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: Group Dynamic Relevance to learners’ lives Emergent language Attentiveness Thoughtfulness You can find my posts on the first three characteristics by clicking on them […]
Category: Training ideas
Posts summarising ideas for how to simplify initial teacher training courses (such as Cambridge CELTA, Trinity CertTESOL etc.)
Dear Diary…
On our CELTA courses up to now, we have maintained an approach to finding out what our trainees thought about their teaching that is fairly typical of such courses: we ask them to write a self-evaluation after they have taught, which they submit to us before we sit down with them to discuss the lesson.
Blast from the Past! – new old article
Just posted another old (or should that be ‘vintage’?) article of mine that I dug up. Re-reading it wasn’t too embarrassing so I thought I’d share. I can see lots of connections to now: the ideas about learner independence explain why Howard Vickers’ talk at the Dogme Symposium resonates so much with me, and the […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “Two…”
This mini-series sketches out some of the ideas that I would like to explore at the upcoming TDSIG Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on 21 May 2011. If any of them chime with you and you would like to explore them as well – or if you would like to work on completely different issues, the conference […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “Three…”
This mini-series sketches out some of the ideas that I would like to explore at the upcoming TDSIG Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on 21 May 2011. If any of them chime with you and you would like to explore them as well – or if you would like to work on completely different issues, the conference […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “Four…”
This mini-series sketches out some of the ideas that I would like to explore at the upcoming TDSIG Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on 21 May 2011. If any of them chime with you and you would like to explore them as well – or if you would like to work on completely different issues, the […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “Six…”
This mini-series sketches out some of the ideas that I would like to explore at the upcomingTDSIG Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on 21 May 2011. If any of them chime with you and you would like to explore them as well – or if you would like to work on completely different issues, the conference […]
Unplugging day three: exploiting anecdotes
On our current CELTA course day three started like this… Anthony told the trainees that something had happened to him the previous evening on his way home and that he was unsure about how he dealt with it. He told them that he wanted to tell them what happened and would like them to say […]
Unplugging Day Two
So what does day two look like? Just to recap: on day one, the teachers have observed, listened and reflected; they have observed their tutors giving them feedback on the language they used when getting to know their colleagues, they have experienced being an absolute beginner (perhaps had their first Old English lesson) and they […]
New Page added!
This is a short note to let you know that I have added a new page (you can find the links to them on the right hand side menu column called “Is asking ‘what does X mean?’ a waste of time?” This was prompted by recent encounters with the question during teaching practice observations and […]