When should you start a new endeavor?A) When the time is right?B) When you know you are ready?C) Sometime in the past when life was better?or D) Sometime in the future?Needless to say, all four of the above answers are incorrect. A) How would you ever truly know when the time time is right? B) Similar to "A" but even harder to qualify; how do you know you can do something until you actually do it? C) If the right time to do something was always in the past, we would never start anything new. D) How many times has someone thought the right time would be later and yet, when it is later, the time still is right?No, the best answer is almost always today. Today is the day we are in, the day we have some control over and the day the idea/feeling to create/begin is usually strongest. Besides, putting off what we hope or want to achieve today until later usually leads to regrets; i.e. missed chances and forgotten ideas.It is in this spirit of carpe diem that I do now what I have told my students to do for the past decade: just start writing; make it better later.

If you've checked out my CV, you'll have noticed that I have taught in a lot of different settings. For example, I taught at a language school a few years back that had young learner classes on the weekends. The classes were 90 minutes long, met on either Saturday or Sunday, and had between 15-18 students in a class. Most of the teachers taught four classes a day so they'd end up having six contact hours and seeing between 60-72 kids. Not that big a deal, right?Well the problem came in the middle of the semester when you had to do parent-teacher conferences. Now since the parents didn't (usually) speak English and the teachers didn't (usually) speak Vietnamese, there was always a local staff-member there to translate. Again, no big deal, right?But what if you don't know who the parent's child is? That's right, you've been teaching the same class for the past three months and you don't have any clue who this parent, who is paying some exorbitant  amount of tuition, is referring to. How is that possible? Like I said before, you have 70 kids you see once a week on top of all the students you teach during the week. Needless to say, it's easy to get confused. "Your child is ... Ummmm. Who's your child again?"So, rather than recite banal platitudes to parents about their mystery child, what can you do? Well, make collages!   Picasa is freeware that allows you to edit photos on your computer. It is available for Windows, Mac and (if you're willing to tinker around a little bit) Linux.After you download and install Picasa, the real fun starts.Read more »

The first time I can remember telling a class skimming and scanning were important was about seven years ago. I was teaching TOEFL iBT prep in Hanoi, Vietnam and was trying to explain just how important it was for the students to be able to get the "gist" of what they reading (skimming) or find key words/details (scanning) in a passage. If I remember right, I even held up the sheet below in an attempt to "prove" I was right.Click here to download.Fast forward to last semester. I was teaching English 101 at University of Arizona and, as I had so many times before, was telling the students to "not read every word - scan for the main idea." And then one of my students did something that had never happened before: she asked "How?"Read more »

Teaching speaking sounds easy until you actually try it. Some of the myriad issues that inevitably pop up are:DialectsWhich dialect should the instructor teach? Most people will instinctively say "their own" but what if an American teacher is teaching a room full of students preparing to study in the UK? Should the American instructor really teach "sidewalk" instead of "footpath?" How about "crosswalk" instead of "zebra crossing?"AuthenticityOf course you want your students to use "real English," but how do you teach slang? Similar to dialect, whose slang do you teach? What about cursing?Should I send myself to the principal's office? Read more »

During my CELTA, I did two writing skills lessons. The first was a disaster: every time I walked in front of a student they would cover what they were writing. Why didn't I just walk behind them? Well, the room was arranged like this:Horseshoe ArrangementHorseshoe Arrangementso that option was off the table. Needless to say, if you conduct a writing class and can't give any feedback the lesson is a failure. However, as Henry Ford said, "The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing."Read more »

How do you prepare people to speak to a computer? Sure, our students are used to talking through a machineSeriously, do any of your students not have a cell phone? but how many of them are used to talking to a machine?Hello? Is anyone listening?Well, needless to say, the only way to get students used to speaking to a machine is to have them speak to a machine. But how?Read more »

