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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

ELT coursebooks: past, present, and possible symposium | Glasgow Online

ELT coursebooks: past, present, and possible symposium | Glasgow Online

Combining marketed coursebooks and teacher-developed materials: reasons, possibilities and implications | Glasgow Online

Combining marketed coursebooks and teacher-developed materials: reasons, possibilities and implications | Glasgow Online

Facilitating Change in ELT Practice | Glasgow Online

Facilitating Change in ELT Practice | Glasgow Online

ELT New Theory

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIO FEEDBACK IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS | Glasgow Online

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIO FEEDBACK IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS | Glasgow Online

Young learner writing and the storyline approach

Psychodramaturgie Linguistique for language acquistion

the importance of culture in language learning

teaching creatively and teaching creativity

Blended Teacher Trainning

EAP vs. ELT

‘Teacher Professional Development in the Era of Hermes’

www.tesolacademic.org/Video clips/2011/RPJune11SP.wmv

From students’ and teachers’ perspectives: Metaphor analysis of beliefs about EFL teachers’ roles’

www.tesolacademic.org/Video clips/2011/RPDec11WW.wmv

From Cultural Awareness to Intercultural Awareness

www.tesolacademic.org/Video clips/2012/RPMarch12WB.wmv

Thursday, March 22, 2012

IATEFL

IATEFL

Loraine Kennedy - Appraisals

Loraine Kennedy - Consultancy, Training, Coaching 
Well we all know that appraisals are not really the most popular thing, but if done in the right way, they can be useful and lead to great performance.
To get it right you require: rationale and purpose (what is the point of the appraisal system), clear criteria for assessment, PM processes, documentation (know where it is and how to use it), communication, feedback, evidence (not just opinion vs opinion) and training (for the staff).
What you are seeking is: clarity, consistency, transparency (what you are assessing must be clear), simplification (because it is time consuming), objectivity (strive to be as objective as possible), accuracy (not just opinion), a constructive approach, growth and development and win-win opportunities.
What we must have in mind is to "begin with the end in mind" so
1. start with PLANNING - set organisational objectives and tasks as well as individual objectives and tasks
2. do THE WORK IN PROGRESS
3. do THE PRE-APPRAISALS PREPARATION
4. APPRAISAL TIME
Planning time - make clear what are the measurements, requirements and ask "What will it look like in 6 months?"; "How will you demonstrate the performance?"; "What support do you need?";"How often will we meet to see how it is going on?" etc.
Work in progress - give feedback, check progress regularly, rewiev the paperwork together, communicate and provide support.
Pre-preparation - set the date well in advance, plan carefully for the meeting, gather various stakeholder feedback (from students, peer teachers etc.) encourage written self-evaluation in advance, collect it and read it! Do not judge people´s personalities but performance - give evidence and make measurable indicators for behaviour and competencies.
The meeting - meet in a comfortable, conducive place, be systematic (mention everything that is going to be in the written report), use the collected self-evaluation information, state when the appraisal will be ready and deliver it in time!
Writing the appraisal reports - write down notes as soon as the meeting is over, do not rush the writing stage, always put yourself in the other people´s shoes and don´t make things sound worse in writing, so, check for accuracy, tone and completeness. Assess only what is assessible within the system and send it when you are sure it is right!
Remember to be fair, balanced, clear, positive (or neutral) and always evidence-based!

IATEFL

IATEFL

What to do with poor performance?!

The main questions are how do we find out about poor performance, why does it accur and how to deal with it?
Managers find out about it in 3 ways:
- students complain ("playground conversation")
- a teacher asks for help
- they just "pick it up" (noticing the teachers´ "mess")
One of the problems is in the wrong approach towards answering students´ complaints. Instead of saying "ok, I will deal with it" and thus sending the wrong impression that they can provide a "quick fix" of the situation, we should ask "Have you spoken to your teacher about it?" which is a more long term solution.Schools mustn´t risk to be too much client led!
Why does poor performance occur? Well, teachers fall into three groups:
the newer ones - who ask and need help and as a manager always remember what it was like at that stage, so give them good course books and boost their confidence!
the more experienced - get too comfortable so need to be pushed beyond this (use the timetable and move them, change their groups, move them from their "comfort zone"
the "victory lap" teachers - the ones that are soon to be retired or leaving the school so they just don´t care!
How to deal¸with it? First of all managers should teach (to remember what it is like), they should set a clear understanding on what they believe is "effective teaching" and what they expect from the teacher. On the other hand, everyone can have a bad day, a bad month, period of life, a particular class or course book etc. and it is OK to freak out! Bad performance won´t be stamped on your forehead, so do not take it too personal if a manager offers help, feedback or observation.
e.g. the "Unobserved observation" is a great method, not intrusive yet very effetive.

Interview with Jeremy Harmer | Glasgow Online

Interview with Jamie Keddie | Glasgow Online

IATEFL, 6 Key Questions for Teachers and Trainers at the Crossroads

IATEFL

6 Key Questions for Teachers and Trainers at the Crossroads

Anna Conway's picture


This was a fantastic talk given by Jeremy Harmer. It was actually quite a funny one too. Jeremy Harmer has such a great sense of humour.

During his talk Jeremy read 6 statements and we had to stand up if we agreed and stay in our seats if we disagreed. The blog entry will be very long if I go into details of what has been discussed during this session. So I thought I will just post the questions and then if you are interested we could discuss them through comments.

So the questions are:
1. Does a good teacher have to be tech savvy?
2. Does correction work or not? Is it just a waste of time?
3. Is testing our students a good thing or a bad thing? Is it something that we have to live with?
4. Is CLIL the future of learning English?
5. How do teachers create rapport in the classroom?
6. Does drilling work? If it does, then why aren't there any sessions on drilling?

Interview with Neil Ballantyne, Mobile Learning Manager | Glasgow Online

Interview with Neil Ballantyne, Mobile Learning Manager | Glasgow Online