While looking for a few examples for tomorrow's TD session on participle clauses, I came across a website that might be really useful for material to use with our interactive whiteboard. It's basically a site for sharing powerpoint presentations. Masses of stuff on here. You can sign up for free, or you can use the slideshows without even bothering to sign up!
http://www.slideshare.net
Here are some I found that you might find useful:
http://www.slideshare.net/bleiva2003/teaching-efl-with-the-brain-in-mind/
A sl;ideshow on brain-friendly teaching. Anyone interested in multiple intelligences have a look here.
http://www.slideshare.net/sevans59/participle-clauses
This is the one that started it all - participle clauses!!!
But there is masses of stuff on here - just do a search for whatever you would like to do with your students and see what it comes up with. You can make the slide shows full screen to show on the board.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Leadership and learning within an institution
I want here to combine my thought and recollections from 2 sessions I attended that were very different but led me to very similar thoughts. The first session is Adrian Underhill's session "Growing your school as a learning organisation" and the second the final plenary by Maggie Farrar, "Dealers In Hope".
Adrian in his session mostly encouraged us to reflect and then articulate our reflections on how much our institutions are organisations that actively seek to learn and to grow. He talked a lot about relationships within an organisation and how important it is to seek to develop every relationship and to learn something from them. I think here all of us have a very close relationship with a few individuals within the school but probably have very little idea of what is happening in the working lives of others and of what we could learn from them. For me, one very thought-provoking strand was to reflect on what we as an individual have learned recently (most of us could probably answer that question with a little thought) but also who else knows about what we've learned. If individuals are learning something, it doesn't necessarily mean that the institution is learning as a result of this. Sometimes (I think maybe always) it is necessary for this knowledge to be expressed and shared and linked with the growing knowledge of someone else in the school. How often do you feel that you are working very hard and learning a lot about teaching, but that your work is not always appreciated?
We were asked to reflect on conversations that happen within our schools and encouraged to a) start more conversations ourselves, especially with people that we didn't always have conversations with, and start them with a view to learning something. b) think after conversations about what we had learned as individuals but also about what the institution had learned b) think about the group size of a conversation and whether it was the most effective.
I'm not sure I've expressed some of my thought very well here. Adrian is somewhat more articulate than myself, and has promised to email his session notes (but I am still waiting. I shall edit this poist and add them when they arrive) Final thought from this session - do we learn through working? or do we work through learning? and shouldn't it be the second of these?
Maggie Farra's session came from something of a different angel as she is Operational Director at the National College of School Leadership and is much more involved with leadership in schools (primary and secondary) and how to develop leadership in young people. She talked a lot about ensuring that leadership is sustainable and the need to ensure that leadership is distributed in the sense that others feel empowered to lead, that the environment encourages learning of leadership, that leaders believe in the ability of all to improve.
The diagram below represents the 3 areas of individual, organisation or team, and system (for us this would definitely be bigger than the school and would represent the whole system of English language learning/teaching etc. both in this country and overseas)
The idea here is that we all operate within each of these circles. Learning occurs where 2 circles overlap with each other. For example, the individual learns from the team and also the team learns and develops through the individuals who interact with it. For leadership, all 3 circles need to overlap.
I think the key concept is that the organisation consists of every individual, that evryone needs to be taken account of, and that everyone is responsible for this. If you want the organisation to be led well (or to learn as per Adrian Underhill's talk) then everyone has things to contribute. But do we always lead when we are able to? Do we always contribute our thoughts and ideas? Do we have any idea what the thoughts and ideas of other members of staff or students are? Maggie said that she had used a system she calls the "Cloud 9 file". The rationale for this is that staff will often not come forward with thoughts about the organisation because they may find themselves with additional work as a result. Even if it isn't as cold-blooded as this, I'm sure most of us have had ideas that never go any further because they are still a bit half-baked or we aren't clear in our minds how they could be carried forward. The Cloud 9 file is literally a file that is kept in your office/staff room/wherever and people actually record these half-baked thoughts. Others can browse the file and add comments or even act on the ideas if they feel inspired to. And the file can be brought out occasionally at meetings or other forums. I liked this idea and thought it might work well in a small school like this.
Other key points that made me think:
- our conversations should be about learning (rather similar to Adrian Underhill's ideas don't you think?)
