Just wanted to share this because it’s so good! Richard and Danny are going to look at activities you can use to start working with emergent language in the classroom. Unplanned language that is … IATEFL Belfast 2022: Emergent language: Activities and answers to the key questions – Richard Chinn and Danny Norrington-Davies ..read more

Ben Naismith is an ELT colleague I’ve enjoyed interacting with online and (all too infrequently) face-to-face over several years. Ben’s been all over the shop – he’s one of those ELT Swiss army knives doing many things and doing them all well. Right now Ben is doing very interesting dissertation research at the University of Pittsburg. This post is me just helping spread the word to potential participants in my network, and I thank you for the click and consideration! So, if you are a current or former IELTS examiner, please read on. As well, if you are not an IELTS examiner but have friends o ..read more

I mentioned in my last entry that after midterm the students will be coming back to campus (go Thailand, eh?). So the other day I decided to change up my routine a bit. Instead of beaming up to Spaceship Zoom from my desk I would go sit in the assigned classroom of the course and teach from there. This is what a number of instructors seem to have been doing from the beginning, to some bemusement on my part. I couldn’t quite grok why they’d feel the need to schlep around to different classrooms only to open up the same laptop and meet students online. But the other day I had my own reasons for ..read more

It’s been over two weeks since my last confession diary entry. Not sure what to write, so I’ll just take some nice deep breaths and try to write down the bones. First thought, best thought. No editing or at least minimal. I know that over the last couple weeks I did take down notes here and there about things I thought I could write in this series…but I seem to have lost those notes. It’s likely they are a scattered in a few different places. Annnnd well, perhaps I have not really lost the the notes as much as lost the will to relocate and organize and read them. I don’t need to find any notes ..read more

Dear diary, today I’m going to keep it very elementary. So here are the ABCs of 31 July, 2020: A What are a few things I’ve learned about managing Zoom lessons this week? I can think of these now… 1. If you’re using an old laptop (I am!) always RESTART your computer before starting your Zoom lesson. Especially if you anticipate the kind of 2-hour, multi-modal, 7-webtool, screenshare-heavy, 40+ people with video & mics on lesson that I’m teaching. It seems to nudge the percentage chance that things slow down and freeze up quite a bit lower. 2. I’d like to have been a bit clearer from the ..read more

Dear diary, I just thought I’d “fill in the picture” a bit regarding the online teaching I’m doing this term. Actually, not only what I’m doing this term, but where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going soon (hint: it’s all nowhere but this computer screen; this is where I’ve been, where I live, and I’m not going anywhere else, at all, at any point in the near future). Heh. Here’s the rundown: Current: A listening & speaking course for +/- 150 3rd year English majors in 4 sections at a Thai uni. 2 hours/week. Via Zoom, with forums and other bits on a self-designed Moodle, plus an a ..read more

If you read my previous post/entry you’ll know I was really happy with yesterday’s lesson. Well, I taught the very same lesson to another section today and it wasn’t as good. I’m not bothered; only vaguely disappointed. But mainly I’m paying attention to how some of the differences can help me understand the contrasting group dynamics and characters of the two 41-member cohorts and what I should keep in mind to keep the second one more on pace with the first. Mainly I think they just need more (maybe a lot more) explicit signposting and even clearer task instruction prompts and models. Okay, s ..read more

I’m just about ready to spring-bounce off of this chair and fly away from this desk. Gotta get my ass off campus and back on home right now. You know the feeling. BUT I’m going to make myself write a quickie ‘diary entry’ before I do because…well…I made it a damn ‘diary’ and that means you need to throw down entries. Frequently! Even if sometimes rushed, short ones. That’s the nature of a diary/journal, right? And I know I’m not going to have the time or energy later. I’ve got errand running (gin), dog walking, dinner making, dinner having, garden watering, and a private lesson to do before 9 ..read more

Two weeks ago, just as my term’s worth of fully-online courses were getting started, I began this “diary” series about teaching online. I was hoping to be more active following up with it before two weeks, but hey. Here I am now. The bulk of that 1st entry was simply reporting on how some of my students responded to a survey I sent out. One positive response to the question “how do you feel about learning English online this term?” was: I feel great because you have fun teaching. That response was given shortly after the very first class, one in which I put a good deal of attention and effor ..read more

WHAT: fully-online semester-length English courses WHO: 2nd year Thai students, mostly English majors WHERE: a large public university near Bangkok. Classes started just this morning. I thought I’d start this “teaching diary” to catch some of the experience as I reflect on and refine what it is I’m doing (or at least attempt to). In the parlance of the title of this blog: as I…engage with the muddles and mistakes I encounter/create along the way and emerge (we hope) with some functional maxims and methods to follow the next time around (tomorrow’s class, next year, whenever time is a flat cir ..read more