Disqus - Latest Comments for teacherdevelopment

Re: teacher development - adVancEducation

teacherdevelopment — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:34:26 -0000

Hey Vance, I'm not sure if louise will be back, but this is very helpful for me!

I'm back on twitter and still ambivalent. Had a depressing experience with it yesterday when someone took offence to something I said (something very mild related to teaching) and unfollowed me after a terse direct message, leaving me no way of responding. But on the other hand, I've come across several very interesting articles that I would have missed otherwise.

TESL-EJ, great journal too!

Re: teacher development - Xtranormal and the Perils of Technology This is...

teacherdevelopment — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:40:30 -0000

Thanks Shelly, it really was worth doing. I don't doubt that there are places out there with great facilities.... I'm just looking towards the time when they are ubiquitous!

Darren

Re: The light at the end of the tunnel...

teacherdevelopment — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:28:24 -0000

Do you find any of the teachers fighting against the structures in place? It is a fairly rigid framework (not necessarily a bad thing).

Re: teacher development - http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090605010334703...

teacherdevelopment — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:24:17 -0000

Hi Alex,

Yeah, I saw that... finally finished the class cycle and posted an update - you can link to that, or I`ll write it up for you ; )

http://teacherdevelopment.t...

Darren

Re: teacher development - http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090605010334703...

teacherdevelopment — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:38:35 -0000

I'm listening! I'm listening!

Great article.... I'm considering the tone to take in writing up my experience. I had a few "issues" which lead me on to broader concerns....

Re: teacher development - http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090605010334703...

teacherdevelopment — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:15:03 -0000

Can't claim full credit for discovery...that chap diamondfingerz (a.k.a. Peter) put me on to it.

Re: On Teaching Well

teacherdevelopment — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:58:48 -0000

First of all, I disagree with your last statement. It is always important for me to be able to say "I am a good teacher" but sometimes I have to say "Today wasn't one of my best". One of the good (and bad) things about having qualifications is that you can point to them and say "Well, they thought I could do it". Actually, in some ways they give us false expectations. Yes, I have a DELTA, but can I perform to that level for twenty hours a week? We do get tired, distracted, drop the ball. I am all for self-critique, but from a position of self-belief. With the expectation of the inevitable trough, they are easier to deal with, no?

You are quite right, though, about principles getting in the way of students. Sometimes, too, they get in the way of the teacher. One of the hardest things about reflection is that it looks so easy. Do we believe what we purport to believe? How do we get past our surface motivations to what drives us at our core? One of my MA tutors once brought up the idea of congruency, and it hit home like a bullet. We must fit with the way we teach, but sometimes the only way we can know we aren't working is through this vague discomfort; incongruency.

Unfortunately, I think your context may be very different to mine; I get the impression that your students generally have specific language targets and time frames for learning? Adult learners? With ideas about learning which they are not afraid to express? If you factor in age, literacy, proficiency, culture.... I think it's harder on you because our students are still finding their goals, and because language is not really the main reason they come to us. What exactly is the make up of your average student?

Again, we come back to the researcher - teacher axis. Do my students learn buckets of vocabulary? Probably not, at least..not all of them. Do I care....? Well, I would rather they did but I am more concerned that they learn about learning, that they take responsibility for themselves, that they try a new way of looking at things. Coming to university after high school we are supposed to help them become thinking adults with (improved language skills). I guess your students are already thinking adults.... much tougher to deal with.

Re: Dream Sequence

teacherdevelopment — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:57:43 -0000

After watching the movie "Fantasia" with my son, I`m thinking that might be a lot of fun too....

Re: the one who is likely to drop out

teacherdevelopment — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:34:26 -0000

Hi Tina, just checking back in to see how it`s going. Did you manage to keep him in? What did you do?

Darren

Re: Untitled

teacherdevelopment — Wed, 13 May 2009 10:26:09 -0000

Welcome! Glad to see you got set up... now, post your first post and come and comment on the others in the network ; )

Darren

Re: So far so good - and now what?

teacherdevelopment — Sun, 10 May 2009 20:14:34 -0000

Hey Simon, you are pretty much where you need to be with this now.... you can add a nice picture or title, but basically this blog is functional. Now go to your dashboard and write something...an introduction to yourself and your context, something you are working on, some reading you are into, whatever you like... and the rest of us can come in and comment. Likewise, come and comment on the other blogs in our little network! Welcome!

Re: teacher development - (via bobby stokes) There are two celebrations...

teacherdevelopment — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:42:59 -0000

probably not.... perhaps she left part of her aura behind ; P

But i remember working in an all male environment... i did a bit of factory work many years ago, and it hung on me out of the gates and all the way home. I caught myself saying things I really shouldn't have said in mixed company. But on the other hand, I have pretty unpleasant memories of my time in an all female office. Bottom line is, we need each other .... or at least, the idea of each other....

