Posts summarising ideas for how to simplify initial teacher training courses (such as Cambridge CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL etc.)
I’ve been thinking about listening skills a lot since we decided to “unplug” our CELTA course back in 2009 (if you are interested in catching up with that work, you can watch a summary talk we gave at IATEFL 2010, or read some blog posts here, here and here.).
Listening skills development is certainly not a novel topic; what is perhaps unusual about my preoccupation is that it hasn’t been the students’ listening skills that I’ve been thinking about, but the teachers’.
Have you forgotten the way to my hut?
Each evening, I wait for the sound of your footsteps
But they are never there.
I heard this haiku translation (or something close to it) in Berlin several years ago during a workshop on Big Words, Small Grammar by Scott Thornbury. I am not sure why, but I fell in love with this short poem then, and was fascinated by the sheer volume of study content embodied therein: present perfect simple; question formation; possessive pronouns; time referencing; present simple; prepositional phrases; coordinating conjunctions; negation; determiners; irregular verb forms; the article system, transivity, countability, plurality…
Since then, I have only taken two opportunities to exploit it for teaching, and both times, I have found it to be a beautiful, enriching and yet confounding experience.
The first time was several years ago, shortly after getting to know the poem; the second time was two days ago, as part of an observed lesson on a CELTA course I am teaching on.
I would like to share with you what happened in this lesson, share the written outcomes by my students, and say a little about why I am surprised and invigorated by the power of poetry in ELT. Continue reading
I’ve just finished my first Webinar on what makes a lesson GREAT and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it!
It was strange talking into thin air for almost an hour but it was lovely to see so many people there and participating through comments: thank you all for coming. I know how busy teachers’ days are, so I truly appreciate it.
As it was my first time, I totally messed up the upload of my presentation slides, and had to work with an incomplete set – serves me right for not checking in advance! However, here they are, in all their intended glory. You can either play it as a slideshow (each slide is set for 10 seconds so you can read the text-heavy ones) or you can click through.
Thank you for being patient with me.
PS: Note that the URL given on the first slide is now out of date – but if you are reading this, you know that already!
Here is the final part in a five-part series of posts inspired by Mike Harrison, who asked on the IATEFL Facebook page “what makes a lesson GREAT?” My answer was:
Thoughtfulness
You can find my posts on the first four characteristics by clicking on them above. But all good things must come to an end, so let’s close this series on a thoughtful note…
(credit: thanks to Ceri Jones and ELTPics for this image)
How thoughtful are you and your learners – towards each other in class? Towards your learning? Towards the task in hand, whatever it may be?
For a lesson to be truly great, I would like to suggest in closing this series that thoughtfulness, on several different levels, is essential. Continue reading
Here is the much-delayed part four in a five-part series of posts inspired by Mike Harrison, who asked on the IATEFL Facebook page “what makes a lesson GREAT?” My answer was:
Attentiveness
Thoughtfulness
You can find my posts on the first three characteristics by clicking on them above. Or you can start in medias res by reading on…
The now-traditional glance in my dictionary tells me this about attentiveness:
attentive |əˈtɛntɪv|
adjective
paying close attention to something : never before had she had such an attentive audience | Congress should be more attentive to the interests of taxpayers.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French attentif, -ive, from atendre ‘give one’s attention to’ (see attend ).
Attentiveness is then, the paying of attention to something. Seems obvious, but there are one or two implications worth paying attention to! Continue reading