This is just a short note to update you all on some new things you can find here now. BASIC TRAINING is an ongoing series at sharing in straightforward and low-tech ways how to go about teaching, simply. The first instalment is on how to get learners talking and capitalise on what they say […]
Month: August 2012
Basic Training series going online
I am starting a new series of pages with the title Basic Training, where I will be summarising and illustrating some fundamentals of language classroom work (at least, as far as I see it!) Initially I thought about doing this mainly to support my CELTA trainees but then I thought that it might be generally […]
the classroom as crucible
Some months ago, I had sad occasion to write a eulogy of sorts to the best teacher I ever had – Chris Foley.
In it, I wrote how he tempered me to take the edge of thoughtful enquiry (which probably sounds incredibly pompous and conceited, but if I have any intellectual sharpness, I have him to thank for it.)
The image was of the furnace, the blacksmith, the forge – and, at the forge’s heart, in the pit of the furnace, sits the crucible.
Most of us will never see a crucible of this kind in action, but I would like to suggest that we have all spent many years of our lives within a crucible of a very different kind.
Read more of this post at http://wp.me/p2DMwG-g9