Tag Archives: school

Reality check – TEFL Certificate Course

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I will also add to this, “Give a man a fish and he’ll just expect to not work for any more. Make him pay a little and he’ll value that fish and his work to purchase it”.

I’m saying this as background to some reflection I’ve been doing based on the recent FREE TEFL Certificate course I launched.

It has always been my goal to provide free or low cost assess to knowledge and materials for teachers. I’ve worked night and day, year in and year out,  to counter so much of the blatant commercialism that pervades TEFL. Worked tirelessly to “fight the good fight” and use the possibilities of new technologies to the utmost benefit of hard working and low paid teachers. Sharing, community, can empower us.

However, both on my community EFL Classroom 2.0 and especially with the launch of the new TEFL Certificate course, I’ve learned an important lesson. If teachers get it for free, some really don’t value what they get. Not everyone but my guess is a good majority. Not blaming or accusing any one person – it is just human nature.

I won’t go into all the emails of support and so positive in nature. I also won’t go into how many emails I got from so many who seemed “entitled” and being very aggressive about why “this wasn’t there” or “there was a dead link, quit wasting my time”. Not going there. Want to relate something else.

With the Free TEFL Course, I was gladly going to pay the cost/ student that is incurred. My paying it forward for education. However, never thought so many would take advantage of this (I expected 20-30/month – we now have over 300 and close to 200 students taking the course right now). But most importantly, never thought so many would just NOT watch the videos, think about the ideas but rather whiz through the quizzes, just trying to complete them and get the certificate.

The nice thing about the school’s LMS is that I see everything. Loads of student data. I can tell how long a teacher stayed on a page, interacted with the content. How many times they took a quiz, the results etc… To my amazement, over 70% of teachers were just clicking the quizzes and trying to run through the lessons like it was some video game.

Example: A great student.

Example: A “quick” student.

So, I tried limiting the attempts. Also, monitoring the time on task. However, still teachers are taking very little time watching videos and reflecting/interacting with the ideas in the PDFs. And there isn’t a lot I can do.

So I’m now going to make teachers pay a minimal user fee for the course. I think this will make it so they will value the community, the resources and the certificate that results. Sorry it has to be this way but I guess I have to learn the hard way.

All those who pay the $9.99 will get my Teach | Learn coursebook when they graduate + a great certificate of completion. Also, 3 months of access to the resources (and to complete the course). The course will also serve as a pre requisite to the 120 hour accredited certificate I’ll offer in Jan. 2012.

Those who’ve already signed up for the class will get it free. I hope they slow down and savor the lessons! All those presently doing the course will have a month to graduate. Good luck! I also think this course would be a great “primer” for any teacher training program and hope trainers out there might encourage their students to take it. Even plan a course around it.

I do hope all teachers understand and realize the truth of what I’m saying, where I’m coming from. I thank you all for your support and again, not accusing any one teacher at all.

David

A Student’s Death. Who’s guilty?

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This week has been filled with violence in our schools in this part of the world. But really, just business as usual, only a little more press than usual. The case of Mitchell is one sad story of many.

As an educator, I’ve been following the whole issue of bullying/cyberbullying for quite a few years. I’ve always felt that even though schools and governments are spending a lot of resources and energy to “do something”, they are missing the mark, by far. The evidence that this behavior, so tragic, too often, continues, is evidence that schools are failing. I’d even go so far that they do share in the blame for the deaths of many students.

Yes, hard language, hard rhetoric. But I feel strongly about this. We are doing enough but we aren’t doing the right things. We got to change that. What should we do “right” and change, perhaps saving lives?

Danah Boyd, someone who studies teens and whose work I admire, so strongly and adroitly declares,

“For most teenagers, the language of bullying does not resonate. When teachers come in and give anti-bullying messages, it has little effect on most teens. Why? Because most teens are not willing to recognize themselves as a victim or as an aggressor. To do so would require them to recognize themselves as disempowered or abusive. They aren’t willing to go there. And when they are, they need support immediately. Yet, few teens have the support structures necessary to make their lives better. Rodemeyer is a case in point. Few schools have the resources to provide youth with the necessary psychological counseling to work through these issues. But if we want to help youth who are bullied, we need there to be infrastructure to help young people when they are willing to recognize themselves as victimized.”

Read her article in full. Something everyone working/concerned with our youth, should read.

She outlines more things we could do better. They include getting students to take control of doing something about this and stopping the adult moralizing. Providing places for victims to turn to, without consequences.

I say we need to go further, do much more. We need to use schools as crisis centers for the violence of the wider society. It IS that bad. Many say our society isn’t violent. I beg to differ. We don’t see it because so much is “sanctioned” and “okay”. From UFC bloodfests, reality TV shame shows, army games both real and virtual and I could go on and on…. I accuse – bullying is only a smaller version of our wider society and that it is so prevalent, is an indictment.

Let’s keep changing things through small steps in our schools and think more about how our schools fail because we as a society are failing.

Imagine…. (a poem about school)

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Imagine a classroom where there is no teaching                                                      only learning.

Imagine a classroom where there is no leader
only common purpose.

Imagine a classroom where there is no remembering                                             only experiencing

Imagine a classroom where there is no teacher                                                       only students.

Imagine a classroom where there is no objective                                                    only curiosity.

Imagine a classroom where there is no hesitation                                                  only hunger.

Imagine a classroom where there is no competiton                                               only pride of self.

Imagine a classroom where there is no textbook
only creation.

Imagine a classroom where there is are no walls                                                     only  horizon.

Imagine a classroom where there is no teaching                                                         only learning.

Imagine.  It’s easy if you try.

___________________________

Listen to the original song and share with your students. What do they imagine about education and school? Here’s what some elementary school students wrote me when I asked their class to give me questions they’d like to know answers about! Imagine if they had the time to explore as they wanted?

Self Directed Learning – Part 1

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illichIf I could meet just one guy who I’d like to chat about the future and place of education in the world – it would be a toss up between Ivan Illich and John Taylor Gatto. Illich the intellectual, the piercing and challenging mind – Gatto, the more matter of fact, direct working guy. Today – I’d like to talk about Illich.

I do believe that we are slowly, “deschooling”. What we are doing online as bloggers, eteachers, sharers – is such. Illich in the sparkling podcasts below from 1968, tells it exactly as it is TODAY. Meaning, we have started unschooling but instead of a new form of nourishment for the brain, a new direction whereby citizens, students are empowered – we are still in the grips of a school system that is quite irrelevant to the needs and benefit of citizens. A school system that isn’t working and essentially assembly line and out of date.

My hope, as Illich outlines, is in “learning networks” – not just what you see here on the internet but in others taking things into their own hands and creating a world where a person’s worth is not in their labor or their mind but in their capacity to learn AS THEY SEE FIT. No reins, no guru, method. Limited authority. Just the freedom to be where their mind beckons. As Illich says, “the little spark” that allows us, offers us the opportunity to “dance to our own drummer”, to open our own doors and be the WE that we want to be.

I have taken notes from these lectures and will post up thoughts along with relevant excerpts in part 2. I’ll add my thoughts about the future of learning and in particular – Self Directed Learning. For now, please enjoy and savor. Also, read his mini book. An important document for all educators – 1968 or 2010. After Deschooling What? by Ivan Illich

Illich on Deschooling

If you liked this – you might enjoy: Killing Creativity or Teacher’s Who Needs Them?