Two Teachers Talking™

Different kinds of student feedback, different ways of trying to get (good) student feedback, why it’s important, and why it’s so damn hard to get.

Things aren’t right. When does it make sense to leave a job and when are you better off staying? Once you decide to leave, when and how should you do it? From two guys who have quit more jobs than most people will ever have. Just don’t call us quitters.

Turning student smartphones from a distraction to a learning and teaching device. Got an idea of your own? Share it!

Things we can’t live without. In class, outside of class, essentials, luxuries, wish lists. A long talk about STUFF. Maybe you’ll get some gift ideas for the teachers on your list.

That is what Charles sat down to tease out with two Moodle mavens steeped in geekery, Professors George Truscott and Bill White of Kindai University. Four teachers, two hours later, the conclusion is…

Thanks George and Bill!

Tony and Charles smash together a lightning round session of "how we teach X." If you want hands on, practical discussion of real-world teaching practices, this is for you: fluency, presentation/public speaking, reading, writing, writing email, manners, listening, pronunciation, class culture, critical thinking, teacher web sites…all in 60 minutes.

Fluency. What the hell is it? How are we supposed to teach it? How will developments in artificial intelligence and computer translation change our teaching? Not to mention that proficiency vs. fluency conundrum. Tony and Charles spend precious vacation time to stumble around in the dark, separated by 6000 miles.

Part Two of Charles’ interview with Paul Nation. Paul and Charles discuss the importance of replication in research, the differences between entertainment and learning, the first day of class, and the future of teaching in light of AI and computer translation developments.

Textbooks. What role do textbooks play today, what role will they play tomorrow, and when will they become just a symbol of the way things used to be? Same questions with "should." What textbook alternatives exist now?

Mentioned in the podcast:

If This Then That

Us and Them, Tony Silva

Breaking News English, Sean Banville

Edublogs

Wordpress

Wrestling with the multi-layered difficulties of something that deserves to be (should be, needs to be) so simple: capturing a thought or idea for later retrieval. Oh, yeah, and that managing that steaming pile of “stuff I have to remember to do.”