What I want to know is, why is a woman from Japan studying English in Oman?

Darren

Re: teacher development - (via bobby stokes) There are two celebrations...

teacherdevelopment — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:10:41 -0000

I`m with you on the difficulty of mixing genders in class. I sometimes have the same problem, for different reasons of modesty and shyness, with my university aged teenagers and young adults. It tends to be the males who are either quiet to the point of catatonia or energetic to the point of disruption. This is not to say that there are no poor female students, or that all the males are difficult. I, too, like to think I treat all equally...but who knows for sure?

I`m ending most of my classes with reflection questions this semester, mixing them up to keep things fresh. One of the questions I have lined up is "How would this class be different if Darren were a woman?". It`ll be interesting to see what they have to say (once the sniggers have died down...)

Darren

Re: IMPORTANT-PLEASE READ

teacherdevelopment — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:59:27 -0000

That`s OK Yumi... it was a very interesting comment ;D

Darren E.

Re: Assessing Speaking

teacherdevelopment — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:19:02 -0000

Thanks for taking the time over it... I think that does seem to be the way it's developing.

It's working for me because it keeps me writing, which in itself helps me understand what I am actually thinking. Knowing that it will be read focuses me even more, and the responses help me re-evaluate, and so on, and so on...

I hope that, as we continue, we will see the deeper benefits as we come to re-visit certain topics. As we get to know more and more about each other's contexts, ways of thinking, and concerns, it will be interesting to see how that colours the interaction. That was something I saw as different from email lists, social networking groups, twitter, and the other online collaborative platforms I had come across. This is long form and reflective; I'm writing for myself, but with others.

Re: Chaos and control

teacherdevelopment — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:56:41 -0000

I really like this post... plenty of meat to get stuck into, and something I'm really working on myself at the moment. I posted before on the Schmitt / Nation inspired vocabulary tests I'll be using this semester; I've now started, and I'll be collecting the first fifteen word lists from each of the students in the pilot class this week. I'll keep you up to date with it as we go...

I'll have a crack at this point by point...

1. We have a copy of the original General Service List here in our university library. It really is a remarkable piece of work, especially when you consider it was all done without the aid of computer technology. As you say, it still holds up.
2.Oh for an interactive whiteboard.... I'm still using chalk, half the time!
3.The nitty gtritty - I don't think there is anything wrong with writing a lot of new vocabulary up on the board, as long as you don't expect the students to learn it. That is, sometimes we just need to gloss vocabulary to oil the wheels of communication, to set up another activity, or to satisify a temporary curiousity. Very little that happens in the classroom is really about teaching >>> learning in a direct fashion.

This is why students must indivdualize their vocabulary learning and take responsibility for learning it. I don't think it is practical for the teacher to select a set of words to introduce every lesson, to recycle the words on a regular basis, to assume that those words are equally relevant for every student, and to expect them to learn every one. Learners may well pick out words which they picked up in class, then take them away for the "whole word" treatment (with synonyms, definitions, translations, pictures, example sentences and so on). But they may also find the words they need in the newspaper, on the telly, at work.... a couple of years ago, I had a fairly sudden need to know words like contraction and midwife in Japanese. That's exactly the sort of thing we need to learn on our own, rather than with a class.

I think, really, our job is to help the students learn how to choose which vocabulary they need and then how to study it.

Re: Researching the classroom atmosphere

teacherdevelopment — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:04:37 -0000

Late to the party here!

I think Rose Senior has given us a definitive answer to this one.... her study in "The Experience of Language Teaching" surveyed more than one hundred teachers over twelve years. Much as I hate to do it (!) I'll quote my review in the JALT journal, May 2008.

Senior posits that social cohesion and effective learning are intertwined, and the flexibility of experienced teachers is intuitively informed by an understanding of group dynamics and pedagogy. A teacher will thus select the best course of action to serve both factors. This is perhaps described most pithily by the aphorism “Drawing the class together according to its social needs; Drawing the class along by attending to its learning needs; Drawing the class both together and along” (p. 280).

That's all very well of course, but if your school is perceived to be the best around then that's all that counts....

Darren

Re: the one who is likely to drop out

teacherdevelopment — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:17:48 -0000

Of course, students also have a responsibility for their own learning.... he knew he was avoiding class and being disruptive. As you say, he came to you and you can both start afresh ; )

Re: the one who is likely to drop out

teacherdevelopment — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:39:40 -0000

I feel your pain. The trouble with these students is that the more they miss, the more demotivated they become. I had a business class full of them once.... one student used to come unfailingly, and complain about the other students for not showing up.

Prevention is better than cure in this case, but you have got past that point. Is there any hope of him catching up? He has at least opened the dialogue with you, and explained his frustrations. This would indicate that he is willing to try. Perhaps you can set him some extra study for outside class, focusing on his problem areas. First of all though, you do need to set some ground rules regarding the mobile phone and the missed classes.....