This is the second article of a six-part series on boosting classroom participation. Last week, Zarina took us through using peer observation to reflect on your teaching style. In this article, she considers a different challenge: what do you do about the nerves that can interfere with your students’ performance? This article aims to look at the presence of anxiety in our classrooms and what we can do to reduce it. When a student gives an answer in a foreign language in front of their peers, anxiety is a reality that cannot be ignored. It directly interferes with the task in hand. It appears, almost gremlin-like; to want to disrupt the very activity or question the student has been asked to deal with. So what can be done? Here are some ideas. Minimise the threat of direct questions Be very careful about directing questions at specific students in front of a group. Before doing so, it’s usually better to allow learners to discuss their thoughts in groups or pairs. Don’t always ask your questions orally. You could give written questions to groups of students seated at different tables and get them to discuss their answers before they write them down. If the groups have different questions, you can rotate the students round the tables, so there is some movement in the class. Then, at the very end, the questions can be covered orally. Now everyone has had the chance to think and discuss answers before writing them down, it is not nearly as stressful to direct questions at particular individuals. Create an atmosphere where errors become unimportant Creating an atmosphere where errors become insignificant, and almost an expected part of the class, helps to lessen students’ fear. But how can we achieve this? Usually, if you introduce a competitive element to an activity, anxiety begins to take a back seat as students tend to focus more on winning points than on the stress of making mistakes. Why not devise a competition where students win points for correct answers, and there are no penalties for mistakes? Or, you could give one point for a reasonable answer and two points for a completely correct answer. This encourages greater participation, creates the mindset that there is (literally) nothing to lose, and reinforces the notion that fluency is more important than accuracy. As teachers, we can also help by highlighting our own mistakes and making fun of them, so that errors are not seen as a terrible mark on what should be perfect language. When students make errors we need to ensure that we praise the very act of trying to provide a response in English. We need to nurture the idea that there is courage in risking losing face, but no actual loss of face. Draw up some ‘House Rules’ Why not draw up a very explicit set of ‘House Rules’, and negotiate them with the class? For example, you could include things such as "Respect the opinions of others"; "Listen to others". At the same time there need to be one or two rules that cannot be negotiated. For example, "No name calling"; "No laughing at the ideas of others" or "No ridiculing". Celebrate your students’ work Displaying students’ work is another way of getting them to feel proud of their contributions. Why not put up poster presentations, flipcharts, or visual reminders of discussions? I have even used this technique on short courses and it is amazing how people respond to seeing their own work, handwriting and creativity in a public place. I find it also helps bonding within groups, with students praising one another’s efforts. But what about the teacher? Now let’s not forget the teacher in all of this. We suffer from stress and anxiety too, probably never more so than when we teach under observation. As we saw in part one of this series, observations between peers are extremely useful forms of reflective practice. Therefore, we need to consider ways of reducing the stressful side of this process. As discussed, having a meeting before the observation can allay fears and ensure that the observer is going to comment on the things that you wish to receive feedback on. In addition, if you plan exactly how you are going to greet your students and introduce the lesson, it will reduce your anxiety at the start. A confident beginning will make you feel at home and relaxed with your students. Also, don’t ignore the person observing - make sure your students are aware of who they are and why they are there. It’s important your students understand that the observer is there to see how you teach, and not to comment on the performance of the class. This will lessen the anxiety of a ‘stranger’ being in the room and may encourage them to be sympathetic towards how you might be feeling. This all-round recognition of the situation will put everyone concerned at ease and you can then get on with ‘business as usual’. Remember that peer observation is a choice to help you, therefore there is nothing to lose. This also illustrates to your students that you are not afraid of making mistakes in front of your peers. A perfect way of teaching by example, don’t you think?! This article was first published in the July 2014 issue of Teaching Adults. To find out more about the newsletter and to sign up, click here. Next week’s blog post will be exploring how you can get more out of your students by keeping different learning styles in mind.Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Professional Development, Skills Tagged: #EFLproblems, Anxiety, classroom participation, EFL, Teaching adults

