Random Quote
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
KOTESOL 2009 - going?
Next weekend is the annual KOTESOL international conference. As usual I will be attending and have arranged a dinner out with several people that I only get to see once a year at this conference on Saturday evening.
Are you going? vote in the poll and leave a comment.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Oct 15, 2009 at 07:06 PM
Public_Service_Announcement | Conferences | Random_Ramblings | Polling_Station |
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Not sure
I’m not sure if this blog has died or not. Needless to say I don’t post here very much. I’m considering selling the domain, but also don’t want all of my content to disappear – is that egotistic or what? I suppose if I got a good enough offer I would let the domain go, as well as Let’s Learn Korean, but it would have to be pretty good.
I’m still teaching, at least until summer 2011 when I repatriate back to Canada so there is a fair chance that I’ll post something here somewhat regularly between now and then. I am still open to guest authors, but am going to be a little more careful about who I approve as it looks like the last couple of them were more commercially oriented than I liked. Personally I want guest authors here to be active teachers with something to say to other teachers.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Aug 3, 2009 at 07:50 PM
Random_Ramblings | Guest Author |
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An interview with me
A few days ago I was interviewed by email for Why They Teach. If you’re interested in learning more about me go check it out.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Apr 13, 2009 at 07:06 AM
META | Random_Ramblings |
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Inspiration for a song
Today my students did their first graded presentations for my presentation skills class. The students in this class are all native like or near native speakers. The assignment was a 5 minute presentation which the student could choose a topic from a list of about 30.
Several students did the topic “having a hobby is good for my life”. Yeah I know it’s a bit of a fluff topic, but the point is to get students talking and also not to focus on content so much as their presentation – body language, eye contact, organization etcetera..
One student wrote about how he enjoys composing songs. He took 30 seconds of his alloted time to sing part of a song that he wrote two weeks ago after my class on overcoming fear in presentations. The song title is “The Embrace” and is about the need to embrace fear. Anyhow, it was rather interesting to find out that one of my lessons inspired a song.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Apr 3, 2009 at 03:51 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching |
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Foreign(ers’) in Seoul?
If you have lived in South Korea for more than a few years you will have noticed that the country and the Seoul metro region in particular are becoming increasingly diverse. If you only just arrived in Seoul and don’t think it’s very diverse, just ask someone who has been here a few years. This just doesn’t mean more tourists, but also large numbers of migrant workers, Korean-Chinese, marriage migrants, international students and, of course, English teachers. Let’s be clear, Seoul is hardly a New York, Toronto, London, Dubai or Singapore, but its increasing diversity is making a big difference. From a wider range of restaurants, public festivals celebrating different cultural backgrounds, new churches and mosques, a wider range of languages to be heard and, of course, the different sorts of people you will meet.
Read the rest of this post
Francis Collins inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Feb 9, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching | Guest Author |
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5 Years of Blogging!
I just realized I missed my 5 year anniversary of blogging which was on January 29. I was reminded when I saw that Zen Kimchi also is 5 years old.
In 5 eyars I have:
- gotten my M.A. and blogged it.
- started a wiki – didn’t take off
- started forums – also didn’t take off
- rebranded my site from blinger to EFLGeek and changed domains in the process.
- started a group Korean learning blog – which goes on and off
- started bloggin on Movable type
- switched to ExpressionEngine Which has got to be the best CMS around – it’s more than just blogging.
- worked at 3 different universities in Korea and blogged about all three
- wrote a newspaper column for the Korea Herald as a direct result of this blog.
- set up guest authoring (this is still open to anyone)
- recieved several offers from various companies for link exchanges, but never took them up on it – though I am considering redesign the site (again) to allow for advertisements
- redesigned the site 3 times
- decided I love web development and opened my own web development firm – CreateSean Web Design.
wow 5 years. it’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging that long. But what’s even harder to believe is that in May I will have been living in Korea for 12 years.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Feb 5, 2009 at 09:12 PM
META | Random_Ramblings |
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Darth Teacher
I ordered a Darth Vader Costume a few weeks ago and as you can see from the picture below it arrived. Now I have to figure out how to use this to scare the crap out of my students.
7 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me
Graham tagged me in a post where the rules are:
- Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog
- Share 7 facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird
- Tag seven people at the end of your post
- Let them know they’ve been tagged
Here we go.
- I didn’t own my first computer until I was married and already 30 years old (2000). I’d always wanted a computer and enjoyed using friends’ computers and the comptuters at work, but had never made it a priority to buy one. Now only 8 years later, I have several web sites, am a professional web developer (1 more site launch immenent and 2 clients on the go currently) and am the go to guy at work and among friends for computer stuff.
- I had my first web site before I owned a computer using Geocities and accessing via the office computer
- In high school & university I worked several part time jobs in restaurants and hotels where I learned how to cook. To this day I enjoy cooking when people are coming to visit and I consider myself a pretty good cook - so does my wife
- I live in the 80s. I love 80s music (listening to AC/DC as I type this up) and many of my favorite movies are 80s classics
- I’m not nearly as cutting edge as readers probably think - I’m a conservative old fart.
- At one point in high school I had hair down to my ass. I’ve also had red hair, blue hair, black hair and no hair. for the record, I’m naturally dark brown hair and currently I keep it at 3mm-6mm in length with bi-weekly buzzcuts
- My original career path was to go into aeronautical engineering, but when I failed first year physics worse the second time around I figured it was time for a change of plans.
here are the seven people I’m tagging: Joe Seoulman, David (in Germany), Tensor, Alex Case, Aaron Campball, Gord Sellar, and David (eltworld).
TEFL authors who blog
Alex Case has posted an entry titled: Clash of the TEFL heavyweight bloggers where he links to four published authors who also blog; unfortunately the last two are unfamiliar to me.
