We’ve moved yet one more year into the 21st century. Yet one more year towards the future. ‘Tis not a future with flying cars or the Jetson’s robot maid Rose cleaning your house; no, we haven’t gone that far. However, there’s seems to be no denial we’re in the middle of a very important revolution.… Read More
Against the prejudice – How far can adverts go?
UPDATE: Below my post, you can read Vinícius Nobre’s letter (he’s the president of Braz-TESOL) and, now, the reply that Open English has written. We did it! 🙂 —————————————- I must say I’m not particularly offended when I’m called a NNEST (Non-Native English Speaking Teacher). Perhaps I’m just being naïve, but I don’t believe there’s… Read More
Headed for a Catch-22 situation?
It’s a commonly held belief (at least where I live) that in order to fully be able to speak a foreign language, one has to live abroad. It is only through immersion that you’ll finally be able to understand the subtleties of the language you want to learn. This is also widely spread on TV… Read More
A class, two chats, and an interview
Honestly, I hadn’t really planned to write a follow up to my previous post. However, things just seem to happen in a certain way and you have to do your best to adapt and make use of them to your advantage. I’m a strong proponent of meaningful and interesting conversation used to promote professional development.… Read More
True Education is Timelessness (or “Beware of Fads”)
I’ve recently had the chance to read and analyse a text with some of my college students that got me thinking. Actually, ever since I heard about the idea of digital-natives and all that goes with the idea of digital-literacy and the changes in education, I’ve been thinking about this topic (you can see what… Read More
Bottom up, top down, or upside down?
How can we expect to change education when the people in charge don’t really feel like doing much about it? Besides doing something to ease the criticism, and maybe to appease the harsher critics, why would the government want to make things really work in education? It’s a known fact that the less educated you… Read More
Some challenges in education (part 2) – Assessment
If you’ve missed challenges 1 and 2, and what got me into writing this series, you can read that here. Challenge 3 – How do we shift our current educational system from a summative-based to a formative-based system? Is it possible to make such shift? Tests are everywhere, not only in school. Tests, obviously, come… Read More
The power of two
There are two different kinds of PLNs, as I see it. First, there’s the virtual PLN, the one you create through your visits to other educators’ blogs and engaging conversations on Twitter, blogs, or Skype to name but a few. This is a PLN which is filled with teachers who are willing to share, grow,… Read More
What takes it so long?
The very first time I heard of #edchat, I thought it was the craziest idea ever. How could we possibly have a conversation trying to convey our message using only 132 (don’t forget the hashtag) characters? Well, not only did I find it possible, but I also started participating in more and more #edchat sessions.… Read More
About Teaching
I’ve had a couple of fruitful days just now. Even though I’m as sick as one can be, I still had the chance to: i) participate (partially, unfortunately) in a 3-day seminar with Nina Lauder, ii) carry out a week of a teachers training course, and iii) attend a seminar by Herbert Puchta. The downside… Read More
