Random Quote
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
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
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
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
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
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
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
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
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
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
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
KOTESOL 2007 - day two
On day two of the conference I ended up seeing a lot less presentations. The first presentation that I saw was on Extending Speaking Opportunities in the EFL context. This presentation focused on a Japanese universities use of something similar to an English Club, but with NS facilitators with the meetings set up at lunch time. It was interesting but not something that I would want to try. I saw the same speaker in the next hour talking about Book Report Forms for Graded Readers. This was a much more interesting presentation and I will be taking some of the ideas away and using them this semester with my Advanced class as they are about due to be finished their novels (not graded readers but the principle is still the same) During the discussion time I was asked by the OUP rep for my email and it looks like he’s interested in something I do with graded readers (regular freshmen and moodle). I also talked to him about the possibility of materials review and development - hope that pans out.
I skipped out on the plenary. Not because it wasn’t going to be interesting - motivation is a field that I’m quite interested in, but rather because I was with a new friend who would be leaving the city that afternoon and this would be the last chance to sit and talk. Long time reader and infrequent commentor Jmac is a great guy and I hope to keep in touch with him in the future.
After lunch, I went to Bill Snyder’s presentation on LexTutor. This presentation was excellent and informative. I later approached Bill, whom I know outside of KOTESOL, about guest lecturing in my course How to Teach English using the Internet. Bill kindly agreed and will give a modified version of his presentation to my students later this semester. I wanted to give this information myself, but don’t yet understand it well enough to present it.
The next presentation I attended was also done by a friend, Scott Miles. Scott is the author and series editor on a new series of books teaching reading skills. The series is titled Essential Reading and is designed in a unique way. It’s targetting specifically EFL students in an Asian context. The readings were chosen to be engaging and relevant to Asians at the university level, i.e. material that they would be interested in reading on their own. Each of the readings was also written in a way that it would provide information that students were unlikely to know previously despite being familiar wiht some of the topics. Furthermore the readings were selected to elicit an emotional response and as Scott put it, this means that sometimes “they are not entirely safe”. But if they students respond emotionally they are definitely engaged. Finally there is support for ER built in. There are excerpts from graded readers and each book also has 2-3 graded short stories at the back. All attendees came away with a free copy of book 3.
After this, I missed the rest of the conference. I got stuck in conversation in the hall and ended up being late for the next presentation and the one after that as well. It’s my own fault, but the conversations were good, edifying and entertaining. This conference was a great opportunity to meet people, learn new things and network with other dedicated teachers. Hope everyone who attended enjoyed the conference and to all the readers that I met breifly It was good to meet you and I hope we get a chance to connect again in the future.
This conference has reinvigorated me and convinced me to get back into giving presentations as well as working towards materials development with some of the major publishers.
