL Classroom 2.0 to cover our rising costs (from Ning, another profit hungry bemoth), will get it free. The license is Creative Commons and Sharealike. Meaning, once you get it – do whatever you want with it and copy, spread around as much as you like! Teacher trainers, you can contact me on EFL Classroom or here and get the powerpoint for instructional purposes.

Reflective Teaching

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reflectionI’m a big fan of reflective teaching and use it extensively in my teacher training programs. Especially reflective writing / journal writing. There is something about the act of writing in this way, that makes one intimate with oneself (as Schon, the grandfather of this subject once put it). It gets one growing as a teacher and I still look at my teaching journal from my first year teaching and learn a lot!

In ELT, you can’t go wrong visiting some of Thomas Farrell’s books on the subject. He’s a great “teacher’s teacher” and I’ve attached a review by David Nunan about his latest, “Reflective Teaching Practice: From Research to Practice (see below). He’s a wonderful writer/speaker on the subject. If you get the chance to hear him speak – do so. He’ll be in Seoul for the International Kotesol conference this fall.

Reflective Teaching Practice review Nunan

Also, over the last year, I’ve compiled this ebook – The Tao of Teaching. It sprung up through a forum conversation and just grew and grew.

Presently, I’m editing it and will make it into a reflective journal, using the passages as a prompt, along with a nice quote about learning/teaching/education for reflective writing. A journal professors/teachers can use with practicing or inservice teachers.

Do you have any suggestions for this? What questions do you think teachers should ask themselves and write about?

If you liked this post, you may enjoy these two “full” posts on Reflective Teaching, HERE and HERE.

The Tao of Teaching.ppt

Reflective Teaching Practices in ELT

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I recently attended Kotesol’s National Conference. It was themed upon “Reflection and Prof. Development”.

I had a great time (thanks to all who attended my own following day workshops!) and sat in on some excellent lectures/presentations. But the highlight was the opening plenary by Dr. Thomas Farrell. I was taken with his very practical focus and its obvious from the get go that he’s been a “real” classroom teacher for years and understands things from the feet first. Further, I was really impressed by his “emotion”. Like that wonderful and classic video of Ken Robinson, speaking so eloquently and with humor, Tom really engaged the audience with story, humor and anecdote. He connected with people and it was this, rather than any empirical knowledge that really won me over.

He’s written a great book on the subject, “Reflective Language Teaching, from Research to Practice”. I’ve added a nice review of this wonderful book by none other than the esteemed Andrew Finch, a guy who really “gets it”. Find a Cambridge book note here. Find or purchase the book, in our Bookstore, under Member’s books. A necessary read. Read Dr. Farrell’s beliefs in brief, HERE.

This book is also a classic

I really believe that the heart of a “good” teacher is being reflective. And not necessarily as we always think, alone in a room, pondering existence. No, just thinking the lesson through, engaging in conversation with peers, asking students for their thoughts, being brave enough to confront ourselves truthfully and honestly.

Let’s face it – we teach a lot of hours in our lifetime. It befits all of us to put some thought into how we can do it better. I think that this is a natural phenomena, this “want of the better” – as much as sex, food, freedom. Maslow would have put it on his hierachy if he’d of been where I’ve been! Like learning, wanting to do better, is a natural state but doesn’t happen because of the given environment. So to me, it is all about creating the right environment for oneself. Dr. Farrell talks about this, “situational” side of reflectiveness and I really think we should emphasize it. Put yourself in a state and a situation from where you CAN be better, get better, as a teacher.

Part of reflectiveness is what we do here each day, the hundreds and many days, thousands, who visit EFL Classroom 2.0. We are putting ourselves in a place where we might get better, become better teachers. Last weekend at the conference, sitting and listening to Tom, I experienced the same thing. Thanks for your contributions to ELT Thomas, you’ve made a difference!

 

In Praise of the “slow” classroom

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If there is one piece of valuable advice that could fit almost ALL teachers – it would be to “S L O W D O W N!”

One area of course is in terms of speaking speed. Teachers need to let students process language and really suck the communicative juice out of words. They need CI along with their O2! Comprehensible Input in the form of being able to follow the speaker and let the gears of their LAD (Language Acquisition Device) grind them bones and make the bread.

Teachers need not slow their actual speaking speed but like any good public speaker they need to pause. And pause often. Students need time to think about the content of which the words deliver. Only through pausing can teachers really help their students to both become “thinkers” and also use the language they model for language acquisition. People trying to process language, need a lot more time than native speakers. If you think you are pausing too much, you are probably pausing just right!

However, there is a much greater reason to S L O W D O W N. Learning.
Yes, that’s right. Teachers try to do too much! And in doing so, they do less. Teachers need to slow down and not try to accomplish so much. Stick to that one objective, all else is naught, in the lesson plan. Just bells and whistles and empty wind. Stick to the one objective and relax! Enjoy your students, bring humanity and quality to the fore and let quantity hang out at the backdoor, spinning in circles.

Learning is not “going somewhere”, it is not cumulative nor exponential. It is human and the relating of the individual to the world. At all times it is atemporal and against that slave master time. Teachers need to let their students enjoy, let their students soak up the connections and relationships everywhere. With language, students need more time actually playing with the language, producing it and just hanging out with it – instead of pounding it into death with quick strokes of the hungry and heavy plated hammer of memory and destruction.

And why do I say this? Well, language as Chomsky so often related is GROWTH. It isn’t something born quick, it is to be watered slowly and not built with a jackhammer and speeding dump truck. It is organic and needs time, water (the teacher) and sun (love/the human relationship).

I’d recommend this video (Yes, another TED talk from me! I use our player avidly!) by Carl Honore. He makes many valid points about our lives and which equally apply for teaching. Just note though, how he misses the boat by actually delivering a speech about “slowness” in supersonic speed! He’d of done well to convey his message in the actual process…..however, still a good talk.

Lastly, while writing this, I was reminded of this poem of one of my favs – Irving Layton. “There were no signs”. I think I’m reminded of this poem because it speaks to me that learning is not a destination. Learning is the destination!

There Were No Signs

By walking I found out
Where I was going.

By intensely hating, how to love.
By loving, whom and what to love.

By grieving, how to laugh from the belly.

Out of infirmity, I have built strength.
Out of untruth, truth.

From hypocrisy, I wove directness.

Almost now I know who I am.
Almost I have the boldness to be that man.

Another step
And I shall be where I started from.