ESL Rocks!

Why does ESL rock?  Because we have… …students who really want to learn. …students who support and encourage each other in their learning. …instructors who work as a team. …instructors who work with each entire person, not just with the “reading” student or “composition” student or even just the “ESL” student …instructors who genuinely love [...]

10 Reasons Why I Blog

Why do I blog? 1)  I blog to reflect on what I’ve done with technology in my ESL classes. 2)  I blog to record what I need to remember the next time I try doing something similar. 3)  I blog to share with my colleagues across the country and the globe what has worked for [...]

How has the way you work changed over the last ten years?

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s ProfHacker asked today how the way we’ve worked has changed over the last ten years.  My answer is with regards to teaching is… in almost every single way. 1.  Ten years ago, I was making audio cassettes for my students to purchase through the bookstore.  Now I give them links [...]

The “Hole-in-the Wall” Project on TED by Sugata Mitra

In this TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) presentation, Sugata Mitra, Ph.D.,  Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK, and Chief Scientist, Emeritus, at NIIT in Gurgaon, India, proves with his “hole in the wall” experiments, carried out in some of the poorest parts of the [...]

What Adult ESL Students Want in a Teacher-Part 2

Today I polled my advanced adult ESL students as to what characteristic(s) they thought good teachers possessed.  The results are published on the following website: http://www.polleverywhere.com/free_text_polls/MjA3ODU3NjY3Nw By far the majority of the comments centered on the personality of the teacher rather than on the teacher’s knowledge of the content or teaching strategies.  The students look [...]