My List of Ten Blogs

Ok, this is my ten blogs thing, I was tagged my @martulmj and @livesofteachers, who both have interesting blogs that I like. It's quite hard to get a new slant on it though, because lots of choices have been used up already and I don't want to repeat too many. I wanted to add some potentially new sites, so I'm going to be cheating – a little bit!

One: Karenne Sylvester is pretty much everywhere online doing all sorts of things and writing interesting and thought provoking stuff. Hers was one of the first ELT blogs I started following and I found the courage to comment upon an interesting article asking 'Why do people comment?' - although I can't find it now and am starting to believe that I dreamt it. Having her reply to me gave me some confidence to continue and eventually start my own blog. She doesn't really need any advertising or introduction, but probably unbeknown to her, helped me get over my early trepidation, just by being, well, nice!

 

Two: Mark Andrews is a wonderful writer. His blog is full of feature-length posts showing great knowledge and research. I enjoyed this one with some great points to ponder on. Also the one about his dad, which is a truly moving blog post. 

Three: A lot of people know his blog already, but I like it so I wanted to include it as Rick writes good stuff about various things. Recently, I liked the post entitled 'What are your bare essentials?' I think it's important to consider and reassess our attitudes towards the way we teach and what methods we are using. 

Four: This is my Aussie friend Mr. Word Nerd, who is also a teacher. He writes wonderfully, telling tales of teaching as well as travelling. 

Five: I'm not quite sure how he gets the time, but Richard Byrne at freetech4teachers is a constant provider of interesting online material, particularly tech tools. Aimed mainly at a US audience, but plenty of stuff for everyone I reckon. 

Six: Say 'hi' to Michelle, a teacher in the south of Spain, like me, though we've never met in real life. I came across her blog thanks to her comments on mine. She has some cool ideas for stuff to do with young learners and I think her blog is worth a visit; another regular teacher in the online community!

Ok, cheating time...

Seven: This isn't a blog, it's a wiki, but I think it's a great idea. As Guido says, this wiki is a toolshed which “wants to to be a place for teachers of English who are interested in using web 2.0 tools with their students”.

Eight: The Guardian sport blog, where would I be without it?!  Mind you, the journalists can write some drivel, but the comments are usually great for a laugh.

Nine: I've recently discovered this blog, by a guy called Gary who is travelling the world. Firstly, I think it's an interesting blog, but secondly, I think it contains some great lesson material; including some wonderful photographs and regular video updates. Great stuff! He also has a youtube channel.

Ten: This photoblog has loads of great photos on. I love using images in class to provoke discussion and found this while hunting for good interesting shots. If you go to the 'tags' page you can browse for what you want fairly easily.

Finally, I wanted to put this as Darren puts forward a really good idea here, but he tagged me first and Marta also tagged him so that would break the rules! However, I like breaking rules, so there. This is the unofficial number eleven in my list of ten, because this one goes up to eleven, all right?!

I reckon there's some scope for more lesson collaboration than just videos. Maybe news stories, photos, pictures, cartoons and songs, as well as web tools, could go into a mixer for lesson ideas sharing. There must be a funky web tool that we could use to post things and share our thoughts and opinions.

Oh and while I'm at it, you're more than welcome to visit my class blog at www.thegrandmasduck.blogspot.com and say hi to my lovely students! 

The Power of a Blog

I have enjoyed the last week massively. I've had a huge 'lift-off' moment, I suppose, with regards to my online presence. I was moved to write my previous post by a comment on the notorious TurkishTefl blog and suddenly found myself being re-tweeted, quoted, recommended and recently tagged in the '10 blogs to share' thing that's been speeding round. Well, to say I was shocked is an understatement. I have gone, in the space of two weeks, from a shy, self-conscious and uncertain newbie-blogger to someone who people are actually reading! I went from about 10 hits to nearly two hundred in a few days; from virtually no comments to, well, some! A small step maybe, but hugely motivating for me and I'd like to say a huge thank-you to everybody who helped my blog become slightly better known. However, now I feel somewhat under pressure to deliver something interesting again and that feels a bit odd, to be honest.

