Teaching thoughts

There are two forms of AI: there's the digital form that everyone is discussing right now and then there's the legacy, analog form that very few people are aware of. And it's the latter form…

I recently played guitar at a wedding reception in Nottingham and had a great day out. When you travel eight hours by train to get somewhere you know your commitment to your art is strong…

I have a profound dislike of anyone who calls themself a storyteller as a teacher. What a high opinion you must have of yourself to regard your tedious anecdotes as having any real value in…

Right-wingers are very fond of using water metaphors to describe aquatically the foreigners arriving in the UK. Racists love using water metaphors because everybody understands the idea that water is powerful and overwhelming. It's also…

Could it be that there is only one evaluation question that it's worth using? It's a very simple question: What engaged you? This one powerful question asks the listener or reader to simply identify something,…

This post is inspired by a reading in one of the advanced books - it might well be English File which has a reading related to animals. Anyway, the reason this comes to mind is…

STUDENTS MUST SPEAK FOR AT LEAST 95% OF THE LESSON As I said in a recent post, the only sound I tend to hear coming out of classrooms is the sound of teacher's voices. This…

1 BEING TOO ATTACHED TO THE BOARD We all too often stay stuck at the front of the classroom, welded to the board. It's as if we think we aren't doing any teaching unless we…

FIVE TYPES OF EXPLOITATION IN A LANGUAGE SCHOOL I've recently become interested in drilling down into the power structures that exist within the typical language school. What I find interesting is the way the exploitation…

I can't pinpoint exactly how this idea formed but I am grateful that it appeared in my thinking. The insight I had was that error correction only referred to the actions of one person -…