Jennie Cadd is an ELT all-rounder. Since starting her teaching career in 1995, she has worked in Spain, Cambodia and the UK in a number of different teaching environments. She has taught general English, EAP, ESP and exam preparation to a wide range of nationalities, ages and proficiency levels. She has also been a teacher trainer for trainee teachers and an academic manager in a busy language school in Oxford. Her main areas of interest are teacher development (both for trainee teachers and in-service teachers) and how to use technology in the classroom. Ahead of her webinar ‘Using Authentic Materials in the ESL Classroom’, Jennie previews her discussion on the blog today.  The use of authentic materials for English language teaching is a topic which has been discussed for many years by experts in the field and teaching professionals. Most teachers have their own opinions about their use and practicality in the classroom. Many like the idea of using authentic materials but avoid using them due to lack of knowledge of how to select an appropriate text (either written or audio), doubt about how they can be exploited and the belief that students may not find the material stimulating or may find it too difficult. Some less experienced teachers may, after an unsuccessful attempt at using material from an authentic source, decide that it is safer and less time consuming to stick to the prescribed course book. However, it is generally accepted that learners need to be exposed to language which is representative of the actual language produced by users of that language, so many argue that using real examples is the most beneficial way to do this. It goes without saying that learners should be prepared and able to deal with authentic examples of the target language outside of the classroom. Therefore, if we are not doing this as teaching professionals, are we doing them a disservice? On the other hand, most would agree that there are some pitfalls which arise when using authentic materials as opposed to specifically designed ESL/EFL materials such as textbooks, audio recordings and video. Some of these could be: Time required to look for an appropriate text - teachers are busy people! Cultural references in authentic materials - how interesting and relevant would this be to my learners? Authentic materials may contain difficult structures and lexical items, which learners have not been exposed to before. In this session we will focus on the benefits and drawback of using authentic materials in language teaching and discuss whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We will also look at ways to mitigate these drawbacks so that they can be used successfully in the classroom. Following this, we will consider different ways that we can exploit authentic texts and I will discuss different types of authentic materials and provide some actual examples of materials that I have used in my teaching. The session is intended to be part lecture but also part discussion and therefore whether you are a teacher, researcher or student, I hope you will feel comfortable in sharing your experiences of using authentic materials and by the end of the session we will all feel motivated to tap into the wealth of authentic material which advances in technology and globalisation have made available to all of us. To register for Jennie’s free webinar on the 6th and 7th of August, follow the link below. Filed under: Professional Development, Skills Tagged: Professional Development, Skills, Teacher Development, Teaching adults

