EFL Geek 3.0 - ESL & EFL in Korea

Random Quote

To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein

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

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes

As soon as I buy the moose head, I have to go pick up some KY jelly.
---- Mary Roninette Kowal

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel

Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow

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

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

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

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)

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

Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton

Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison

it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor

Web 2.0

My latest article for the Korea Herald is now out and it is on web 2.0 in the classroom. Read it at the Korea Herald site or look in the extended entry.

Hope you find it useful. I know there are many many more sites that could be introduced but due to space constraints I had to limit myself.

My Last Column

This is also my final column for the Korea Herald. I notified my editor when I submited this lasted column. I’m just too busy to continue writing this column. I’ll be watching the Expat Living section to see who my replacement is and I’m sure I’ll be linking to it in the future.

Korea Herald Readers

Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Sep 4, 2008 at 07:59 PM
Teaching | KH Column | useful_web_sites |

Teacher Evaluations

My latest article for the Korea Herald is now out and it is on using teacher evaluations. Read it at the Korea Herald site or look in the extended entry.

Hope you enjoy this one as it’s that time to loook at your evaluations and see what your students think of your class and consider what administration is evaluating you on.

Korea Herald Readers

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jul 30, 2008 at 02:07 PM
KH Column |

Video in the Classroom

My latest article for the Korea Herald is now out and it is on using video in the classroom. Read it at the Korea Herald site or look in the extended entry.

I have previously posted several entries with materials for download on this blog. You can find them below.

There might be more, but I can’t remember everything I’ve written on this blog in the last 4.5 years. If you find these useful, please leave a comment and let me know.

At the bottom of the article I’ve included a reader question - the first on the column, if you can help out, why not leave a comment.

Korea Herald Readers

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jul 22, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Teaching | KH Column | teaching_application | Readers_Questions |

The classroom no longer has 4 walls

David Deubelbeiss guest authored my column this week at my request. He runs a very large and successful ning site, EFL Classroom 2.0 - I feel that ning is a great resource for teachers but I didn’t have the time to explore it and write about it properly so I was pleased when David agreed to write the column. You can read it here, in the extended entry, or at the Korea Herald.

Korea Herald Readers
Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jun 25, 2008 at 08:55 AM
useful_web_sites | KH Column |

Professional Development Part II

This is part two on Professional Development - part one came out a couple of weeks ago. Part two was delayed due to more important pieces but has finally been published - you can read it at the Korea Herald or look below.

Part 1 has been edited in the newspaper, below is the original version as I wrote it.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jun 11, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Teaching | KH Column |

Professionalism and Professional Development

The latest column is out and it’s rather long - two parts of 1000 words each. Part two is slated to be published on May 28th, though it is already completed. Some of the article is specifically directed at the Korean context, but I feel that most of what I’ve written can be used in any context - especially part two.

Part 1 has been edited in the newspaper, below is the original version as I wrote it.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday May 6, 2008 at 05:07 PM
KH Column |

Web Design My column

I’ve added 1 new category and 3 subcategories related to web design to this blog: Web Design - CSS - javascript/JQuery - XHTML. I’ll be using these categories to write about what I’m doing in my drive to improve my web design/development skills. To keep the footprint a minimum on the blog I’ll include 95% of the entries in the extended entry and create a separate RSS feed just for those three categories as well as removing them from the regular RSS feed - but that will have to wait until I catch up on grading.

So far I have read Principles of Beautiful Web Design, CSS Mastery (twice), and ordered Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax: From Novice to Professional.

I found Principles of Beautiful Web Design to be an excellent book. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on color theory and typography. CSS Mastery is really well written, reading it a second time has really helped to clear up some of the principles that I hadn’t really gotten the first time around and I’m looking forward to putting them into practice. I know nothing about Javascript and am looking forward into learning this language and what it can do - hopefully this book is as good as it sounds and an engaging read as well.

In other news I’ve just been informed that my next two columns for the Korea Herald are slated to be 1000 words each. I’ll probably write on motivation for one and on professional development for the other.

Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Apr 24, 2008 at 08:06 PM
Web Design | KH Column |

MOODLE - Korea Herald Article

The latest column is out. It was originally slated to be a two parter but ended up getting delayed and combined into a double length column. The subject is MOODLE - hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If you have any comments or thoughts please share. Read it at the Korea Herald or look below.

update
I just added a poll to this entry. Do you use Moodle?

