TEFL Waffle

What's the point of hanging around with a bunch of teachers in a formal event where you have to talk about teaching and eat pre-prepared food? Do you really want to hang out with the type of teachers who are so obsessed with their profession that they choose to spend their own money on attending an event to show off how into it they are? Aren't they all just academic weirdos stroking each other's egos? Should I endeavor to be a stroker and keep stroking until I finally become an elvated strokee? We tackle these important questions, giggle a little, and decide that conferences are a must for every teacher. Well, sometimes.

Troy and Steve waffle and waffle. Today Steve really waffles up a storm, he really does! So today they are waffling about the wonderful world of getting observed while you teach, observing teachers giving lessons, the difference between evaluation and feedback, and every now and again the cat gets to add some waffle support too. Troy say the word 'autonomic' which I don't understand - see if you can hear it. Email us with a definition. And, who watches the watchers that break multiple grammar rules in the beginning of a single sentence? Is that why we have a special guest cat?

Today Troy and Steve have a guest - it's Sunee! Sunee has been teaching young learners since she herself was young. It's part of her genes. She knows a lot about children, children's classes, children's material, children's behaviour and all sort of other things about children and their classrooms. We grill her about all this stuff. In particular, we wonder how we might know who is destined to be a teacher of young learners, and whether the characteristics that make a YL teacher are bred into them by some twist at birth, or whether it's something someone can learn.

Troy and Steve have taken the day off, but Yort and Evets are standing in. They don't Waffle about TEFL. Instead, they'll be exploring, in exquisite detail, the way teachers and teaching are portrayed in the movies - and today's movie is Good Morning Vietnam! Which is set in Vietnam, actually. In this movie, Robin Williams is a teacher sometimes. Yes he really is. But, do teachers in movies know how to teach? Or is it a farce designed to trick the layman? Does Robin know how to teach (his character in the movie, that is)?  Does he make any stupid beginner-teacher mistakes? Listen to Yort and Evets and find out what they think. Watch out, there's some language in here you don't want your grandmother to hear (like 'elicit', and maybe even 'illicit'). You'll never watch a movie in the same way again!

It's Steve who has a big fat waffle about things that happen outside of the classroom that may be opportunities for learning. At the end of the day it's time for the teacher to go home, sit in the garden and sip a pina colada... But wait! The school would really like it if you came back on Sunday and helped show off to the parents how special thieir programme is, look handsome and/or pretty (or both), and justify all those shiny school fees they're paying. Is this part of our job too? Should we be paid a marketing bonus for coming in on a Sunday? Surely there's no educatiobal value in getting ther students dressing up for Halloween! Explore the world of teaching that happens outside of the classroom, and away from pina coladas and gardens.

Troy and Steve ask the crucial questions - how much should a teacher work? How many hours should we teach? How much time should we spend planning? Are we working too much? Should we work more? Does anyone know how much we work? Are any of these questions pertinent? Should we stop asking questions like this? Anyway, Steve has opinions, Troy has stories and we both waffle enoughly about working as a teacher.

Troy has a question about whether teachers need to read formal research. What's the point of all these academics doing endless research instead of actually teaching? Surely those who do, do, but those who observe don't? Which is mightier, the practionioner or the theoretician? Should teachers even bother? Steve has a lot of things to say about this, though his opinion is really flawed and completely biased anyway. Troy, in the other hand, has a whiteboard marker.

Steve has chosen the topic today. That's always a little dangerous. What, he asks cunningly, is the golden rule for teachers in the classroom? Do you have a golden rule for yourself as a teacher? Compare it with Troy's response! Then compare it with Steve's idea. Compare yours and Troy's with what the teachers you work with think is a golden rule for their classroom. Is there only one golden rule? Or are there two? Or are there zillions of golden rules? This podcast almost hits the infinity button, and as usual, waffling ensues.

Language learning is complex and subject a lot of variables - which Applied Linguists love researching. Troy and Steve waffle about it in a very unscientific way, citing absolutely no research and instead simply whinging about what it is that makes us as language learners useless at learning languages. Come wallow in our self-pity with us.

Today our special guest Stuart softly cajoles us into the meaningful and exciting world of soft skills in the classroom. An exerienced motivational speaker and general British fellow, Stuart has been a language teacher for quite a while now, and brings to his teaching his perspective that people are, in fact, people and should be treated as such. What does it mean when a students asks 'Teacher, can yoiu help me prepare my presentation that I have to present presently?' Oh, and Stu also waffles pretty well too.