Last blog post of 2020. Here’s how the year went… January: Handed in my notice at British Council. Started Module 2 of the PGCEi. Goaded a few people on Twitter, felt guilty, stopped using Twitter. For a day.
reflections
How to get a PGCEi Distinction
I’ve just finished a PGCEi through University of Nottingham. I got a mark of 78 for each of the three modules, which basically means ‘your writing is okay, but your stuff’s not really a contribution to the field or anything;… Read More ›
RIP LTC Eastbourne
I’ve heard that it’s the end of the road for LTC Eastbourne. I haven’t come across an announcement from the school itself (now a Twin Language Centre). I’m only going on contact with staff, past and present. I’m gutted.
Bad teaching
A ramble from last year. Just came across it again. Ha! When I re-read it I thought, ‘actually Pete, it was pretty bad teaching! What were you on about?!’ Meh. I don’t just post the good. Enjoy. I’m such a… Read More ›
Be like Walton Burns
There was a good post from Russ Mayne recently on the importance of criticism. He mentioned overly unpleasant criticism and unnecessary venom that might accompany it. Russ mentioned both academic and social media contexts. This post is about the latter,… Read More ›
Research in brief: Critique of BICS and CALP
BICS and CALP in a nutshell BICS and CALP was an idea first proposed by Prof Jim Cummins in the early 1980s. BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, and CALP is Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. Here’s what they are:… Read More ›
Monetizing your teaching blog
WordAds… ah, go on then. I didn’t want to make money from my blog. I had my reasons for that, which were basically… I’ve always felt bad, kinda guilty about the idea. My content is random and rambling – I… Read More ›
New teacher induction
I had to induct a new teacher at school once. They were fairly new to teaching and unfamiliar with our in-house product at the time (called myClass). I thought that listening to me ramble on for half an hour about… Read More ›
Research in brief: Alderfer ESL Program Assessment Tool
What might be optimal ESL provision in international schools? Alderfer and Alderfer (2011) state that there is no unifying set of criteria to assess ESL programs in international school contexts. Their research sets out to provide one. The authors outline… Read More ›
Reflection: Steps towards materials-light teaching
Me, Matt and Tiago chatted about lots of topics at the first Bangkok ELT Books n’ Beer session last night. Great fun! The topic of materials-light teaching and dealing with emergent needs came up. Tiago is on a Celta to… Read More ›
ELT Planning 