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Apr 22, 2008 at 07:21 PM
Polling_Station | KH Column | Moodle |

Next Column Delayed

My next two columns for the Korea Herald have been delayed. The first one was supposed to come out tomorrow but due to elections the expat living section will not run. The result is that my next column will run when the following one was supposed to run. Actually they will be combined into one longer column which is fine as I was writing a two part column on MOODLE. Look for it on April 23rd. Part one is complete at 720 words and I’ve been given 1200 words total for the combined column. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit everything in.

Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Apr 8, 2008 at 07:34 AM
KH Column |

Extensive Reading

My latest column for the Korea Herald is out. The topic this week is Extensive Reading. I’m at school now and don’t have access to my original file so cannot determine if I have been edited - visit the herald to read the article. Later this evening I will post the file I have at home.

I’ve been working with graded readers in my classes for about 2.5 years now and find it to very beneficial for students as well as intrinsically motivating. I hope you give ER a try.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Mar 18, 2008 at 10:33 AM
KH Column |

Ice Breakers

Not my greatest piece of writing, but my latest column for the Korea Herald is out. When I started writing this I searched my archives and was surprised to note that I had not previously written about icebreakers. For the record the article has been slightly re-ordered by my editor.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Mar 4, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Teaching | KH Column | Lesson_Plans | teaching_application |

Error Correction

This weeks column was a little difficult to write due only having 500 words this time around. Entire books have been written on this subject so my coverage is very limited and mostly focuses on a couple of simple classroom tips. Read it below or at the Korea Herald.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Feb 13, 2008 at 06:51 AM
Teaching | KH Column |

Tools of the Trade

This is my second column for the Korea Herald. I took a short post I wrote almost four years ago and expanded it for this column. My original word count for this submission was 600 words and my first draft was a little long at 687 words though I managed to cut it down to 564 words when my word count dropped to 500. To read the final version visit the Korea Herald or to read the longer original version go to the extended entry. I’m sure the second draft is tighter, but in the first draft I get to talk about more things. Korea Herald version with different headline Tools of the EFL Trade - available online now, in print tomorrow morning.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jan 29, 2008 at 06:40 PM
KH Column | teaching_application |

Time to Clean up Cunning Konglish

My first column for the Korea Herald (expat living)has been published, but for some reason is not available on the web site. I talked to my editor and he doesn’t know why. In any case it is available in the print edition. I have copied my original into the extended entry. The version in the Korea Herald has been slightly altered by my editor. The editor also chose the title of the article as my working title of “Konglish” was no doubt a little blase.

I have previously written about Konglish at this entry: Wronglish later tonight I’ll upload my Konglish Action handout that goes with this entry. Here it is: konglish_auction.pdf

Korea Herald Readers
Welcome. Feel free to comment and leave your thoughts on this weeks column. If you would like to learn more about me visit my bio page. I have also been blogging at this site for 4 years (on January 19th) so there are a lot of entries if you care to look through the archives. Some of my favorite or more popular entries are available on the classic entries page.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 at 04:55 PM
Teaching | KH Column |

Expat Liviing

The new section, Expat Living, of the Korea Herald that I will be writing (originally mentioned here) for started today. My article won’t be published until next week, but it will definitely be worth watching Expat Living as there is a large group of writers contributing. The quote below is from Zen Kimchi, one of the contributing writers.

A lot of people believe The Korea Herald exists in a bubble and is unaware of the criticism people lay on it. It is highly aware of its reputation, more than you think, and the editors are trying hard to steer the behemoth in a better direction.

One new feature in the paper, starting today is “Expat Living,” a section dedicated to foreigners living in Korea. Many of the writers are people you know and trust, like Expat Jane, EFL Geek, Gypsy Scholar, the Marmot and little ol’ me.

Admittedly, the ink and paper version is better than the online version, an issue that is slated to be fixed in the future. To read the columns, go to KoreaHerald.com, click on “Special” on the left hand column. The columns include the heading “[EXPAT LIVING].”

Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jan 8, 2008 at 05:32 PM
KH Column |

Plan for the New Year

2008 has started and it’s time to talk about plans for the new year. I’m not making New Years Resolutions, I’m making plans for the year - don’t really like the idea of resolutions.

In late November, early December I was approached by the Korea Herald to write a column for a new section coming in January. I talked with friends, my wife and thought carefully about it, before deciding to accept the offer. The new section will be written by a large number of bloggers around Korea, with each blogger assigned a different “beat” or topic. It will be easy to guess my topic - education and in particular language education.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Jan 2, 2008 at 07:46 PM
Public_Service_Announcement | Random_Ramblings | KH Column |