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Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Journals and Organisations
As a professional EFL teacher it is probably a good idea to subscribe to some of the many journals and magazines available to the industry. It also probably pays to belong to one of the professional bodies such as IATEFL. Or does it? I belong to IATEFL and also take the Voices journal, ELTJ and English Teaching Professional. I find these mostly interesting and often helpful but I wonder if in the age of forums, blogs and twitter if these are still worthwhile and worth the money.
I think, personally, that on balance they probably still are but I would be interested to know what journals (if any) you read and if you belong to any of the professional bodies. It would also be interesting to know if you find them valuable or not, and what would you recommend to fellow teachers?
I think, personally, that on balance they probably still are but I would be interested to know what journals (if any) you read and if you belong to any of the professional bodies. It would also be interesting to know if you find them valuable or not, and what would you recommend to fellow teachers?
Monday, 23 August 2010
Twitter as water cooler.
For every twitter user their must be at least 20 twitter sceptics - you know the people who sneer and make weirdly unfunny comments about you being a 'twit' (or cruder) and imply that you have to manufacture an online community in order to make up for your lack of immediate community. In addition to these people are another group who are perhaps curious and want to know what the point in it all is. Why Twitter? is no an original question nor will this blog give an original answer but it might just add one or two more Twitterers which is probably no bad thing.
Twitter for me is the water cooler for the global office. It is where your co-workers from the US, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Italy, India, South Africa, Australia and China gather to exchange ideas, gossip, jokes, banalities, concerns and occasionally insults. Ever wanted to work for a multi-national without actually having to work for a multi-national? Well now you do. In most Twitter communities there is a thread or two holding the followers together - for me it is Education, Education Technology and EFL (or ESL) and most of those who I follow are also in this field. The pleasure that you get from Twitter revolves around the relatively simple idea that if you are enthusiastic about what you do it helps to be able to share that enthusiasm with like minded people. Often, sadly, this is not the case in our physical working environments where you either have no colleagues (self-employed) or are working with people for whom the grudge and drudge took over a long time ago. But with Twitter you can now communicate with equally motivated individuals globally - people who have a ton of good ideas alongside a ton of terrible ideas and some that are simply okay - the point is that they have ideas and are willing to share them.
Don't get me wrong, I do not leap out of bed every morning (I don't leap out of bed any morning!) yelling yippee, work today! No-one does, or at least they shouldn't, not least you will annoy the neighbours. I do, however get a rejuvenated sense of motivation from flipping up the laptop and reading comments from people all over the world who are also just starting, in the middle of or just ending their teaching day and are letting you know what they've read, seen, done, heard or thought of that might be of interest to you too. You might also get a little chat going as you hunch over keyboard and coffee and find that someone else shares your cynicism or enthusiasm for IWBs. You may discover coincidentally that your colleague in Peru also likes Erasure's early music (I said may!) or that another colleague in Sri Lanka clearly needs to improve their repertoire of jokes, you might find yourself directed to and taking part in a fascinating discussion on multi-tasking, fluent teaching or taboo themes in classrooms.
Twitter will not change your life, it could make you enjoy your job more. You do not need to be witty or pithy or original or wise or funny or even there all the time. You need to be enthusiastic about what you do and willing to chat with other like-minded people - you need to be willing to work in an organisation with other colleagues who also like to gather around the Twitter water cooler and chat together. After that you had also better get back to work.
Agree, disagree, add, subtract - love to hear from people
Twitter for me is the water cooler for the global office. It is where your co-workers from the US, Argentina, Mexico, Germany, Italy, India, South Africa, Australia and China gather to exchange ideas, gossip, jokes, banalities, concerns and occasionally insults. Ever wanted to work for a multi-national without actually having to work for a multi-national? Well now you do. In most Twitter communities there is a thread or two holding the followers together - for me it is Education, Education Technology and EFL (or ESL) and most of those who I follow are also in this field. The pleasure that you get from Twitter revolves around the relatively simple idea that if you are enthusiastic about what you do it helps to be able to share that enthusiasm with like minded people. Often, sadly, this is not the case in our physical working environments where you either have no colleagues (self-employed) or are working with people for whom the grudge and drudge took over a long time ago. But with Twitter you can now communicate with equally motivated individuals globally - people who have a ton of good ideas alongside a ton of terrible ideas and some that are simply okay - the point is that they have ideas and are willing to share them.
Don't get me wrong, I do not leap out of bed every morning (I don't leap out of bed any morning!) yelling yippee, work today! No-one does, or at least they shouldn't, not least you will annoy the neighbours. I do, however get a rejuvenated sense of motivation from flipping up the laptop and reading comments from people all over the world who are also just starting, in the middle of or just ending their teaching day and are letting you know what they've read, seen, done, heard or thought of that might be of interest to you too. You might also get a little chat going as you hunch over keyboard and coffee and find that someone else shares your cynicism or enthusiasm for IWBs. You may discover coincidentally that your colleague in Peru also likes Erasure's early music (I said may!) or that another colleague in Sri Lanka clearly needs to improve their repertoire of jokes, you might find yourself directed to and taking part in a fascinating discussion on multi-tasking, fluent teaching or taboo themes in classrooms.
Twitter will not change your life, it could make you enjoy your job more. You do not need to be witty or pithy or original or wise or funny or even there all the time. You need to be enthusiastic about what you do and willing to chat with other like-minded people - you need to be willing to work in an organisation with other colleagues who also like to gather around the Twitter water cooler and chat together. After that you had also better get back to work.
Agree, disagree, add, subtract - love to hear from people
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
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