- professional speed dating. Everybody (including students) go through a kind of speed dating process where everyone spends about 5 minutes from everyone else and learns somehing from them. Try it in your classes?
- over-listen to those who tell you what you most want to hear. Don't avoid those difficult conversations because those are the ones we learn most from.
- leaders should be ambitious for their organisation , humble about themselves, and confident about the future. recognise that learning is incremental and involves mistakes. We recognise that mistakes are part of the process for our students, even within our teaching, but it's also true of leadership.
I'm aware that this is rather a stream of ideas and thoughts but I am trying to find more learning opportunities in everything I do and I guess I'm using this forum to try to share what I'm learning and will continue to try and do so. To me the important thing is to want to learn, to want the school to learn and improve, but to start with myself and hope that other people will do the same.
Comments and replies warmly welcomed.
Adrian in his session mostly encouraged us to reflect and then articulate our reflections on how much our institutions are organisations that actively seek to learn and to grow. He talked a lot about relationships within an organisation and how important it is to seek to develop every relationship and to learn something from them. I think here all of us have a very close relationship with a few individuals within the school but probably have very little idea of what is happening in the working lives of others and of what we could learn from them. For me, one very thought-provoking strand was to reflect on what we as an individual have learned recently (most of us could probably answer that question with a little thought) but also who else knows about what we've learned. If individuals are learning something, it doesn't necessarily mean that the institution is learning as a result of this. Sometimes (I think maybe always) it is necessary for this knowledge to be expressed and shared and linked with the growing knowledge of someone else in the school. How often do you feel that you are working very hard and learning a lot about teaching, but that your work is not always appreciated?
We were asked to reflect on conversations that happen within our schools and encouraged to a) start more conversations ourselves, especially with people that we didn't always have conversations with, and start them with a view to learning something. b) think after conversations about what we had learned as individuals but also about what the institution had learned b) think about the group size of a conversation and whether it was the most effective.
I'm not sure I've expressed some of my thought very well here. Adrian is somewhat more articulate than myself, and has promised to email his session notes (but I am still waiting. I shall edit this poist and add them when they arrive) Final thought from this session - do we learn through working? or do we work through learning? and shouldn't it be the second of these?
Maggie Farra's session came from something of a different angel as she is Operational Director at the National College of School Leadership and is much more involved with leadership in schools (primary and secondary) and how to develop leadership in young people. She talked a lot about ensuring that leadership is sustainable and the need to ensure that leadership is distributed in the sense that others feel empowered to lead, that the environment encourages learning of leadership, that leaders believe in the ability of all to improve.
The diagram below represents the 3 areas of individual, organisation or team, and system (for us this would definitely be bigger than the school and would represent the whole system of English language learning/teaching etc. both in this country and overseas)
The idea here is that we all operate within each of these circles. Learning occurs where 2 circles overlap with each other. For example, the individual learns from the team and also the team learns and develops through the individuals who interact with it. For leadership, all 3 circles need to overlap.
I think the key concept is that the organisation consists of every individual, that evryone needs to be taken account of, and that everyone is responsible for this. If you want the organisation to be led well (or to learn as per Adrian Underhill's talk) then everyone has things to contribute. But do we always lead when we are able to? Do we always contribute our thoughts and ideas? Do we have any idea what the thoughts and ideas of other members of staff or students are? Maggie said that she had used a system she calls the "Cloud 9 file". The rationale for this is that staff will often not come forward with thoughts about the organisation because they may find themselves with additional work as a result. Even if it isn't as cold-blooded as this, I'm sure most of us have had ideas that never go any further because they are still a bit half-baked or we aren't clear in our minds how they could be carried forward. The Cloud 9 file is literally a file that is kept in your office/staff room/wherever and people actually record these half-baked thoughts. Others can browse the file and add comments or even act on the ideas if they feel inspired to. And the file can be brought out occasionally at meetings or other forums. I liked this idea and thought it might work well in a small school like this.
Other key points that made me think:
- our conversations should be about learning (rather similar to Adrian Underhill's ideas don't you think?)
- professional speed dating. Everybody (including students) go through a kind of speed dating process where everyone spends about 5 minutes from everyone else and learns somehing from them. Try it in your classes?
