I was wondering what you all thought of learning designs pertaining to English language teaching? What are the ways in which you design your lessons to achieve better learning in your students?Continue
Bob Dylan's Who Killed Davey Moore is EPIK Song of the Week #6. I thought it was apporpriate because of the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death by shoppers. I rapped about the whole infuriating thing in… Continue
The inestimable Jermey Harmer has been recently reviewing this immortal topic as he travels the world and collects his paycheck for all the years of hard work he's put in. Here is a very much younger Jeremy Harmer discussing the same subject, nice dialogue. Also, I love his answers here.Here…
Wilco is a home town favorite of mine. I have seen them play once and was floored until front man Jeff Tweedy through a temper tantrum on stage. Apparently he is really hard to work with from what former band members have said. Good thing he… Continue
Continuing off from yesterday's post about micro skills and management that can really decrease the distance between teacher and student -- I thought I'd continue and post up some helpful "small" and practical advice that I've gleaned from my diverse 17 years of EFL / ESL teaching.
I do so because (and I'm repeating myself :)) it is the small things that make…
Well my second semester Interest-based English: Music class is just about done its voicethread. Please check it out and even leave a comment.
Enjoy! Continue
Korea has been opening trade agreements with South America lately. This is event by the abundence of Chilean wine at the supermarket. In addition companies like POSCO (the second largest steel producer in the world) often turn to the resources of South America for their manufacturing industries. Despite this I have seen almost no evidence that Spanish is being studied. There are a few Spanish speakers in Pohang that I am aware of. Some of…
I've taken to refining my technique over the last week or two dealing with my kindergarten classes. As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm of the little people for embracing life it can at times be counterproductive for maintaining some order in the bedlam of a class of 40 or so little people. My own pet phrase for understanding kindergarten runs, "Kindies are like packs of rabid ninjas who want to kill you. With dull forks."
Over the last month of teaching public kindies I've seen… Continue
I think many American educators but also teachers everywhere, should be VERY concerned about how governments and large corporations are trying to limit and filter the access to information online by students.
This is happening at a rapid pace and I'm horror struck. Please read the article below about pending Communication Commission regulations. The author makes the very sane argument that not only is this against any notion of freedom of speech but… Continue
So I just used Dave's Top 5 game in a class of third grade middle school students. Now as you may know here in Korea 3rd year MS students have already had their final examine. As you can imagine they have little or no interest in classes right now, even the ones where we are just having fun are much more difficult than usual to keep them on task.
Nonetheless I have been busting a gut since last period because the group right in front of me are a bunch of lively boys and one (usually)… Continue
Nicholas D. Kristof: Obama and schools
By Nicholas D. Kristof
Published: November 13, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama and his aides are sending signals that education may be on the back burner at the beginning of the new administration. He ranked it fifth… Continue
Another aspect of this writing CALL project that I am working on is to initiate an online chain story with imaginary class. As a pre-lesson activity, I'm asking my students to take a survey I've developed online. The survey is intended to get a gauge on their individual learning styles as well as their preferences for writing topics ranging from politics to science fiction. I'm going to use the results of the survey to develop a chain story. The class is going to be divided into groups and each… Continue
I'm a grad student currently working on a CALL topic presentation focused on creating an online writing unit complete with lesson materials. I wanted to integrate an electronic writing journal in which the students would be asked to 1) write on assigned topics and 2) reflect on their learning experiences throughout the course. The goal of the first task was to hopefully prompt the students to share their entries with their classmates and discuss. The goal of the second… Continue
Last year, my own community EFL Classroom 2.0 was nominated for an edublog award (best social networking site). See last year's nominees and winners HERE. A great honor and I don't know who nominated us but I want to do my own bit of nomination. I'll be reading and reviewing lots of blogs… Continue
If you've found out anything about me here beyond running and running at the mouth -- it is that I love TED > Technology, Education and Design, a series of talks by the best in the world. I even made our own updated page/feed which you can access and share publicly HERE.
TED is my own steroid, growth pill, it puts the world back into place and gives me perspective. It is the dry… Continue
This week I will be heading to Busan for another round of shark diving. This time I am taking Mary and Josh along. Hopefully we will be hitting Monk's (the Jazz Club) tonight and the Indian food restraunt after the dive tomorrow. Come to think of it I had been call the Hostel right after posting this...
I might also being going to Daegu for some "Billiebowl" (apparently a bowling and pool hybrid) if I still have the energy.
I am now teaching third graders at Changpo since… Continue
I'm just over 6 foot tall and a pretty robust fellow. You'd think I'd be the last person you would come across teaching kindergarten classes. Despite my size, beard, and gender I've been having a packet of fun working with the little people.
Some of the things I've quickly learned are;
1) They are little people.. Don't tower over them or you'll probably terrify them. I tend to stand off to the side a bit and try to kneel if I can.
I taught my first two public school classes today for nine year olds as a part of a community good will effort to line the pockets of my school owners. Despite the underhanded feeling about being shared out to various schools I do admit the experience is helpful as I plan to work in a public school in Korea someday.
Today, I taught one class of 48 students and another class of 40 students. As soon as their primary teacher left the classroom it turned into a three ring circus. The… Continue
Last weekend I attended the 16th Annual Korea TESOL International Conference. I also presented and I'd like to publicly and not so quietly, detail the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.....
First off, I really appreciate the chance to network at this conference and so whatever I may say -- I still think it invaluable. However, I am for the idea that if… Continue