Putting that trepidation aside, I thought I'd share a couple of thoughts about the aforementioned fire-cracker of a blog post and some things it got me thinking about.

Having read the blog at its inception, commented on a small part that was relevant to me, read as the comments flew in and blogged a digression, it occurred to me the tremendous power of a blog. How the written word, or rather the documented word in general, is so difficult to retract. Nowadays, with the spread of social media, the way we are connected is so strong that things happen so quickly. I'm sure Gordon Brown wishes that microphones and the internet didn't exist, nor old women for that matter.

Documented words can be misinterpreted, as can live conversational speech, yet speech can be instantly retracted or softened to appease the listener. Despite the fact that twitter and blogs move so fast, a writer has much less opportunity to appease a reader and it seems that in the blogosphere fires can burn like dry forests in summer.

I have no real opinion on the comments regarding the conferences mentioned there. I have little experience of them, even less of presenting. I attended neither, know none of the people involved personally and have no wish to continue any of THAT debate on my blog. However, in terms of fair pay I do believe some things could be done – as mentioned in my comment on that post and in my previous post, but that's for another time.

My point really is that it is important we remember how strong the words we use can appear in writing, how others may feel when receiving criticism and how fast these things can travel online.

How much could the networking opportunities of blogging affect ones career? Well, possibly quite a lot, clearly. But what will be the importance of how our potential or current employers see these things? Should we advertise our blog on our CVs? Is having a lauded blog the equivalent of having articles written in journals, a past method of improving ones standing in the industry? Furthermore, what if a potential employer researches our online work and takes exception to something you have written and disagrees with your teaching methodology or even your politics?

I think these are important questions. How important is the online PLN of TEFL going to become? Is it the beginnings of a larger 'inner-circle'? Sometimes it does feel cliquey and even cult like, but it is richly rewarding and enjoyable to be a part of it.

Developing an online 'presence' leaves a big footprint and as long as you're honest and open enough to be yourself, then you're becoming well-known, but what will it all mean to us regular teachers?!

As always, I'd love to read your comments.

Thoughts on a career in TEFL

I am merely a small-time EFL teacher, working for a little school in Spain, but I think this blog by Nick Jaworski and the comments on it are extremely important, particularly the points raised by Karenne Sylvester (#35) about the financial rewards (or lack of!) in the field of ELT. I didn't want to leave a digression on Nick's blog about this, so I'm writing my thoughts here.

Fortunately for me, I do not feel exploited in my current role, and count myself lucky that I work for a fair school that pays me a salary on which I can live and save easily (I save around 500 euros a month), however, I am not married, nor do I have children. If I did, it would be rather more difficult to manage on the salary I get now. Therein lies the reality of a career teaching efl, where the financial truth is that it's a dream to expect enough money for a family, a nice house, a car, a couple of holidays a year and money to save for the future.

I have a friend who works in the financial sector in the UK. He started a job with a first degree unrelated to finance and has been trained up along the way, starting as an administrative assistant. He has been working for the same company for around ten years and has now entered management, where he leads a team of around 12 and is paid around 40 thousand pounds a year. He has a lovely house, a very nice BMW and plenty of money to spend on himself; he also has a wife who is due to give birth to their first child very soon.

I on the other hand, have been in TEFL for 8 years. I have a CELTA, a DELTA (ok I haven't completed module 3 yet, but...) and a certificate in teaching YLs from IH. I have experience of management as ADoS for an IH school, UK summer school centre management and a current position as a senior teacher. I take home around 1300 Euros a month after tax.

My friend has a pension scheme, and puts away a sizeable amount – augmented by his company - for his future and that of his wife and child. He has built a life and a career in the UK, never leaving the city where we studied at university, whereas, in search of greater experience and responsibility, I have moved from Portugal to Poland, back to Portugal, to Kazakhstan and now to Spain. Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed the experiences I've had. I've had the chance to live and travel in central Asia, one of the few areas of the world the majority of travellers haven't discovered yet. Amazing! I have stories to tell, great photos and wonderful memories.

