#eltchat site may move.
#eltchat’s website domain has been disabled through not fault of the great individuals who are dedicated to its upkeep. For the backstory and plan to… Read More »#eltchat site may move.
ELT cover letters & CVs
I’ve been vetting a concentrated amount of teaching applicants lately. Cover letters and CVs emailed to me never cease to amaze–some are truly awful. I flip flop between sympathy and fury. I desperately want to reply with suggestions and other times I want to ask if they are delusional. Neither is appropriate. Instead, based on the types of teaching positions I’ve posted ads for and the types of applications I’ve received, maybe a couple tips below will help someone seeking an ELT job (or give you reason to commiserate).
Literally following instructions
For some time, I’ve been increasingly feeling like we suffer from the warm, fuzzy, everything-is-wonderful syndrome. We pat each other on the back when it’s deserved, but also when it’s not, and though this accomplishes what it sets out to–we feel good about ourselves–it also breeds mediocrity. This spills over into our classroom philosophies as well. Are we really helping our students achieve their potential with language or are we unintentionally filling in the gaps and overlooking errors they make because comprehensibility alone is the goal? I subscribe to Underhill and Scrivener’s Demand High ELT, which looks at “ways of getting much greater depth of tangible engagement and learning” and in a recent conversation with my colleague, Katherine Anderson, she reminded me of a great activity that pushes students to be better.
#eltjob? a chat about ELT employment
Today on Twitter, I noticed another chat hashtag #edhire, thanks to Lisa Dabbs (@teachingwithsoul), which from what I initially gathered is a chance for teachers to discuss tips for gaining employment within the K-12 system. This gave me an idea and I’d like to gauge interest.
Is EAP more serious than general English?
During the last #EAPchat, we talked about the difference between general ESL/EFL and EAP in terms of seriousness and credibility at large. You can see the transcript here. If asked, how would you answer this question: Out of general English and EAP, which is more serious?
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Referring to loved ones who’ve passed
July 11 has a very special meaning for me. It’s a day with happy memories, but also more recently, nostalgia. With these feelings comes a curious language moment and more than likely a cousin to one of the PARSNIPs. More broadly, this post perhaps contains a social commentary on an often uncomfortable but common part of life. How do we talk about and refer to family no longer with us? Let me lead by example.
G is for Grapple
No, I’m not going to be weaving a well-constructed post about an apple posing as a grape (pictured above) as a metaphor for an ELT issue–the operative word being “well”–nor am I beginning a series of posts that will piggyback off Scott Thornbury’s well-known blog format (ok, maybe just this once). Instead, two of his recent posts on coursebook/syllabi approaches, P is Postmodern method and C is for Critical Pedagogy, have given me that little nudge to write about the grappling with curricula and coursebooks I undergo every summer. (By the way, they also have inspired a desire to incorporate vivid metaphors into my posts, which will continually manifest itself somewhere, some way. You wait!)
Kaplan PLI workshop
Hello everyone from Kaplan PLI,
Please find the slides to the workshop embedded below, which you can view online. I’ve left hyperlinks to the web tools we looked at below. Thanks for welcoming me to your school for tonight’s workshop. I hope to meet up with all of you at other professional development events. =)Read More »Kaplan PLI workshop