- over-listen to those who tell you what you most want to hear. Don't avoid those difficult conversations because those are the ones we learn most from.
- leaders should be ambitious for their organisation , humble about themselves, and confident about the future. recognise that learning is incremental and involves mistakes. We recognise that mistakes are part of the process for our students, even within our teaching, but it's also true of leadership.
I'm aware that this is rather a stream of ideas and thoughts but I am trying to find more learning opportunities in everything I do and I guess I'm using this forum to try to share what I'm learning and will continue to try and do so. To me the important thing is to want to learn, to want the school to learn and improve, but to start with myself and hope that other people will do the same.
Comments and replies warmly welcomed.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Pronunciation Session
Thanks Steve for a very enjoyable session yesterday afternoon.
I know everyone gets something very different from a session like this (just like students from lessons!) but from my own point of view it made me think about the way I do sessions. I was very aware of Steve frequently apologising if he was telling us something we already knew. I suspect I am guilty of not saying things or not doing sessions on areas that i feel may be beneath you as a staff and thus that you might find a waste of time. I'd appreciate some feedback on this. Either here or just find me and tell me face to face.
I know everyone gets something very different from a session like this (just like students from lessons!) but from my own point of view it made me think about the way I do sessions. I was very aware of Steve frequently apologising if he was telling us something we already knew. I suspect I am guilty of not saying things or not doing sessions on areas that i feel may be beneath you as a staff and thus that you might find a waste of time. I'd appreciate some feedback on this. Either here or just find me and tell me face to face.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
New Resources from Aberdeen
Stuff I bought and acquired in Aberdeen
Coursebooks
Face2Face Intermediate (Cambridge) - the newest Cambridge coursebook series, now available in all levels - has a very nice CD-ROM in the back of the book (which can of course be used with our lovely new whiteboard)
Just Right Elementary (Marshall Cavendish) - a series by Jeremy Harmer. Has a student Audio CD with the vbook (not to be confused with the class CD - which as yet we don't have)
Straightforward Upper Intermediate (MacMillan) - also with CD-ROM
The Business (MacMillan) - a business coursebook currently only available at intermediate - has a fantastic CD-ROM with it with some excellent dilemmas - basically mazes which are based on listening and discussion. work fabulously with the whiteboard.
Other Books
Headway Academic Skills - Reading Writing , Study Skills - Level 2 (Pre-Intermediate)
How to Teach English with Technology - written by Gavin Dudney and Nicky Hockley, who ran the workshop I went to in January in London - full of practical ideas - has a CD ROM with video of a lot of these things working in practice
Essential Grammar in Use - Version 3 - with CD ROM - check this CD ROM out - brilliant!
Brochures
New specifications for the FCE and CAE exams starting December 08. Plus CD with practice listening tests
Journals
ELT Journal January 07
- Theory and practice of teaching discourse intonation
- Teaching new tendencies in gender usage in modern English
- Learning to learn: the impact of strategy training
- Looking outwards, not inwards
- Young Learners' Functional Use of L2 in a low-immersion EFL context
- Predictable books in the children's EFL classroom
- Acknowledgement as a key to teacher learning
iT's For Teachers Spring 07
- ELF: English as a Lingua Franca
- Ideas for using post-its
- Activities
- The Red Carpet Film Challenge
- Best & Worst
- New 7 wonders of the world
- Go Globish
- Yours Truly, Angry Mobs
- Last Stands
- Win a set of English Readers
- The IM Generation
- The Unofficial Version
ESL Magazine March/April 07
- Adolescent Literacy and English Language Learning: An Urgent Issue
- Helping ESL Students Improve their Grammar
- Learning about the Law
- Moodle: Getting Together Online Gets Even Better
Modern English Teacher Jan 07
- The Idiots' Guide to Big Grammar Items
- Passive Voice Dominoes
- Grammatical Options in a Task-Based Approach
- Developing Pragmatic Competence in the Classroom
- Pre-University Students
- Future Projections
- Welcome to the Machine
- Drawing from the Research Into Multimedia Learning and Design
- Storytelling for Bridging Cultures
- Tangential Self-Development
- Shared and Mutual Knowledge in Language Learning
Lots of stuff to read (but also lots of stuff to carry!)
