"When one teaches, two learn"
Further to my last post here, I didn’t think this was a good enough presentation. So I spent the weekend designing a player loaded with what I consider all the “best” videos for teaching ELT. – http://eflclassroom.com/videolessons/ In the player, you can click through and view the...
Recently, we’ve added many, many video based lessons to our community resources. Many of them are “silent” containing no words or spoken dialog. But don’t fear, they are excellent to use in the ELT Classroom! This infographic (Download ) shows many standard and simple ways.
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...
Recently on the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog, I posted 3 lists of 50 tasks that teachers can use in their teaching – asking students to do them and “practice” language, the skill that is language speaking/reading/writing/listening. Surprised to death at how popular these lists were!...
The blank dialogue is a very “natural” teaching approach. Something intuitive about it. I used it in my early days of teaching – just pausing a dialogue on cassette tape and asking students to respond. You had to get skilled with using those big buttons!...
It’s Sunday a day of repose. Re – Pose. Re Position. If there is one thing in my life I’ve done well – it is to “dance to the beat of my own drummer” a la Thoreau or that other great quote of Blake’s, “No...
This video opens the door to the actual practice of the flipped instructional model. (not a language classroom but think of what it would mean for one). A very interesting way to think of “teaching”. Basically, it means for ELT that the heavy lifting, the...
I’m putting together an online presentation for some Brazilian teachers and I’ll be talking about “Stickiness”. I thought it would be worthwhile to air my own thoughts specifically about what makes our teaching “stick”. In other words, how to make what we do transfer into...
Today, my “much better half” insisted that our dog Chico could understand Korean. She showed me how he could understand Korean and sit and stay, even give paw. I had a good chuckle. Not much different to many teachers who believe their students understand them...
Here is a sample of the SCC (student created content) coursebook that I will be publishing this December. I’ll be posting my lead in forward, detailing specifically my beliefs about SCC and why it is a new, essential methodology for ELT, especially given the new...
Here is a quick update to a post I really think valuable to teachers – Teaching as Chopping Wood. The update is me chopping wood and really just to get others to read a blog post I am proud of and which I think has...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Get the full eBook Retelling Getting our students retelling, even in a very simple form, is SO powerful! It creates active listeners and learners and really enlivens the learning process. Throughout my own career...
I sat down this morning, coffee at the ready, ready to write some advice to new teachers about the coming school year. I thought about the usual things – classroom management, organization, icebreakers, action research, personalizing, then for some strange reason I started thinking of...
Teenage Second Language Learning Why they are different and why that matters [see my workshop materials for teaching teens – here. / Also this post is a reply to this post- The Captive Mind] The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ...
I would like to share one of the ideas that most invigorates and informs me as a teacher. The idea of “Student Created Content” or SCC. I borrow the term from UGC or UCC, “user-generated/created content” which is the motor of Web 2.0 and the...
Sooner or later, every teacher who is around long enough, will be required to submit/produce/write up, their philosophy of education. I really think it invaluable to make this “thought visible”. The process itself helps to solidify your already held beliefs and give you some “clear...
I just spent a day evaluating Korean teachers in their classrooms, as part of the TEE (Teaching English in English) program. I’m going to keep away from that topic – it’s still too raw, so to speak. However, I did take lots of notes and...
Download the ebook WHY? Games are fun and motivational. They increase student talk time (production). Visuals add context to the language learning. They are quick and easy to use. They allow for repetition and proper scaffolding of the learning. WHERE? Flashcards of all conceivable sets...
One of my previous blog posts spoofed the 7 “marvellous” sins of great teachers. Now, I’d like to unspoof and great real and talk about “new” English teachers. I just spent 2 days interviewing 29 new teachers each day! Wow, talk about a treadmill….. The...
Yesterday, during a teacher training workshop, I was reminded of a theory I had about “great teachers”. Long ago over many beers, in a pub in the Czech Republic, I outlined the idea that a great teacher was a “heretic”, a kind of rebel with...
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