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Talk for Writing. It's NOT about what the teacher does with technology. Bruce Springsteen: "When we kiss…" Not just going through the motions!

it's NOT about what the teacher does with technology

You could probably say I've had four different though overlapping careers — in language teaching, language teacher training, technology and ELT management. The first of those I retired from (after 35+ years) a few months ago, though the number of contact hours I was doing was limited; teacher training I'm retiring from at the end of this month; management I got fired from (to the relief of all involved!) Many years ago; which leaves only another 10 or so years in technology to do (I'm only (?) 57, so it ain't over yet!). I happened to mentioned this in a session a couple of weeks ago and someone (Mati?) Yes! My #1 tip for teachers Every class, every day, every week, every term, every year of your teaching career, try something new and never ever just stick with what you have done before!

Is there, to misquote Bruce Springsteen, still fire…? Now it really does get random But there's more to it than that. "Putting a bit of tech into teach!" On teaching, learning and language. Eltchat. The aim was to create a freely available social network for ELT professionals offering mutual support and opportunities for Continuous Professional Development.

eltchat

Now, every Wednesday at 19:00pm GMT or 21.00pm GMT, ELT teachers from all over the world log into their Twitter account and for one hour hold an online discussion on a topic they have selected. To join in you just have to follow the hashtag #ELTChat. You'll see the conversation and anything you tag with #ELTChat will be part of it If you already use a Twitter app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, you can follow #ELTChat in there. Follow it here A how to guide for Twitter apps Every Saturday, one of the moderators will put up a blog post on the #ELTchat Blog asking teachers who follow #ELTchat to propose some topics for the next chats.

We then share it online and people can go to the post and suggest topics in the comments. Project Work in EFL Classrooms - an #Eltchat Summary. This is a summary of the #eltchat which took place at 9pm BST on Wednesday 22nd June, 2011.

Project Work in EFL Classrooms - an #Eltchat Summary

The full title of the chat was: Project Work in EFL Classrooms (Themes, Strategies, Resources) We welcomed some 'first-timers' to the chat as well as some contributors (including me) who had missed several weeks due to work and other committments. The discussion was moderated superbly by @Marisa_C and @Shaunwilden and was, as usual, lively, informative and inspiring..... Defining Terms - What is a Project? A project is collaborative - most agreed on this point although @Shaunwilden suggested that a class can do individual projects according to their interests.A project involves planning, collaboration, execution, constant evaluation, reflection, end product, and display (via @barbarabujtas).It is a display of task outcome. Why do Projects? Projects can motivate students, especially teens. The Teacher's Role in Project Work To motivate the students.

Motivating Students to do Project Work. Chestnut ESL. EFL Classroom 2.0 - Teacher Talk! Posted by ddeubel on Thursday, November 29th 2012 Recently on the EFL Classroom 2.0 blog, I posted 3 lists of 50 tasks that teachers can use in their teaching – asking students to do them and “practice” language, the skill that is language speaking/reading/writing/listening.

EFL Classroom 2.0 - Teacher Talk!

Surprised to death at how popular these lists were! I know we all like lists but I guess I touched on a big need with teachers. Short, concise, easy to implement ideas that can easily be done in the classroom. No fuss, no muss teaching. So here are the three lists consolidated in one place. 50 tasks for the English Language Classroom 50 Tech tasks for the English Language Classroom 50 tasks using only a blank piece of paper. 50 Holiday Friendly Activities for the classroom. English Raven. The idea of disintermediation ("cutting out the middle man") in terms of professional qualifications has been slowly but surely gathering steam in a variety of fields.

English Raven

Take a look at a range of Position Descriptions for new jobs these days and phrases along the lines of Tertiary qualifications in a relevant discipline, or equivalent experience and expertise/skills are becoming more frequent. Private companies (as we might expect) have been quicker to apply this in practice rather than rhetoric compared to educational institutions, mired as most of them are in conservative paper-reliant processes for verifying applicants' skills, but even here we are starting to see change. As university qualifications become more expensive and fail to deliver effective ROI for the people who invest their time and money in them, the idea of cutting them out of the picture partly or wholly is becoming not only more attractive, but more feasible.

News, views and reviews from TEFL lifer Alex Case. Life Feast. Kalinago English. Teacher, trainer, presenter, storyteller. Nik's QuickShout. Nik's Daily English Activities. ELT Journal. Internet TESL Journal. Eltknowledge. Scott Thornbury Blog. Six Things.