"When one teaches, two learn"
Dear EFL Classroom members, We hope everyone has had a great start to the 2016 school year. We are sure you are super busy and we’re here to help with a few mid month updates. Make sure to access our two magazines to get full...
The more, the longer I’m involved in education, the more clearly I’m able to see the forest for the trees. Truly. It’s something about just being there, mucking about, taking in loads of information daily that builds a soul inside oneself, the teacher. Not tooting...
It’s back to school time and we have lots of new and old resources to help you get back at it. Here are a few updates and news on the community. 1. Magazines We have a new resources magazine and a professional development magazine for...
“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...
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...
Two way tasks are the staple activity of the communicative approach. Also known as an “information gap” activity, they force students to communicate with each other in order to retrieve information to complete a task. Usually these tasks involve students with different sets of information, usually...
Technology is allowing teachers to not just tear down the walls that surround their classroom, it also is allowing improved ways to present content. For the language classroom, images are an essential tool to generate conversation, contextualize vocabulary and build critical thinking skills. I’ve always...
{this is part of the “Captive Mind” series of blog posts – publishing online and decommercializing thought.] This piece of reflection was inspired by a former professor of mine – Dr. Gerald Gutek, professor of education, Loyola University and author of many books on educational...
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,...
I’ve long been a fan of KT – Kinetic Typography, videos where the text is displayed in a “contextual” and visually appealing fashion. Find Here or many of my favs, all collected for teachers to use. This one is a beautiful example. Made with Adobe...
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...
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...
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...
50 Professional Development Ideas For The New Year There is never a better time than “NOW” to start working on one’s own professional development as a teacher. However, often unless by chance you find yourself in the perfect school with perfect colleagues – it is...
I haven’t written much about language recently but I’m definitely always thinking about it. It is itself a jailer, something I can’t get away from and like the adage goes “I am language”. But been thinking about language as it relates to what we teachers...
This morning, sat down and had some “my time”. Went through a number of my hundreds of notebooks full of philosophy, essays, poems that I’ve been collecting over 4 decades. A lot of stuff buried in these books but was surprised to pull open about...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. $$ Teacher Salary and Benefits $$ The Gates Foundation is pouring money into “better educational outcomes”. Lots of money. But little of it is going into the pockets of working teachers. In fact, most...
I’m all about ‘disruption” (to borrow Clayton Christensen’s term) and think this is the most potent role that technology plays in our society. A disrupter thinks small and keeps moving. Large companies/groups are about sustaining and normalcy – the small can dress up in...
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