My TESOL France experience

It’s been two weeks and I finally managed to find time to blog about the best ELT conference I’ve attended so far. The 2010 TESOL France event that took place in late November was simply fantastic.

I have blogged about the power of Twitter before, having met Anna and Guido while travelling but it was in Paris that I understood how great my PLN is. Although I arrived in France on my own I didn’t feel lonely for a second. From the moment I entered the venue it felt like being among family though some of us were meeting for the first time in real life.

Obviously, it wasn’t only the Twitterati that made the conference a spectacular event.

The sessions I attended after a very long and careful selection (as I wanted to attend so many!) were all a hit.

Lindsay Clandfield’s ‘Captured on video’ explored the possibilities of using and creating videos with students.

Anna Musielak’s ‘Drama: is it never too much of a good thing’ woke us up, gave a shot of positive energy and left with tons of inspiring ideas.

Russel Stannard’s ‘Gems on the Web’ showed us all the goodies one can find at TeacherTrainingVideos and now we know it’s all easy J

Katerina Martincova and her ‘Drama-based pedagogy for nursery and primary learners’ made us see how beneficial using drama with Young Learners is.

And then there was my session about documentaries in the midst of these. Thank you all for coming! I hope you enjoyed it despite the little technical difficulties. A big THANK you and a hug go now to @eannegrenoble who helped me fix the problem and saved my presentation J

Last but not least, thank you Beth for being such a wonderful host!

I will definitely be back next year!

Virtual Round Table and...

I love conferences. I love listening to interesting people and sharing ideas. I love learning new things.

But conferences are expensive and it’s usually very difficult for a regular teacher, like myself, to attend them. Also because our employers frown at the idea of giving us a day or two off.

That’s why the Virtual Round Table Conferences are so incredibly awesome. The only thing you need is a computer with access to the Internet, some free time and willingness to learn. 

All the sessions I virtually attended last weekend were motivating, well prepared and super informative so let me thank the members of my PLN that made my participation in the conference a worthwhile experience :)

 

Thank you Janet for sharing so many sites and tips on how to make students enjoy learning Phrasal Verbs!

Janet Bianchini Fun with Phrasal Verbs!

Thank you Mike for showing us how to start Faceblogging!

Mike Harrison Getting some Facebook time with your colleagues

Thank you Miguel for reminding me that I have a Flip and I should get busy making good use of it!

Miguel Mendoza Flip Cameras in the ELT Classroom

Thank you Guido for the best session about Twitter I’ve ever attended – it was great to see you again!

Guido Europeaantje Twitter: Turn 140 Characters into a Virtual Staffroom

Thank you Heike, Shelly and Berni for all the hard work you put into organizing the conference.

Great, great job ladies!

Last but not least, I’ve recently realized that on the 6th of October my blog turned 1 year old. 

So Happy Birthday L_missbossy’s Playground!

Thank you Lindsay for the inspiring session about blogging in Budapest last year and thank you PLN for stopping by, reading and commenting! Hadn’t it been for you, I definitely would’t be here!

You may also read Barbara Sakamoto’s fantastic account of the 3rd Virtual Round Table conference here.

2 kinds of teachers

Some time ago I wrote a guest post for Nick Jaworski, the author of Turklish TEFL, called ‘3 kinds of teachers’. To keep it short: type 1 – one who doesn’t know the students’ mother tongue, type 2 – one whose mother tongue is the same as the students’, type 3 – one who knows the students’ mother tongue more or less. Nick’s comment to my previous post generated another idea.

Looking at EFL/ESL teachers from a different perspective we might as well say that there are two kinds of educators: type 1 – teachers who were trained to become teachers and have worked only as such and type 2 – teachers who joined ELT having experienced doing something different for a living.

I’m a teacher type 1. For the past seven years the only thing I've done is teaching English. One advantage of being a teacher type 1 is that I’ve taught kids, teenagers and adults and thus gained pretty much experience. I’ve used a number of course books and have my own library of photocopied materials and ready to use lessons back home. I might be thrown into a classroom and teach a great lesson without any preparation or stress if required.

Yet sometimes I cannot get rid of this nasty, subtle feeling of inferiority. Teachers type 2 are familiar with  such a bunch of other issues. They can bring a great deal of their non ELT related experience into the classroom and that makes a huge difference.

The only things I know about are the ones I studied – British/American Literature, Phonology, Descriptive and Historical Grammar, Linguistics… Needless to say, it surely isn’t something students would fancy discussing.

There are of course personal interests and passions. I’ve always been into travelling, ethnography and films. (If you are planning to take part in the ISTEK ELT conference in March, feel invited to attend my workshop about using documentaries in the classroom J )

I'm really curious about the rest of you in the blogosphere.

What kind of teachers are you?

Can one type of teachers claim superiority over the other?

What are some other advantages/ disadvantages of being teachers type 1 and 2?

Thanks Nick for the inspiration btw!