If you read any of this, remember we won't all have time to read all of it and might benefit a lot from you posting a brief outline here.
Coursebooks
Face2Face Intermediate (Cambridge) - the newest Cambridge coursebook series, now available in all levels - has a very nice CD-ROM in the back of the book (which can of course be used with our lovely new whiteboard)
Just Right Elementary (Marshall Cavendish) - a series by Jeremy Harmer. Has a student Audio CD with the vbook (not to be confused with the class CD - which as yet we don't have)
Straightforward Upper Intermediate (MacMillan) - also with CD-ROM
The Business (MacMillan) - a business coursebook currently only available at intermediate - has a fantastic CD-ROM with it with some excellent dilemmas - basically mazes which are based on listening and discussion. work fabulously with the whiteboard.
Other Books
Headway Academic Skills - Reading Writing , Study Skills - Level 2 (Pre-Intermediate)
How to Teach English with Technology - written by Gavin Dudney and Nicky Hockley, who ran the workshop I went to in January in London - full of practical ideas - has a CD ROM with video of a lot of these things working in practice
Essential Grammar in Use - Version 3 - with CD ROM - check this CD ROM out - brilliant!
Brochures
New specifications for the FCE and CAE exams starting December 08. Plus CD with practice listening tests
Journals
ELT Journal January 07
- Theory and practice of teaching discourse intonation
- Teaching new tendencies in gender usage in modern English
- Learning to learn: the impact of strategy training
- Looking outwards, not inwards
- Young Learners' Functional Use of L2 in a low-immersion EFL context
- Predictable books in the children's EFL classroom
- Acknowledgement as a key to teacher learning
iT's For Teachers Spring 07
- ELF: English as a Lingua Franca
- Ideas for using post-its
- Activities
- The Red Carpet Film Challenge
- Best & Worst
- New 7 wonders of the world
- Go Globish
- Yours Truly, Angry Mobs
- Last Stands
- Win a set of English Readers
- The IM Generation
- The Unofficial Version
ESL Magazine March/April 07
- Adolescent Literacy and English Language Learning: An Urgent Issue
- Helping ESL Students Improve their Grammar
- Learning about the Law
- Moodle: Getting Together Online Gets Even Better
Modern English Teacher Jan 07
- The Idiots' Guide to Big Grammar Items
- Passive Voice Dominoes
- Grammatical Options in a Task-Based Approach
- Developing Pragmatic Competence in the Classroom
- Pre-University Students
- Future Projections
- Welcome to the Machine
- Drawing from the Research Into Multimedia Learning and Design
- Storytelling for Bridging Cultures
- Tangential Self-Development
- Shared and Mutual Knowledge in Language Learning
Lots of stuff to read (but also lots of stuff to carry!)
If you read any of this, remember we won't all have time to read all of it and might benefit a lot from you posting a brief outline here.
IATEFL Conference
This will be a very short post to give you a brief rundown on what I did in Aberdeen, I shall make longer more detailed posts relating to a number of the individual sessions I attended.
It was a very worthwhile weekend, even if I am still feeling rather weary!! I arrived in Aberdeen Friday night, attended sessions all day Saturday and Sunday morning before flying back. I tried to choose a mixture of sessions, obviously of personal interest but also that would be of use in some way to the school. I attended a number of sessions relating to learning and technology. This included a session given by Debbie Lee and Jen MacArthur in which they went through a number of free online tools that you can use in EFL. They made a wiki of all their notes which you can look at online by clicking here
I also went to a session on blended learning by Pete Sharma (from Brookes) and Barney Barratt, and to the Blended Learning Symposium on the Sunday. Here several people talked about their own teaching situations and how they have incorporated blended learning into them. This ranged from extremely sophisticated virtual learning environments where students from all over the world can log onto a course whenever they like, through to very simple situations where a course consists of a mixture (or blend) of computerised and face-to-face learning. I also went to a couple of sessions that were more related to ELT management. Adrian Underhill (Sound Foundations)gave a talk to a very crowded room entitled "Growing your school as a learning organisation" - extremely thought-provoking. And the final plenary session on Sunday was called "Dealing in Hope" and was really about leadership in schools and the sustainability of that leadership.