Also, I have no pension, no 'real' savings, no secure position within a company and no idea of where I'm going to work in the future. Should I go to the middle east to earn the 'big' money? Well, to be honest I abhor regimes like Saudi Arabia and wouldn't feel comfortable living there, nor do I wish to teach in any military organisation or for a disgustingly huge oil company.

My partner is Spanish and we would like to live long-term in Spain. We are spending next year in the UK, where I am going to study for a masters as I hope this will open a few more doors – and I love studying! After that I'm not really sure, but what I do want is enough money for a good life. I'm not possessions mad, but I'd like a nice house. I hate driving and don't really care for cars. I love travelling and would like to have enough money to do more in the future. I would also like to have children, get married and have sufficient money to support my family. Furthermore, I'd like to save enough money to retire one day and relax during the twilight years of my life! I really don't think that this is too much to ask.

How can I do this as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Any ideas?

As far as I can see, TEFL works like this: you start teaching as a way of travelling and if you like it you stay on and take on more responsibility, you move up the ladder and start managing but do little teaching, then you open your own school and stop teaching entirely. Alternatively, you move into publishing, get into teacher training, or into a specialist field such as EAP or ESP and perhaps work at a university. A few teflers eventually move into materials writing and start on the conference circuit, going freelance and making money from books and speaking – but not teaching, as far as I can tell. You can make money talking about it, or writing about it, but not actually doing it. Following these career paths is not a bad thing, that's not what I'm saying, but not everyone can or even wants to, so this contributes to the continuation of rapid turnover and short-termism on the part of schools and employees themselves. Let's face it, most teachers aren't in TEFL for a career, it's only a short-term thing. 

Whatever I do, I don't wish to be scraping money together at the end of the month when I'm forty. Maybe I'm a decadent middle-class European, but the friend I describe is one of a number of close friends and family who are in a similar position, so I'd like to have some of what they're having, frankly. I enjoy teaching and it is a vocational job, I'm not 'in it for the money' but don't tell me that I don't deserve decent reward. Having said all this, it's not really my current financial position that worries me, it's what I'll have, or won't have, when I'm sixty plus.


I'm fully aware that change in the industry would need to be great to secure things like pensions, but that's what we need. Surely, it's possible in Europe at least? A Europe wide organisation of schools signed up to a charter of fair-practice, a union for teachers and get-togethers for training and meetings locally - on a regional and national basis and payment that accurately reflects our level of qualifications and experience. I do realise that some organisations do exist, our school belongs to one, I just don't think that it's enough. For IATEFL to organise something worldwide would be impossible, there has to be something else.

I'd love to hear thoughts from other teachers about the topic of pay in TEFL. Let me know what you think and how you feel about your current situation. Maybe you think I'm completely wrong, so tell me!

A little happiness can go a long way

One of my students posted a great video on our class blog site today. He states that it's the best video he's ever found on the internet and I think it's certainly worth a watch. I really enjoyed it, because I'd been having a bad day and watching it during my break really cheered me up.

It's all about being nice to people and making them smile. These things can sometimes be cheesy but it's important to remember how easily our moods and feelings are transferred to other people.

As a teacher, happiness and enthusiasm are a really important part of our classroom personalities. However, it's often an act, due to illness, tiredness, bad moods or hangovers! It's especially hard to hide these things from kids, as they seem to have a sixth-sense for knowing when you really don't want a difficult class, then they'll provide it.

If they pick up on apathy or the neglect of normal routines it can have a terrible affect on the ability of the teacher to efficiently manage the class and it's at these times when boundaries are pushed. Then the teacher can react badly; a moment of anger, maybe a shout or a dismissive comment. These things can have a long-term effect upon teacher-student relationships and can lead to the overall classroom dynamic being compromised.

Personally, I think that this need for us to always be the enthusiastic, motivating leader in the classroom is one of the things that makes our job so stressful. Prior to becoming a teacher I worked in various office jobs, while also pursuing an over-active social life. I know full well that I wasted days by 'hiding' in the office, pretending to be busy. It's just not possible to do this if you want to be a good teacher.   

