“People learn through play” is a statement that almost every teacher, psychologist, educational theorist and even politician can agree on. Play teaches a wide range of skills mostly in the area of procedural knowledge (how to do things) rather than declarative (how to explain things). It is an area that is under-served by the tell-then-test […]
Why Study Games?
In the academic world this question pops up fairly regularly. It stems from the view of games as pastimes and inconsequential in comparison to the more serious subjects out there. This view is so common that the field of Game Theory is linked to mathematics and philosophy, and has only the most basic reference to games […]
What’s Fun?
Fun is a word that we as teachers hear a lot. Whether it is from students who are moaning at the lack of it in the classroom, or peers bemoaning the focus of modern education on being fun. It is one of the words that is bandied around a lot, but it is also surprisingly difficult […]
3rd Space Learning
Does education have to take place in a formal school based environment? Is school truly the “Work of children”? In 1989 Ray Oldenburg proposed his theories of different space in his book The Great Good Place. The places were defined based on the amount of time that we spend in them. The first space was the home, the […]
Everything I Learned From Comics: Caveman and Cave Students
The comic above was taken from “Caveman“, a great series by Tayyar Ozkan. This strip was first published in Heavy Metal, and is one of my favorites to share with fellow teachers. The young caveman is clearly so proud of his self expression. He is excited to show what he has done, and his parents […]
Over-succeeding
As teachers we want to see our students succeed. We want to see them accomplish the tasks we put in front of them and answer all the questions that they have. We can even feel that our own skill as teachers is contingent on how well the students do at the task. In some cases […]
Everything I learned from comics: Calvinball and Games
At first glance the comic above seems to be chaotic and an example of someone cheating at a game. Of course, this would be an accurate assumption if they were playing american football, where the defection of a player is definitely proscribed by the rules. Another possible assumption is that they are engaged in what […]
Simplification
The reason most kids don’t like school is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring – Dr. Semour Papert M.I.T. In many ways, this cuts to the heart of some of the problems we face in the EFL/ESL market. The methodologies that have been touted since the 1950’s have […]
5 holiday gifts for the EFL/ESL teacher
With the holidays fast approaching I wanted to share some gift Ideas for the EFL ESL teacher in your life. (Remember that you can always buy some of these things for yourself). So without further ado, here are 5 holiday gift ideas for EFL/ESL teachers 1) Technology for the classroom The Beklin Rockstar One of […]
Idioms and classroom managment in Asia
You can learn a lot about cultures by how they chose to express themselves through idioms. The metaphors captured by the idiom often can give a greater insight into the cultural values of the language user. Let’s compare two idioms—one from America and the other from Asia. From America “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” […]