Two Teachers Talking™

Two Teachers Talking™

By Tony Silva and Charles WizEducation
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Two Teachers Talking™ episodes

  • 154. Desirable Difficulties

    “OK, let’s make this a little harder,” says Duo the Owl to us every day. We take a look at how some counter-intuitive practices can improve learning by tricking the brain to try harder. No, we’re not neurologists. But we have a podcast.

  • Sans Forgetica - YouTube: https://youtu.be/CEXzSehu5HM
  • Sans Forgetica - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans\_forgetica
  • Why Making Learning More Difficult Improves Your Skill Development - Erik Hamre: https://hamre-erik.medium.com/desirable-difficulty-why-you-should-make-learning-more-difficult-on-purpose-c65223046d6b
    • 1 hr 6 min
  • 153. Improv and Teaching

    Charles talks with Nerida Rand to find out how a background in improvisation plays out in the classroom. Nerida was an exchange student in a Japanese high school in the 80’s and has been back in Japan as a teacher since 1997. She teaches in the Graduate School of International Social Sciences at Yokohama National University as well as being adjunct faculty at Keio SFC. When school’s out she’s acting, improvising, and translating plays.

    1 hr 1 min
  • 151. Too much time, too little time, this isn’t working…RED ALERT!

    A bit tweaked at the end of the semester? I guess we were, too, so off we go on a lightning round session of time saving and emergency pull-stuff-out-of-your hat ideas.

    Mentioned:

  • Socrative: https://www.socrative.com
  • Google Forms: https://www.google.com/forms/about/ (does not require Google Classroom)
  • Teachers for Ukraine: https://www.teachersforukraine.org
  • Bonus link: - NYT - 145 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing: https://tinyurl.com/nytpicprompts
    • 1 hr 5 min
  • 150. Teaching Reading

    We talk about teaching reading and all the ingredients that get baked into that. Why, what kind, how…all of it. Correction: only 55% of web content is in English, not 75% as I stated in the podcast.

    Mentioned:

  • Episodes 73 and 77, the Paul Nation Interviews: https://twoteacherstalking.org
  • Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang: https://amzn.to/3QQCdkG
  • "Why English?": http://tony-silva.com/eslefl/whyenglish.html
    • 1 hr 12 min
  • 148. Post-COVID?

    It’s a new school year in Japan, and very likely, most of your classes are now again face to face, or, at least, mask to mask. Things are returning to “normal.” Or are they? What is the new normal? How have the last two years changed you, your students, your teaching, their learning, and our academic universes?

    1 hr 10 min
  • 147. Why English?

    Another year begins. Instead of talking about how, we discuss some of the whys. Why teach English? Why teach foreign languages?

  • Why English?: http://tony-silva.com/eslefl/whyenglish.html
  • Go Abroad: www.goabroad.com/articles/language-study-abroad/why-is-it-important-to-learn-a-foreign-language
  • Decision making: How Knowing a Foreign Language Can Improve Your Decisions, Catherine Caldwell-Harris: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foreign-language-improve-decisions/
  • Lead With Languages: https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/why-learn-languages/top-ten-reasons-to-learn-languages/
    • 1 hr 12 min
  • 146. Coordinators and...Leaving Japan?!

    Tony and Charles talk about last months’ discussion with Professors George Truscott and Nathanael Rudolph on what’s involved in program coordination. Then, the discussion turns to Tony’s departure from Japan and his landing in Mexico.

    59 min
  • 145. Program Coordination

    Charles sits down with George Truscott and Nathanael Rudolph to discuss the art of Program Coordination. Approaches, philosophies, goals and outcomes, staff management, limitations, liabilities, and juggling all the balls.

    10 hr 24 min

About Two Teachers Talking™

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Teachers know that when classes are done, the beer has been poured, teachers gather around the table, and the talk turns to...teaching. Great (and not so great ideas) are tossed around, argued,…