In terms of teacher development, I went to 1 session by Simon Phipps from Bilkent University in Ankara about how much difference teacher education has (or not) to a teacher's beliefs, teaching, confidence, awareness. Also a session on "noticing", as in noticing when you're observing and how to notice more.
The plenary on Saturday was called "You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink" , and was based around the well-known fact that wht we think we are teaching is not the same as what students learn, and led on to outline MOGUL, a theoretical framework for language processing. To look at the website for this click here
I also went to a session about a new project called English Profile, aiming to produce level descriptors for all levels in the Common European Framework of Reference in terms of language rather than can do statements. Linked here.
And first thing Sunday morning I thought I needed something a bit lighter (9.15 on a Sunday morning in a rainy Aberdeen is probably not the best time for heavy theoretical sessions) and attended a session on Practical dictionary activities to practice collocations.
As well as the sessions, I spent quite a lot of time going round the differnet stands, where I picked up quite a lot of books and othere bits and pieces. I'll make a separate list of what I've brought back and will put them all out in the staffroom. I also spent a while with a woman on the CUP stand who was demonstrating our new whiteboard (or one just the same anyway!) More on that later.
Over the next 2/3 days I shall make longer more detailed posts on a number of these sessions, and what thoughts they gave me for Eckersley. So keep looking (please!!) and make any comments you would like.
And finally for now, I'd like to repeat what a great experience it is to spend a bit of time in this kind of environment. I came away with a renewed energy for improving myself as a professional and full of ideas for the school. I would highly recommend to all of you to take any opportunities like this that you are offered.
See you later.
It was a very worthwhile weekend, even if I am still feeling rather weary!! I arrived in Aberdeen Friday night, attended sessions all day Saturday and Sunday morning before flying back. I tried to choose a mixture of sessions, obviously of personal interest but also that would be of use in some way to the school. I attended a number of sessions relating to learning and technology. This included a session given by Debbie Lee and Jen MacArthur in which they went through a number of free online tools that you can use in EFL. They made a wiki of all their notes which you can look at online by clicking here
I also went to a session on blended learning by Pete Sharma (from Brookes) and Barney Barratt, and to the Blended Learning Symposium on the Sunday. Here several people talked about their own teaching situations and how they have incorporated blended learning into them. This ranged from extremely sophisticated virtual learning environments where students from all over the world can log onto a course whenever they like, through to very simple situations where a course consists of a mixture (or blend) of computerised and face-to-face learning. I also went to a couple of sessions that were more related to ELT management. Adrian Underhill (Sound Foundations)gave a talk to a very crowded room entitled "Growing your school as a learning organisation" - extremely thought-provoking. And the final plenary session on Sunday was called "Dealing in Hope" and was really about leadership in schools and the sustainability of that leadership.
In terms of teacher development, I went to 1 session by Simon Phipps from Bilkent University in Ankara about how much difference teacher education has (or not) to a teacher's beliefs, teaching, confidence, awareness. Also a session on "noticing", as in noticing when you're observing and how to notice more.
The plenary on Saturday was called "You can take a horse to water but you can't make it drink" , and was based around the well-known fact that wht we think we are teaching is not the same as what students learn, and led on to outline MOGUL, a theoretical framework for language processing. To look at the website for this click here
I also went to a session about a new project called English Profile, aiming to produce level descriptors for all levels in the Common European Framework of Reference in terms of language rather than can do statements. Linked here.
And first thing Sunday morning I thought I needed something a bit lighter (9.15 on a Sunday morning in a rainy Aberdeen is probably not the best time for heavy theoretical sessions) and attended a session on Practical dictionary activities to practice collocations.
As well as the sessions, I spent quite a lot of time going round the differnet stands, where I picked up quite a lot of books and othere bits and pieces. I'll make a separate list of what I've brought back and will put them all out in the staffroom. I also spent a while with a woman on the CUP stand who was demonstrating our new whiteboard (or one just the same anyway!) More on that later.
Over the next 2/3 days I shall make longer more detailed posts on a number of these sessions, and what thoughts they gave me for Eckersley. So keep looking (please!!) and make any comments you would like.
And finally for now, I'd like to repeat what a great experience it is to spend a bit of time in this kind of environment. I came away with a renewed energy for improving myself as a professional and full of ideas for the school. I would highly recommend to all of you to take any opportunities like this that you are offered.