Alex then goes on:
So, where does that leave us humble English teachers who blog and are just starting to enjoy being a medium-sized fish in a tiny pond? Is it all over now the big boys are moving in?? Will we have to get a real job and start publishing real books to start getting noticed???
Well I’ve been blogging for 5 years come the End of January so I haven’t exactly just started - however when I did first start there were less than 20 EFL/ESL bloggers that I could find. In that time the ESL/EFL blogging field has grown enormously. At one point for about 2.5 years my blog was the #1 search result in google for a number of terms as well has having a page rank of 7. Unfortunately my ranking at search results have gone down. I blame that on my reduced blogging frequency and the rapid growth of high quality teacher bloggers out there.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 1, 2009 at 02:22 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching | useful_web_sites |
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Coffee With Alex Case
Alex Case of the TEFLtastic blog moved to Seoul from Japan a couple of months ago. When I found out he was getting ready to move to Korea I suggested a meet up once he got settled. It took a few weeks of schedule juggling but we finally managed to meet for a coffee and lunch yesterday.
Alex is an engaging person to talk with and I thouroughly enjoyed our time and hope that we can get together again soon. I’d love to learn more about his time in Japan, Thailand and the European countries he has taught in. One thing he needs to do is update the tag line on his blog to include Korea.
Anyhow welcome to Korea Alex - hope you enjoy your stay.
ESL Stand-up Comedy
Brian Aylward is a comedian who performs at clubs around Asia.
the first 2-3 minutes is really funny - watch the video.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Nov 13, 2008 at 07:57 PM
Random_Ramblings | Video | Teaching |
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A E I Love U
Readers may recall that in March I posted a music video made by local expat teachers titled Kickin it in Guemchon. Well the EV Boyz are back with another humurous look at expat life in Korea.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 at 08:51 AM
Random_Ramblings | Video |
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Super EX
recieved this video in my facebook and fortunately found it on youtube to embed here. From the facebook page.
A lil parody i made about ‘some’ expat men in Asia. I thought it was worth comment. Tried my hand at cartooning and I came up with this. Oh the things i do to kill time!
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Oct 20, 2008 at 06:11 AM
Random_Ramblings | Video |
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Web Design First Client Finished
I’ve finished work on my first client’s web site, a language school based in Daegu, ILE 외국어 학원. ILE is foreign owned and operated and the owner is a strait up guy - I enjoyed working with him and am sure that his teachers are also happy there. I wrote up a more detailed report about completing the ILE site over at my web design blog.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 4, 2008 at 09:03 AM
Random_Ramblings | Web Design |
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Students Teaching English
Every semester in homework I have students telling me about how they are private tutoring other students in English. Just now I was reading homework and I had a student telling me that she is teaching English composition to high school students (she is just 1 year out of high school). The fun part of this was that her sentences were illogical, there was no paragraph structure - i.e. all sentences were written on a new line sort of like poetry.
garbage in garbage out.
100 pushups
Today is the first day of the second semester, so back to work for me. The web design business is doing pretty well, since I’ve got about 3 clients backed up.
Today will be a quick meet the students and a 4 minute level test to see how many students I can kick out of my class and move them to the advanced class. Real lessons will start from day 2 this week. In other news, my university finally got around to giving us a raise after three years, so morale is much improved.
Finally, I’ve decided to take the 100 pushup challenge. I took the strength test on Friday and I’m in column three (the most difficult). I did my pushups for day one this morning and will work on day 2, come Wednesday.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Sep 1, 2008 at 07:00 AM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching |
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What is Web 2.0
English 360 has the answer.
Ultimate Online Slideshow Guide
I recently had a need to add a couple of powerpoint presentations to another web site I’m working on. I wanted to be able to embed the powerpoint and retain transistions and animations as well as embedded audio or video. A quick search didn’t reveal any definitive answers so I’m going to compare the options I did find. One of the keys with using powerpoint online is to remember that not everyone has powerpoint (but the viewer is free 2003 version & 2007 version and openoffice will also open powerpoint files with some loss in functionality)
I’m going to to look at a number of features across all options including: compatibility with pptx files, ease of use, privacy controls, embed, email, social network links, commenting, registration, downloading of original file, and licensing. To make the comparison equal across all options I’m using the same powerpoint file for all services and embedding it here. This is a powerpoint that I used in spring 2008 and it has several animations, transitions, video, and audio embedded. You can see the original by downloading it - I’ve included the ppt and pptx in the zip file (27.5mb). The options I’m looking at are:
- slideshare | jump link
- authorstream | jump link
- zoho show | jump link
- google docs | jump link
- 280 slides | jump link
- scribd | jump link
- Slideboom | jump link
- iSpring | jump link (free) | jump link (pro)
- slideboom & ispring integrated
- conclusion
Not all slideshow players are showing up in bloglines (and possibly other RSS readers) - visit my site to see everything.
Learn about each of these options in the extended entry.
Read the rest of this post
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Aug 10, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Random_Ramblings | useful_web_sites |
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Moving the Fence
Infrequent blogger Fencerider is moving out of Korea after 12 years. It seems like he has recieved an excellent opportunity in the UAE, something I’ve considered doing, but haven’t. Good luck and I hope you continue your blog from there.
11 reasons to avoid TEFL
Mr. D points to a list of 11 Reason not to Stumble upon TEFL at Notes from the TEFL Graveyard, a blog I hadn’t seen before.
I’d like to add a couple more.
- Locals think you are here, because you are a loser and couldn’t make it back home
- There is absolutely no job security - you can easily be replaced by another native speaker who is younger and better looking than you. Even if they are completely incompetent cheaper is better.
Got some more? Add them in the comments.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Jul 26, 2008 at 03:12 PM
Random_Ramblings | Teaching |
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