Random Quote
"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
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
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
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
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
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
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
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
The least of learning is done in the classrooms
---- Thomas Merton
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
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
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
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
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
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
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
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Saying Good Bye
If there are any readers left of this blog, I’m sure you’ve noticed the incredibly slow trickle of entries over the last year or two compared to the frequent posts of yesteryear. I’ve kept this blog alive for a couple of reasons. One, I still get a lot of hits on the older articles and I’ve met several people over the years (and recently as well) who told me they’ve come across the blog while googling for something and found their answer.
Second I was hoping to get reinspired to write like I did in the past. However that has not happened and I don’t see anything changing in the future. I do have things to write, but most of it is negative and I am not interested in putting the effort necessary to write it – especially in light of the Korean laws on libel and slander (even if it’s true, if it damages someones reputation you can be sued and will lose).
I’ve also been planning my move back to Canada in Summer 2011 and once there I will not be teaching English but doing web development. Once I made that decision last year, a switch inside my mind flipped and I 100% lost the drive to blog about language teaching.
This is my final post on the EFL Geek. The domain here will expire in 1 year and 2 months (April 2011) and when it does this blog will disappear. I am willing to sell the domain if anyone is interested in purchasing it – make me an offer and it’s yours. I will not however sell the content.
I would like to thank all my commenters and readers for dropping by and visiting.
delete me
This video made me bust my gut laughing.
Presentations Textbooks
The past couple of semesters my university has switched our program focus from 4 skills to presentation skills. In this time I’ve used a couple of textbooks aimed at teaching presentation skills to non-native speakers. While no textbook is perfect I’ve noticed that none of the books I’ve looked at teach anything about using note cards when presenting. This seems to me to be a glaring omission.
Using note cards (or the notes field in PowerPoint) is essential to giving an effective presentation especially for non-native speakers. When they don’t do this one of two things happens. First they will bring a script and just read from it, despite being told not to read. Second they’ll memorize the entire speech, but then forget it and spend their time looking at the ceiling while trying to remember.
I have prepared a couple of lessons around the principles including a sample presentation and note cards for students too look at and will be testing them out this coming week. But really I fail to see why this is not included in commercial textbooks. Students can have the best organization, transitions and visuals, but if do not use note cards they will end up having no body language or eye contact due to the negative effects of reading and memorization. The result is a boring, forgetful and wasted presentation.
I don’t teach, nor allow, PowerPoint with my lower level students but with intermediate and above I do teach it. It’s more about teaching them what not to do – i.e. flashy transitions, multiple fonts, multiple styles, poor contrast etcetera. One thing that every presenter should be using is presenter view. This allows you to see the current slide, upcoming slides and the notes field all on one space – on your laptop screen while on the projector the audience sees the regular presentation view.
here is a screenshot (click for full size):
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 31, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Teaching | teaching_application |
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6 Things About Multiple Intelligences
Yesterday on twitter I saw a tweet by @cotterhue that directed me to this post titled Six Things About Multiple Intelligences You Might Not Know. This is definitely worth reading especially if you haven’t thought critically about the theory of multiple intelligences.
In a nutshell here are the six
- Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory is not a theory in the scientific sense.
- The Intelligences do not exist in any measurable way.
- Gardner has substantially more supporters in the world of education than in the world of psychology.
- Gardner is horrified by some of the practical applications of his ideas that he has witnessed in classrooms.
- In a conversation about MI if you hear certain expressions, such as Rinvolucri (and others), run away
- ‘Multiple Intelligences theory’, ‘neuro-linguistic programming’, ‘brain gym’, ‘shamanism’, ‘psychodrama’ and ‘life coaching’ are not related in any way.