This is the second article of a six-part series on boosting classroom participation. Last week, we heard about overcoming both teacher and student anxiety in the EFL classroom. In this article, Zarina discusses different learning styles and how to support those students who may not be as receptive to our usual forms of teaching. "There are no difficult students - just students who don’t want to do it your way." Revell, J. and Norman, S. (1999): p.65. In the previous article in this series, I looked at the presence of anxiety in the EFL classroom, and the various techniques you can employ in order to reduce it. I explored how you can stage competitions and games to help students to overcome fears of making mistakes. These kinds of activities are also beneficial for the way that they often provide for more than one learning style, and so engage a diverse range of students. First let’s start by thinking about the many different tasks involved in playing a game, whether it’s simple or complex. There is often something visual to look at, there will be instructions to listen to, and usually there is something to do, which could involve moving around the room, or moving things around (for example, a counter on a board). If we look at this in terms of learning styles we can categorise the same things into: Visual, Auditory or Kinaesthetic learning styles. Some like to refer to these styles as VAK, others add ‘R’ for Reading / Writing and refer to it as VARK. If you are interested in finding out about you or your students’ preferred learning styles are, try this online questionnaire. Of course, we can’t simply put individuals into such narrowly defined categories, and it’s impossible to teach to suit each and every student’s personal learning style (even if you knew what it was). More pragmatically, however, I think we can provide an array of activities to engage a range of learning styles. Who is being difficult - the learner, or the teacher? Whether you are a believer in the theory that we have preferred styles of learning or not, you have to admit that being exposed to only one style (for example, concentrating solely on an audio input, such as a lecture) can be exhausting, both for the teacher and the learner. It seems quite feasible that in such a situation, rather than the learner being ‘difficult’, they simply ‘don’t want to do it your way’. The more years we teach, there is a danger that we tend to fall back on activities and methodologies that we believe work well or feel safe with. There is a possibility that our lessons get a bit ‘samey’, with the same kind of pace, the same type of activities, the same students taking an interest, and the same students not really engaging in the lesson. One reason this can happen is that we will often end up teaching according to our preferred style, which may be strongly influenced by our own learning styles. (Note I say styles, because the likelihood is that we are a blend of them, with certain preferred tendencies; we can never completely have only one learning style.) Moving out of our comfort zone takes more effort and energy. So how about trying something slightly different? Things to try Take a photocopiable text that has clear paragraphs and subheadings. Make copies for several groups of students (one per group) and cut up the paragraphs. Depending on the level of your students, you could cut up the subheadings as well. Students have to figure out the gist and topics of each paragraph to match it to a subheading, before putting the paragraphs in order.By taking this reading activity ‘onto the table,’ it instantly becomes kinaesthetic. It encourages more discussion, collaboration and cooperation, and a spatial/visual element comes into play, as the students move the paragraphs into the correct order. This kind of activity uses all three of the learning styles. By giving points for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quickest teams, you have a competition that adds more impetus and incentive to the activity. Using sticky labels, you can review vocabulary and definitions (either pictorial or written); verbs and prepositions; collocations; present and past forms of a verb; or two halves of an idiom. a. Write out enough stickers so there is one for each student and stick it on each of their backs. The stickers need to be written in pairs, so for example, you need to have a word on one, and its definition on the other. If you have an odd number of students, consider joining in yourself or make one a group of three (for example, water - bottle - bank, where water collocates with bottle, and bottle collocates with bank.) b. The idea is that each person finds their partner. Students must read each other’s cards out loud. Thus reading, speaking and listening occur - using auditory, reading and kinaesthetic learning styles simultaneously. Students often help one another by reminding each other of the meaning of their own card or answering queries about their sticker. Because by the end, with help if necessary, everyone has found their partner(s), you can use this as a review exercise that randomly mixes the class. You can form new groups, or use it as a lead-in to an extensive reading, writing, listening or speaking activity. NOTE: Be prepared for some noise, but good noise! If you have more serious students who you think may be averse to game-like activities, try this one. a. Set a piece of writing work and collect it in to mark, as you normally would. b. Correct it using a correction code, rather than making the corrections for them. By correction code I mean writing: sp - indicates a spelling error; vt - indicates the wrong verb tense but correct verb; sv - the subject and verb of the sentence don’t agree, etc. c. Now make a list of nine sentences with mistakes that you think the whole class will benefit from discussing. Make sure that you only use one sentence from one student’s work, i.e. sentences from nine different students. d. Place students into two groups. Provide a handout with the list of nine sentences that you noted, with mistakes. Give the students time to mull over the sentences and to try and spot the errors. It is important that each sentence contains common mistakes that everyone can benefit from seeing, but also not too many mistakes to have to think about - so you may want to change the sentences slightly from how they were originally written. e. After they’ve had enough time, draw up noughts and crosses lines; number each box 1-9; make one team noughts (o) and the other crosses (x) f. Students have to try and get a straight line of either noughts or crosses, depending on which team they are in, while trying to block the opposing team. The numbers correspond to the sentences on the handout. They have to strategically choose a sentence and try to correct it. If they don’t manage to do so, the opposing team gets a bonus point if they can successfully correct it. g. Give their actual marked written work back (with your correction code) at the end of the game. I guarantee you will have a group of earnestly competitive students who are suddenly interested in written corrections! Look out for Part Four in this series, next week. I’ll be exploring how you can experiment with different questioning techniques to get more out of your students. References Fleming ND (2001) Teaching and Learning Styles: VARK Strategies. Honolulu Community College. Revell, J. and Norman, S. (1999) Handing Over: NLP-based Activities for Language Learning, Saffire: p.65.   This article was first published in the August 2014 issue of Teaching Adults. To find out more about the newsletter and to sign up, click here. Filed under: Adults / Young Adults, Skills Tagged: classroom participation, Difficult students, EFL, ESL, Skills, Teaching adults