Re: Assessing Speaking

teacherdevelopment — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:32:20 -0000

It is imprecise, but returning to so many of the other posts and comments that have popped up so far in our little "project", a recurring theme is that we cannot reduce language learning to mathematical formulae. We correct errors when it seems appropriate. researchers cannot tell teachers what to do in the classroom because they don`t know. It`s all rather good fun, isn`t it?

Re: Error Correction

teacherdevelopment — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:26:53 -0000

I very rarely correct mistakes as they occur, unless the students are entirely incomprehensible. I think this relates very much to my beliefs as a learner - frankly, I couldn`t care less if I make a mistake, as long as I get my point across. Does this, though, condemn my students to a life as good communicators but inaccurate speakers (and the stigma that this carries in, say, professional contexts)?

Well, the key questions are whether error correction actually has any effect on longer term accuracy and, if so, what kind of correction. The jury seems to be out on both. Truscott believes that it is not only pointless but actually detrimental. Others point to evidence that it is important. Who knows?

The assumption is that what is good for the presenter (with his learning style, his life experience, his learning context) is good for his students. My inclination to under (?) correct may come from my experience teaching in Japan; students here tend to take time to formulate every utterance, and the last thing I want to do is stop them mid sentence to correct a mistake. Having taught arabic speakers I imagine that you, Peter, would have slightly different issues. (Disclaimer - no stereotypes were harmed in the composition of this blog comment).

As someone who has learnt the language solely by using it, my fluency and communicative competence in Japanese far outstrips my accuracy. This is not necessarily the case for "EFL" learners (if that is what we are still calling it).

For sure it`s an action research project that would shine a light on what you actually believe. The problem is that whatever you believe, you can`t really be sure it`s correct . In which case, you should probably find a compromise between what you and the students are comfortable with.

Darren

Re: teacher development - Study Finds Jack Shit Pardon the language… but...

teacherdevelopment — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:59:41 -0000

The DELTA is murder for that. In some ways, it sets an unrealistic standard - not for an individual lesson, but for a career. I know that I can plan and teach DELTA standard lessons, so when I don`t do that ten times a week I can`t help but feel a bit flat. Of course, the overall standard of my teaching is better (If you aim for the stars, at least you can get out of the gutter, as the saying doesn`t quite go...)

But Good Point - it`s not the ones who are already engaged that researchers need to reach.

One way might be through better textbooks. To use another example of something that most researchers can agree on; teaching opposites together can cause interference. But how many books teach left and right in the same unit? It seems natural, but research shows it to be wrong.

For those teachers out there who follow teachers` guides slavishly (probably the ones who are not confident enough to research their own practice), many books ARE trying to start from good theoretical principles. But many aren`t.

Even as I write this, I have to admit I am sceptical that a well-crafted book can determine good classroom practice.

All this, and not a mention of bikinis or the buzzcocks!

Re: teacher development - Study Finds Jack Shit Pardon the language… but...

teacherdevelopment — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:48:58 -0000

Getting the message across to who, though? The range of teachers and teaching contexts is immense...it goes back to your analogy with language learning - a newly qualified or unqualified teacher is not ready for the same information as someone twenty years post Masters, or rather...the information perhaps needs to be conveyed in different ways. Factor in native language, variety of experience, training, teaching style.... the researchers have a broad constituency.

They can`t assume that "practitioners aren`t smart enough to get this unless we dumb it down". On the other hand, it can be hard going to read some of the stuff out there, and relate it to our own situations.

Embrace the punk rock aesthetic, DiY. That`s the only way to really find out the answers to the questions you have about your own classroom. Of course, John Lydon is now selling butter... I guess paralells can be drawn with the researchers who start out with the rest of us in the trenches and end up in the ivory towers being feed grapes by scantily clad secretaries.

Now, where`s my CV gone..... ; P

Re: teacher development - classroom 2.0

teacherdevelopment — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:07:15 -0000

Thanks Michael, and thanks for the link. I`ll enjoy not quite having enough time to read it too ; P

Re: teaching and learning vocabulary

teacherdevelopment — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:58:04 -0000

Well, if anyone knows, he should ; )

Small world, but his wife (and sometime co-author) Diane was one of my MA tutors.

I'm going to try it out, anyway. I'll show them how to make cards with collocates, synonyms, antonyms, word forms, translation, example sentences, pictures, definitions, then collect their lists every three weeks or so. I'm making a code now so they know what they should do with each word (e.g. C = collocation, ES = example sentence). I hope that, although they may learn fewer words this way, they will learn those better and "deeper". That is, the "whole" word.

If nothing else, it's inspired me to get out my Kanji cards and start studying Japanese on my morning commute again!