What is it that makes a great teacher? Is it passion? Empathy? Belief – in themselves and their students? Knowledge? Creativity? Flexibility? Dedication? Enthusiasm? Patience? Being a good listener? Having the willingness to try new things? Being able to reflect? Willingness to learn from mistakes and to keep on learning? And the list goes on………
Well that is our job, right? A while ago, I attended a fabulous conference with Jim Scrivener and in one of his talks he referred to a comment Michael Swan had made about language teaching: our job as language teachers is to teach language. Full stop. This comment stayed on my mind and made me think about my own language…
Normally, when institutes move to online or blended programs six to nine months of preparation have gone into designing appropriate learning systems (Hodges et. al, 2020) and enabling teachers with technology-enhanced teaching skills. As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, most of us were thrown into online teaching overnight, and herein lies the danger that…
This blog, written for Cambridge University Press, explores the benefits of reflective practice. Learn the benefits of reflecting, to promote a self-improving culture of learning and increase your ability to adapt during these unpredictable times.
After many weeks of working online, I thought it would be useful to reflect and look back in order to take forward what I’ve learned from this sudden change. The tips below have been written with conducting webinars in mind; I mean, I’ve been conducting webinars for years now but I never had the pleasure…
As the current situation continues, many of us are coming to the realization that online face-to-face teaching, or rather remote teaching, might well be the new normal for, at least, the coming months. Normally, when institutes move to online or blended programs six to nine months of preparation have gone into designing appropriate learning systems…
Simple things seem to take much longer in the online classroom and even beyond! Planning for online lessons, for example, can take up to three times longer for online lessons. No surprise that we all feel the emotional toll that the sudden shift to home teaching is taking on us, not to mention the physical…
Roosevelt’s famous quote ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’ carries possibly more weight than ever. The unexpected events of the last months required us and our students to change and adapt quickly, for some overnight, to a new learning and teaching environment. For many, this might have been an overwhelming experience. And we all know,…
Suddenly, overnight the face-to-face classroom that was the norm for decades was no more. As a result, our common, convenient way of teaching changed overnight. What was once considered as an alternative for F2F teaching became our new normal: remote teaching or teaching online face-to-face. Whereas many teachers were already using technology in the English…