This week the Tinkering Fundamentals online course began. The course is meant to help educators develop a practice of tinkering and making in ourselves and ultimately in our classrooms. The first week we received an introduction to the idea of tinkering. Here are my takeaways and reflection from week one.For our first activity we had to watch a short video that included snippets of children tinkering with a variety of tools, materials, and objects including motors, lights, batteries, switches, MakeyMakeys, sew-able circuits and more. We had to come up with some observations, and here is what I noticed:Students seemed compelled to touch and grab. One might find this frustrating or distracting but I see the need to touch as being a part of the learning process. Picking up and handling an object allows us to explore it in more depth, to further learn how it works.A sense of accomplishment creates happiness. The children have huge smiles across their faces when they realize they accomplished something new (whether it was adding a switch, making lights blink, or making a motor with markers dance across the table).The instructors aren’t "teaching" students how to do something. They are encouraging them to try something new. They say things like "Try an add a switch," or "What if you include this or that to make them all light up." They guided, prodded, encouraged, and posed questions.Show them you trust them and they will deliver. Young students in the video were using a variety of tools including a soldering iron! If you show a child the proper use of a tool, you shouldn't have to worry about injuries or dangers. (I elaborate more on this personally below)One of the activities was "Toy Take Apart" and this is a great introductory activity to get students thinking about how things work. I plan to do this activity with my students next year. (more on that below)FAIL = First attempt in learning. Unfortunately, the video didn't highlight any moments of failure or mistakes, but I know this is an important part of the process.We also had to read a few excerpts from The Art of Tinkering by Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich and chapter 2 from Invent to Learn by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager. Here are some quotes and notes I pulled from these sources: The Art of Tinkering ExcerptsForeword by Dale Dougherty (Make Magazine):"Tinkering is the essential art of composing and decomposing physical things to suit a variety of purposes - from practical to whimsical.""Making is something that anyone can do, but we should understand it as something we need to do."Introduction by Leah Buechley:"People revel in taking things apart, putting them back together, and making new things.""...the importance of two crucial practices that are easy to overlook: retaining a sense of play in what you do and leaving room for quiet and (sometimes slow) reflection in the making process.""All great tinkerers are great copiers."A Few Words from Karen & Mike:"What is tinkering? It’s thinking with your hands and learning through doing."Invent to Learn chapter 2Constructivism - learning by combining experiences with what you already know (constructing new knowledge). Includes talking and working with others.Constructionism - learning becomes most effective when the learner is engaged in a personally meaningful activity that makes the learning real and shareable. However, the power of "constructing" something comes from within (a question or an impulse), and not imposed from someone else. Seek to liberate learners from their dependency on being taught."Making something is a powerful, personal expression of intellect.""The IKEA Effect" - people value their own creations more (even if flawed) than those created by experts."They understand that when you do something yourself, the thing that changes most profoundly is you." ~ Mark FrauenfelderMy Favorite ToolOur activity for this week was to choose our favorite tool as a tinkerer. My thoughts immediately shot back to my childhood and what I loved to do the most.My favorite tool. A pair of scissors.As a child growing up my favorite activity was building cardboard box forts and my trusty pair of scissors became my most valuable tool. I could do simple cutting or I could open it up and use it as a knife. It was very versatile. I became very skilled at using the scissors to build my forts. But what I appreciate the most now is the fact that my parents trusted me enough to use scissors on my own so freely. I had my fair share of pokes and cuts, but these became life lessons as I imagined, designed, built, and ultimately played day and night with my cardboard box forts.Week One Reflection: What does tinkering look like to you?Our reflection question for this week had us pondering what tinkering might look like to us. In the classroom, tinkering might look like play to me. It’s organized chaos among the students. Some are excited, loud, and boisterous. Others are quiet, pondering, questioning themselves, curious. And the rest might be angry, frustrated, tired of failing but pushing forward, not giving up. I envision a room full of students, scattered about on the floor, on desks, on tables, under tables, in corners. And I also hope that every student is working at their own pace. They are all not working together to accomplish the same task because they are learning at their own pace. They may be working with partners or in small groups, but their ideas are their own and their goal is to create something for themselves.The Tinkering Fundamentals Kit (and then some).Tinkering JournalThrough the course, we can also keep a journal and we'll be prompted throughout the weeks to respond to a series of questions to help us reflect and document our experiences along the way. This week we're asked to consider our goals and expectations, and the role that making and tinkering plays in our lives.The main reason I decided to take this course is because I'll be teaching a course this coming school year called "Make It 101". It's an elective for middle and high school students that want an introduction to making in my school's Upper School FabLab. Although I have a deep interest and love for making, this will be my first real opportunity to teach the fundamentals of making and tinkering to students. I'm very excited about the class, but also very nervous because, honestly, I don't have a lot of experience with the machines and the tools. But, when I think about making and tinkering, I believe that's part of the purpose. Because as their "teacher", I will also serve a a student along side them. Learning and leading, but also giving them the opportunity to lead as well.Share with me: What is your favorite tool? What does tinkering look like to you?See you next week!