See you later.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Project Groups
Now that all of you have been through (or are going through) the process of teaching one of the Italian project groups, it would be nice to share some of the thoughts about it here. I'm interested to know how people feel about the following:
1. In comparison to teaching on the general English programme, how does this compare in terms of stress, timeload, difficulty of meeting the students' needs, and any other areas you can think of.
2. The specific problems that come up time and time again are, as far as I see it, the following:
How to get them to speak English rather than Italian in class.
Management and discipline in general - especially management of punctuality, keeping them on task, getting them to keep the classroom tidy(ish) etc.
Getting everything done within the time frame, especially with limited use of resources when they need to be shared around everybody.
The specific difficulty of a low-level group and how much we can really expect them to achieve - should we then lower our expectations or do some of the work for them?
Keeping the rest of the school happy and minimising dissatisfaction during these periods.
It would be great if people could publish their thoughts on these issues and share any tips they found for dealing with them.
3. How does the whole process work and is there anything we could change to make the projects more effective or easier on the teachers/Jackie/Rodney/the other students.....
4. Use of a blog as an ongoing record of what they are doing. If you get feedback from the students about how they find this that would be great. It would be interesting for example to know if any of them are sending the web address to family and friends back home and whether they are looking at it. Also, for teachers who have managed groups before, how does the blog compare to a report? How does the content compare in terms of quantity and quality, and is it easier to manage?
Looking forward to somebody other than me writing on this thing!!
1. In comparison to teaching on the general English programme, how does this compare in terms of stress, timeload, difficulty of meeting the students' needs, and any other areas you can think of.
2. The specific problems that come up time and time again are, as far as I see it, the following:
How to get them to speak English rather than Italian in class.
Management and discipline in general - especially management of punctuality, keeping them on task, getting them to keep the classroom tidy(ish) etc.
Getting everything done within the time frame, especially with limited use of resources when they need to be shared around everybody.
The specific difficulty of a low-level group and how much we can really expect them to achieve - should we then lower our expectations or do some of the work for them?
Keeping the rest of the school happy and minimising dissatisfaction during these periods.
It would be great if people could publish their thoughts on these issues and share any tips they found for dealing with them.
3. How does the whole process work and is there anything we could change to make the projects more effective or easier on the teachers/Jackie/Rodney/the other students.....
4. Use of a blog as an ongoing record of what they are doing. If you get feedback from the students about how they find this that would be great. It would be interesting for example to know if any of them are sending the web address to family and friends back home and whether they are looking at it. Also, for teachers who have managed groups before, how does the blog compare to a report? How does the content compare in terms of quantity and quality, and is it easier to manage?
Looking forward to somebody other than me writing on this thing!!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
More about blogging
While browsing for more ideas for the TD session, I came across an online course on blogging in EFL classrooms, called rather appropriately "blogging for beginners". Unfortunately it is already in it's fourth week, but this week's task was to read and comment on a couple of articles, both of which I thought were really interesting.
The first article is called "Blogs and Pedagogy" and goes through some of the reasons why blogs can be a positive learning tool in the EFL classroom. There are also some quotes and comments at the end from people who have read the article.
The second article is called "Creating Passionate Users: Crash Course In Learning Theory". This may sound rather heavy and theoretical but it isn't in the slightest. In very readable language it talks through some of the principles of learning that I hope we all know and accept, such as :Learning is not a one-way "push" model, and gently suggest that using blogs in the classroom goes hand in hand with many of these principles. Very easy to read but I would say quite stimulating.
Have a look and post some comments on any thoughts you have.
The first article is called "Blogs and Pedagogy" and goes through some of the reasons why blogs can be a positive learning tool in the EFL classroom. There are also some quotes and comments at the end from people who have read the article.
The second article is called "Creating Passionate Users: Crash Course In Learning Theory". This may sound rather heavy and theoretical but it isn't in the slightest. In very readable language it talks through some of the principles of learning that I hope we all know and accept, such as :Learning is not a one-way "push" model, and gently suggest that using blogs in the classroom goes hand in hand with many of these principles. Very easy to read but I would say quite stimulating.
Have a look and post some comments on any thoughts you have.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)