Peadar Callaghan

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

Mark Twain

Latest In Teaching

Goals Ludic and Otherwise

23rd of November, 2019 No Comments

One of the key components in a structuralist view of games, as promoted by Suits, McGonigal and others, is that they contain goals. However it

The Decision Tree

16th of November, 2019 No Comments

Sid Meier the creator of the civilization series of games when asked what is a game answered “A game is a series of interesting choices”.

Ubiquitous Learning

9th of November, 2019 No Comments

I walked into work this morning while listening to the lectures on a set of bluetooth headphones. I sat under a tree outside my office

Latest In Gamification

Peadar’s Process for Learning Game Design

10th of February, 2020 No Comments

What follows is a process for designing a learning game based on a classroom learning activity. This process is based on the view that there

The Sawyer Effect and Motivation

15th of August, 2015 No Comments

For those of you who don’t know the story of Tom Sawyer white washing the fence you can read it here. In the story Mark

Are Incentives Enough to Gamify your Life?

1st of August, 2015 No Comments

I recently read a post on Lifehacker about how a guy had “gamified” his life by setting up a points system to incentivize behavior. In

Latest In Books & Comics

Everything I learned from comics: Will Eisner and EFL

13th of June, 2015 No Comments

Will Eisner is recognized as one of the grandfathers of modern comic books. His book comics and sequential are some of the best written introductions to the

Everything I Learned From Comics: Caveman and Cave Students

25th of April, 2015 No Comments

The comic above was taken from “Caveman“, a great series by Tayyar Ozkan. This strip was first published in Heavy Metal, and is one

The Grasshopper Review

28th of March, 2015 No Comments

“Everyone alive is in fact engaged in playing elaborate games, while at the same time believing themselves to be going about their ordinary affairs…..Whatever occupation

It was great. I got inspired by his workshop, so I tried to apply his idea to my class right away. So satisfied with making a good one, in spite of harder-working to prepare it. Thanks a lot!

I worked with Peadar during the KOTESOL conference in Seoul in October 2010. Peadar has fantastic ideas that he uses in the classroom, comics and magic just being a few. He’s an interesting person to talk to and I’m sure that his students are just as impressed with his ideas as I am.

“Do gapfills really assess listening?” I had never stopped to think about that question before. The gapfill format constantly shows up in my ESL textbooks and materials. I’ve made dozens, thinking the exercise will commit the students to listening attentively. At the May 7th Daegu KOTESOL meeting, Peadar Callaghan proved me (and others) wrong in his excellent seminar, “Active Listening: Moving Beyond Filling in the Blanks.”

My nine-year-old daughter would like to say that she most enjoyed ‘Mr. Pathar’s class’ (Peadar Callaghan’s ‘Graphic Organizers’) because ‘It made her feel good to answer some of the questions’ and it was ‘fun when he said “Even a little girl can understand my class!”…’ (She may have misquoted him slightly there, but the idea came through) Thanks, KOTESOL, for treating everyone there, right down to my nine-year old daughter, like a VIP!

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