“Aren’t teenagers too self-conscious to speak English?” “Do they care about the contents that do not appear in their school tests?” “Well… I wouldn’t want to get into that area…” I have been teaching teens as well as pre-school and elementary school children at my language school, English Square, in Japan, for the last 20 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘tefl’
Teacher Development 2.0 (by Steven Herder)
I’ve always believed in the power of people to be able to come together to create something much bigger than any one of them individually. Here is a story about a bunch of teachers (myself and Barbara included) who are coming together to create something new called The International Teacher Development Institute (iTDi).
Images à la Dogme (by Chiew Pang)
I must admit that when Barb invited me to submit a guest post, I felt I wasn’t worthy of such an invite. Later, I thought… if she’d felt that I had something to contribute, well, then I couldn’t very well let her down, could I? Besides, one has to step out of one’s comfort zone [...]
How culture matters
If you walk into a neighborhood in my part of Japan, you’ll see a display like this somewhere near the entrance. It’s a map showing all of the houses in a neighborhood, and the names of families who live in the houses. Do you have something like this where you live?
Lexical Chunks for Kids (by Mark Kulek)
Mark left a comment on a recent post of mine (How Context Matters) that intrigued me, about using lexical chunks with his young learners. I asked him to expand on his comment in a guest post, and Mark was kind enough to agree. ~Barb
Three Great Interview Series
I’m always impressed with the ways teachers exploit the power of social media to share and collaborate. These three series of interviews are great examples of very different but equally wonderful ways of sharing.
Students Picking Pics (by Randy Poehlman)
When students are able to choose which images best represent the content of the lessons, they are instantly more engaged and they become far more active. Students can tailor the themes to their particular interests, or the general interests of their classmates, far better than a teacher can select relevant photography and illustrations. This bottom [...]
Personal experiences of a new TEFL teacher (by Anna Greenwood)
I thought that a one month TEFL course and the fact that I am a native speaker of English would be enough to equip me to teach English. As I started to teach in Nepal, and later in India I slowly learnt many lessons myself. The most important lesson I learnt was to be genuine [...]
How Context Matters
What are these? How are they used?
Teaching in a Buddhist Monastery in India (by Anna Greenwood)
I am teaching in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery school in India. The area surrounding the school is rural; we have fields of ginger and coconut trees. The school is provided for the monks that live in the monastery and is entirely funded through the monastery. I see the students for one class a day. There [...]
