Working on my appetite for learning, September 09

My monthly summary of the best of the blogosphere is ready to be pulled out of the proverbial oven - so much written this month: in here, out there within the community and right across the entire edu-twitterverse: all very much worth taking pause and biting into.


On Kalinago English


I was honoured to host two more guest pieces as part of the She-in-ELT series: Shelly Terrell wrote us a beautiful article about the work of Sister Luz Moreno and Alex Case sort of did a spoof piece on a character based on the many experiences of different female characters he's known, taught with personally - so um yea, Michael Lewis probably didn't say those words, well, not exactly.

I attended a very dynamic forum moderated by Scott Thornbury then wrote about the new mandate for those of us who find teaching with technology beneficial for our students (including a film of what one of my student's thinks) - the comments on that post got me kick off another series of posts... on why I mostly don't like coursebooks.

In the middle of that, I celebrated my blog's first anniversary!

Filmed a tech tip for you - using smartphones in the classroom. Wrote a rather heartfelt piece on globalisation, professionalism in the TEFL industry and our role in that, got cracking good advice on pronuncing vowels (i for i-pod, e -email: it works you guys, thanks so much!).

I also posted a piece on motivation with adult language learners... to be continued in the coming month (have to process and edit the videos).


In the blogosphere


I really enjoyed A passion for warcraft by Gavin Dudeney and Marisa Constantinides' with or without you - both related to teaching with or without technology, the themes of the SEETA discussion.

Gavin, by the way, is looking for help on a presentation he's doing on attitudes to using technology so if you're in the camp of the non-believers, do please head on over and explain why.

Tamas Lorincz shared his less encouraged but more determined thoughts on teaching against the odds and Vicki Hollett has been writing about the theory of the mind - the thoughts of others complete with a very fascinating video on how we know what someone else is thinking.

Which brings me on over to Anne's gorgeous v-blog on signs and communication which made me write a whole bunch of nonsense in the comments there.


Found the TEFL Tradesman's post on Life in the 3rd division an awful bump back to reality rather going up against the grain of my own posting of how important we TEFL teachers all are to globablization.

Ah, perhaps one day... I hear word from Marxist ELF that an alternative conference is up for discussion next year - hitting some of the harder questions in our industry. More on that later but she's also looking for some help.


Alex has already been gearing up for those issues with posts like How can we increase TEFL teachers pay? And Sara Hannam touched on some hard hitting points in her Critical Mass blog on improving conditions and joining unions.



Thank goodness for Janet Bianchini's wonderful list of the things she's done due to her life in TEFL which cheered me up no end, along with Barbara Sakamoto's lovely piece on her cross-cultural experience in The English Auntie.



For more great lists wrapping up the blogosphere, see also


The twitterverse


New to Twitter?
Not sure how it works: see this post here.

Hope this post was satisfying... and/or leaving with you with a hunger for even more!

Enjoy,
Karenne

p.s. bonus prize to those who can correctly guess the name of the methodology author who's considering an alternative career in food photography (pics used with permission).

1 Response to “Working on my appetite for learning, September 09”

  • Janet Bianchini says:
    October 04, 2009

    HI Karenne

    A lovely post yet again, with lots to read and learn from. I thought I had posted a comment yesterday but it seems to have got waylaid.

    You are a real inspiration and great unifier of people.

    I am honoured to be included in your veritable feast of blogs. Thank you:)

    Ps Photos from Scott Thornbury?

 

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