If we remain positive as teachers and have a good relationship with our students, then their friendship can cheer us up, even on the most difficult of days.

An Empty Teachers' Room

I went into school the other day and found the door locked and nobody around. We all have keys, so can come and go as we please, so this isn't necessarily a problem. There are four teachers, a senior teacher - me, a secretary (who works evenings only) and the husband and wife directors. So, there I was, sitting planning in a silent, empty school. The problem for me is that this is not entirely abnormal. Sometimes there is another teacher there and one of the directors, but there is no staffroom chat and not that much sharing or discussing lessons. We don't plan in the teachers' room - it's small - and there are also computers in every classroom, so planning tends to be done separately and at different times of the day.

In my previous schools the teachers' room has been the hub of activity, a centre of ideas sharing and banter; a place where we helped make materials together, passed on lesson plans, drank tea and ranted about lesson disasters, recalcitrant students and rubbish course books. In this school there isn't really any of that and I miss it. I won't be at this school after the end of this term, so I can handle it for now. However, the next time I'm having an interview for a job this will be something I'll specifically ask about, because, maybe naively, I had just assumed that all schools had good teachers' rooms like I described above.

I like the way that having a PLN, through twitter and blogging goes some way to overcoming such a situation.

Give me more twitter!

Throughout my Easter break and just after, I felt like I'd had enough of twitter. After barely accessing it for a couple of weeks I decided to get back in and be more sociable. I had a great holiday though! Here I am on a beach in Huelva.

As a result I've got more followers and have chatted with more people and suddenly it feels more interesting. So I'm pleased I didn't give up on it, though I am trying not to go online late in the evening after classes, because I can't sleep after spending time on the computer!

I also started this blog a couple of months back and haven't advertised it at all, keeping it self-consciously secretive. So, unsurprisingly I haven't really received any comments. Well, now I've decided to advertise the blog and my posts on twitter. I'm also going to try to blog more regularly, even if it's just a few quick comments or something I've used in class. I've noticed that there can be quite a difference between blogs; some are short but still generate comments due to the blogger being so sociable. Others are longer and extremely well written – like Mark Andrews, for example, who's blog is full of wonderfully readable feature length articles. I don't feel like I have the time to construct long articles, so I'm just going to post some things that I happen to be thinking about.

Mark posted an idea for using a poem by Benjamin Zephaniah recently, which I asked him about on twitter and he helped me with a couple of ideas. This is one way in which a PLN can really help!

Embarrassing Mistake

Last week, the first following our Easter break, I had my first class with a group preparing for Trinity oral exams. As I completed the register, I was able to recognise a few students from previous encounters, leaving two remaining, a girl and a boy, and three names on the register, two boys and one girl. “So you must be either Sergio or Samuel,” I said to the boy, “Samuel”, he replied. “And you must be Rosa,” I said to the girl. “No, I'm Sergio” she said. I reckoned that this must be one of those unisex names, coming from Maria Sergio, or something, I've not been in Spain for much longer than a year and this seems to happen occasionally, I believe.

In the car returning from a meeting later that week, one of the other teachers asked if I had Sergio in my Trinity class, you know, she said, the boy who looks like a girl. I was completely frozen, wondering exactly what I could have said to Sergio, as it had never even crossed my mind that he was a boy. He looks like a girl: his hair is long, tied back and girlish and he was wearing a unisex school tracksuit and trainers, that all students of a local school routinely wear. He's only twelve, so there's no beard growth!

I figured out that other than suggesting he was called Rosa, I couldn't have said anything else that might disturb him. Apparently he's used to it happening and is fairly phlegmatic, but it must be horrible, though I wonder if it might be better to change his hair style.

Anyway, last night I met them again, and he was dressed differently, looking more like a boy. We were practising possessive adjectives and pronouns, which I'm glad I hadn't decided to do last week, they get confused enough with his and her. As it is, I think I got away with it and I hope he wasn't too offended by me thinking he must be Rosa.