Thanks to +Oli Trussell for sharing this simple yet powerful tool on Google+. The Sceenius Clicker, originally shared by +Joachim Stroh, is meant to provide instant feedback and improve the effectiveness of office meetings, but Oli had the brilliant idea of applying this tool to classroom discussions. You could even use it during workshops or conference presentations!First, be aware that this is in free alpha and is in full testing mode. This could mean several things: it might become a paid product eventually, it might change drastically, or it might just simply disappear at any time.But while it's still around, use it to your benefit! It's very simple to set up and use. Send your students or your audience to a special URL (i.e. http://sceenius.com/clicker/?code=edtechnocation), and as the discussion or presentation continues, invite them to provide real-time instant feedback by clicking one of the response buttons. You can have the same URL open on your computer or mobile device and track the numbers in the corners to see what the majority of the students are requesting.Your students can provide instant real-time feedbackduring your teaching or class conversation.To create your own Clicker go to http://sceenius.com/clicker/. Type in a code (think of it as the name of your clicker).Type your personal code, which becomes the nameof your clicker.Your code becomes a part of your unique URL which you then share with your students or audience.Your code creates your unique URL.Chime in: Would you use this tool in your classroom?

I am SO glad I decided to flip this year. I’ve freed up more class time for application activities, questions about content, and more individualized instruction.   My classroom is more student centered than ever before, and I LOVE IT! I’ve made one major change this semester in my classroom, and I think this change […]

Hello! Teaching with Technology has a new look! All of the posts and pages are still here! Browse around and share this blog! Do you have any questions EdTech related questions I could (attempt) to answer? Let me know in the comments! As always, thank you for reading

Finally! A Crash Course US Government and Politics channel! I am so excited!! I  briefly introduced a video from this channel to my students last week as a background video for one of our Kahoot review games (if you haven’t checked out Kahoot, seriously do that!). While this channel is new and not full of […]

I’m still sifting through the wonderful resources I learned about at METC this year. Such an awesome conference! In Glenn Wiebe’s session about Social Studies tech, I learned about Start Me, a great tool to use to create a class "landing page" or a place to share resources with your students. Not only does Start […]

I have missed  A LOT of time in my classroom in the last two weeks. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend METC for three days…which was awesome. Then, my youngest daughter was sick and needed her mommy. Next, a round of winter weather slammed our area and we had a weeklong snow-cation. […]

As teachers in the 21st century, you know that sharing resources and ideas with fellow educators is extremely important. That’s probably why you stumbled upon my blog Thanks for that, by the way! You also realize, however, that teachers are extraordinarily overwhelmed during the school day with our vitally important, yet daunting task of educating […]

As I sit at my kitchen table, writing to you the night before yet another snow day, I feel like I need to gush about an amazing tool. Remind! I haven’t written about Remind for quite some time, and that’s because I honestly haven’t needed to use it that much. When I need to communicate […]

I started blogging in January of 2014, and ever since, I’ve been asked these questions… Why do you do it? I started my EdTech nerd blog for a few reasons. First, I wanted a way to reflect upon my journey as I attempt to become a 21st century educator. As a teacher, I feel reflection […]

As the 3rd Quarter of my first year as a "flipper" comes to a close, I think it’s again time to reflect on my experiences. (For the importance of reflection in teaching, click here) In addition to transitioning my classroom from the so-called "traditional" flipped environment, and using instead the "in-class" flip, I’ve also changed the […]