In my last post, I took a light-hearted look at some – ahem – cultural icons whom I felt had some affinity with language learning and teaching. A few people were amused by it and one of those took up the idea and ran with it, creating the scurrilously hilarious interview blog alternativeeflgurus. This example of […]
Category: Training Philosophy
posts exploring why we choose to work the way we do.
Why ELT needs to cut like a knife
A few weeks back I was working with a group of CEF B2 learners. I had recently returned from a holiday in France and had brought a souvenir back with me: a pocket knife made by hand in the traditional heart of French blade-making, Thiers. The knife itself (as you can see in the picture) is […]
Own Experience?
About a week ago, this comment appeared on my blog: Hi Anthony, I had an interesting chat with some other TEFLers and 1 person was positive that pre-CELTA teaching really helped him on his CELTA. This would fit in with reflection but do you think it’s important to only accept people with some teaching exp or even […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “We have lift-off…”
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: “One…”
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: “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: “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 […]
TDSIG Unplugged Countdown: Ignition
The Gathering The IATEFL Teacher Development Special Interest Group (TDSIG) is holding a one-day Unplugged Conference in Barcelona on Saturday 21 May – in other words, one week tomorrow. The term conference is perhaps a little misleading, as the event is being held in Open Space, which consciously rejects preset agendas or predetermined content. Instead, […]
Teacher Training Unplugged Hits Harrogate
Izzy and I have just returned from the IATEFL conference in Harrogate, UK – a 4-day whirlwind of ideas and experiences. One reason for going was to hold a workshop on our recent attempts to approach CELTA teacher Training in a Dogme-like fashion, and to help beginning teachers learn to teach this way from scratch. […]
How Dogme Are We? – Part 2
You can be Dogme in many different ways, depending on which aspect of its philosophy you value. For example, the teacher who values a shared teaching and learning space uncluttered with unneeded materials will try to reduce to the required minimum what resources from outside the classroom they import into it. The teacher who values […]