Because Santa knows that teachers are always good girls and boys, the Great Bearded One asked me to help him out a bit this year with his deliveries. So here is a link to your very own Christmas present from me and the mighty, mighty Phil Wade – a one-month teacher development experiment, 5 minutes […]
Category: Fun
Mr. Gaughan goes to (IH) London
Back in September, I was honoured to be invited by Varinder Unlu to give a short talk for her colleagues at International House London about unplugging teacher training. IH London record these sessions and so – thanks to their efforts and the magic of the internet – I can share this with you all! Huge […]
Bits and pieces
Funny how half a year can slip by… It is with some shock and no small degree of shame that I realised it has been that long since my last post here. So I thought I would give you all a quick update on some of what I have been up to and what I’ll […]
taking a blogging busman’s holiday
Instead of writing anything for my own blog this month, I’ve had the honour and the pleasure of writing a guest post as part of the ongoing “10 Books that Shaped my Teaching” series initited by TDSIG, the IATEFL Teacher Development Special Interest Group. If the idea of finding out what kinds of books have […]
to andi and scott, with love, anthony’s students
A couple of days ago I taught a short (35 minute) lesson to the teaching practice students on the CELTA course we are running in Hamburg at the moment. I had used a personal story to introduce the structure “used to” and, while setting up some controlled practice, I had told the students that I […]
Sneak preview – seconds away…
I am lucky enough to be one of those invited to speak at the upcoming IH Barcelona ELT Conference, 8-9 February 2013. The event has already sold out, but if you are going to be there and have no other plans between 12:45 – 1:45pm on Saturday 9 February, then come along to room B […]
On Why The (Unplugged) Revolution Will Not Be Televised
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjaADbq_2AI (Gil Scott-Heron reciting The Revolution Will Not Be Televised) There is nothing like a conference to re-ignite debate.
Christmas ELT Appeal: Worst Case Scenario Survival Toolkit
I got an email a few days ago from a teacher in Australia called Rufus. She works with teachers in parts of the world where resources that many of us take for granted can be scarce, and where others that we may occasionally get our hands on are pure pipe dream. She asked me to […]
ELT BITES Materials-Light Lesson Challenge!
Richard Gresswell over at ELT BITES posted a low-materials challenge for teachers recently – you can find the challenge and instructions here. I thought I would try, so… Lesson Idea: “What’s up? There’s been a powercut” True story – I arrived at work one morning many years ago to find the school in darkness and dismay – there was […]
The Littlest Hobo (And Other Unsung Language Teaching Heroes)
Browsing the British Airways Business Life in-flight magazine (as you do), I noticed a feature called Think like…, where unlikely characters from everyday life or entertainment are co-opted as surprisingly profound business gurus. This got me thinking about all the characters from the entertainment world who we could learn from if only we were more […]