"When one teaches, two learn"
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...
Over the holidays, I worked hard to update and improve and then launch 2 new and improved courses. The Basic TESOL Certificate course and a reflective teaching course – Zen and the Act of Teaching. The certificate course is paid. Very low price, lifetime access to...
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,...
“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...
This year marks the 130th anniversary of John Milton Gregory’s influential (at its time) statement about what teaching and learning fundamentally is – The 7 Laws Of Teaching. Do you agree that they still apply to today’s classroom and schooling? Which are true and which have...
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...
Our LinkedIn group is growing and there is a lot of sharing of ideas. A great place to do some summer professional development or to add your own thoughts. So here are some recent conversations of note with many comments and insights. Check them out!...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. The Making Of An Expert I’ve been involved in teacher training and professional development for a long time. A lot of...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Silence I remember being a new teacher and I was so deathly scared of any silence in the classroom! I’d yammer and stammer away just to fill that void. It was a panic attack,...
I’ve been seeking inspiration for my own teaching. I’m still teaching online, working online, but will after a year outside “the regular classroom” be returning to the reality of 4 walls. You can’t replace F2F. I wrote a bit about missing this before and I’ve...
Teaching a language isn’t as easy as it sounds – to do it well. Just showing up to a class and speaking (we call this modeling language) is only half the job. And that other half is an art form that one acquires over the...
One of the nice things about the small city I moved to recently, is that it has a wonderful theater downtown, minutes from my house. Every Sunday, they have a $5 showing and tonight they showed “The King’s Speech”. Great movie, highly recommend it despite...
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...
I get asked a lot, “how do you do so much?” or am labeled, “the hardest working ELT teacher”. I’m always somewhat lost as to how to respond. Baffled really. I guess I’m a fish that knows nothing about the water I swim in! You...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. The British Council’s – Teaching English Last week I wrote about the #1 Professional Development site for ESL. This week, the focus is EFL. I’m a big fan of the power of “Teaching Voices”,...
I had a number of wonderful emails about my blog post – TEFL “non stick” teaching. So I decided to make the blog post into a presentation. (download here – with music – Being a good teacher) Also see my almost iconic presentation, Effective EFL...
Today, I get to have some fun! Last week, Willy Cardoso wrote a fictional conversation that he might have had with Karenne Sylvester about the use of materials in ELT. Karenne wrote previously about “materials light” or Dogme teaching. When I read Willy’s post – I definitely...
I just finished a whirlwind 6 day week of workshops on technology and language teaching – given to mostly new teachers. I had a wonderful time and the energy of the teachers always renews me, no matter how tiring the 6 hour sessions a day...
I’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...
** Not your ordinary, endless list – just what’s number 1. Teaching on the job So maybe you don’t think on the job training counts? Maybe that without training teachers will just be the blind, leading the blind? Well, there is a lot of evidence...
Reader’s Comments