Voice #237 on an edventure

Once in a while someone catches me off-guard and this is one of those times. Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft, runs a personal blog, www.dailyedventures.com, where he speaks to "heroes in education worldwide".

Each day the blog features an interview with someone in the education sector: "teachers, school leaders, policy-makers, business leaders, celebrities, NGO leaders, researchers - people who have embraced enhancing education as a core facet in their lives." Anthony tries to find out who these people are, what inspires them, what frustrates them, and what hopes they hold for the future of education.

So, when I was contacted to participate, how can I possibly refuse, right?

You can read about the interview here.

A case for CPD and PLN...

Photos by me. See more here.

Here's an example of how a seed is taken and planted with care many miles away where it soon grows into a pretty flower. This flowering stem is again taken some distance away, where it grows and grows and we now have a lush beautiful garden...

It all started with a comment I made in Scott Thornbury's post on iTDi's blog "How important is homework?" I'd first talked about it in The Dogme Diaries, but I don't suppose many people read that ;-)

I mentioned that the homework I set a class of adult teachers was basically three questions:

• What have you learnt today?
• What part of the lesson did you like or dislike in the class today?
• What would you like to do in class next week?

A couple of months later, Alexandra Chistyakova wrote to say that she'd used the questions with her class of university students, and how well that had gone down. You can read about how she moulded my homework to suit her personality and that of her class here:

http://eltdiary.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/who-to-ask/  and

http://eltdiary.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/who-to-ask2-or-what-do-students-want/

Then, a little while later, Barbara Bujtás read Alexandra's posts and decided to adapt it to her class of 3-year-olds! You can read about it here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=458868754141154&set=a.420855051275858.108546.100000541016537&type=1&theater

You can see the beauty of her work here:

So, if you're not involved in a PLN (personal learning network) or have not been convinced of it, I hope this little episode will serve to change your mind!

Alexandra and Barbara, you both rock!

Learn about continuing professional development here: http://www.scoop.it/t/continuing-teacher-development

Learn about the benefits of Twitter here: http://www.scoop.it/t/why-twitter-for-teachers

46th Annual IATEFL Conference aka Lonely Teacher Blues Part 3

Unless you're living in the woods - but even the woods are "connected" now - you must have heard about the IATEFL conference currently going on in Glasgow (19-23 March). We ought to be thankful that we're living in the age of miracles. Conferences are no longer the domain of the rich and the privileged - poor people like you and me need not miss out on what's going on in them.

If you've read my Lonely Teacher Blues Parts One and Two, you will have read that I strongly recommend conferences as part of the cure. I "attended" Brighton last year and I was hooked. Thanks to Brighton, I got to know people such as Anthony Gaughan and Dale Coulther, who, of course, later appeared in iAskU interviews.

This year, I'm a little busier, but still can't afford to go to Glasgow, and I can be seen running around the house with my wireless headphones on. Today, I managed to get a glimpse of Andi White, Nik Peachey and Kirsteen Donaghy (I fell in love with Kirsteen last year...her accent, I mean!); I also managed to catch Andi & Rob interviewing Chia Suan live. Chia was asked about her talk on English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in the BESIG pre-conference event.

You might want to catch up on some spicy talk on ELF here and if you don't know Chia, I'd suggest you watch her iAskU interview.

The Glasgow IATEFL Conference will be broadcasting live each day (09:00-17:00 GMT) from the Glasgow Online studio. They'll be showing interviews with presenters and visitors, and general coffee talk. There's also a back-channel (or side-channel, more like it) chat going on at the same time. Interviews can be watched again later. Unfortunately, we can't watch the presentations live, but they'll be showing some plenaries and the Pecha Kucha!

After several days of waiting, I'm still unable to embed the video, so here's the link to watch Chia's interview:

http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/sessions/2012-03-19/interview-chia-suan 

How to overcome the Lonely Teacher Blues

Image by @ij64 on ELTPics;

Teaching is, often, a lonely job. If you're lucky, you get to talk about your problems, exchange ideas, or periodically receive some level of motivation in the staff room. Most of the time, however, you get thrown in the deep end, with only a marker and the coursebook to clutch.

Some seek to fight this problem by attending conferences, and others do courses, but these tend to be costly, and teaching is not noted for a generous pay scale. So, unless some form of backing is available, most of us can't do either of those.

However, the situation has improved tremendously in the past decade or so. As Barbara Sakamoto said in my interview with her, "Get online!" There's a bewildering amount of information and resources available on the Internet, so much so that one can easily get lost. If you're reading this, you're probably among those who are already fairly knowledgeable about the world of blogging, Twitter, and webinars. It is our duty, then, to enlighten the uninitiated.

If you want to know which blogs to read, a good place to start is my recommended blogs list. This list is, naturally, constantly updated. Twitter is an incredible world, but I'd probably need a few hours to explain its ins and outs - why don't you get your school to call me and I could give a talk? ;-) Alternatively, read the articles which I've scooped here.

If you're interested in personal professional development, follow my scoops here, and if you're in need of some motivation, why don't you check out some of the teachers here.

As for webinars... these are getting more and more popular, and it's easy to see why. Most of them are FREE, and you can attend them from the comforts of your own home. Don't you know what webinars are? They are basically online conferences. To attend them, you are sometimes required to register. You will be given a url (the address of a web page) to go to. When you enter this page, you'll be asked to download a small Java file. Follow the instructions from there and before you could get comfortable, you'd be 'apparated' (to borrow a word from J K Rowlings) to the conference room!

Talking of webinars, next Saturday, 17th December is a very special day. Two free webinars are taking place, practically one after another; here's a terrific chance to experience first hand what many other teachers around the world are doing!

iTDi (International Teacher Development Institute) will be running, very shortly, online courses, designed by teachers, for teachers. Their free webinar has already attracted 300 teachers from 57 countries, but they are still accepting people for their waiting list, so don't wait any longer. It's free, isn't it? The webinar is titled "What is a teacher?" For the full line-up of internationally-acclaimed presenters, schedule and registration, go to:  http://itdi.pro/webinar.html
It runs from 09:00 to 13:00 UTC.

Right after that, from 14:00 CET onwards, TeachMeet International start their own exciting event. This promises to be a truly dynamic affair, each presenter being given 3 minutes of "floor" time. Don't miss that either!

For those who are not able to attend either of these conferences, there is a good possibility that the recordings will be made available, but you'd need to be in touch with "us" to know where and when they are released!

   

Steve Jobs 24 Feb 1955 - 5 Oct 2011, R.I.P.

This is indeed a sad day for many, and whether you're an Apple fan or not, I'm sure it must have affected you.

There's nothing I can add to what has been said before, and what is still being said now, so I'll let Steve speaks for himself.

 

       

Earth Hour 2011: Join in! Spread the news!

From the humble beginnings of a one-city initiative in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to be the largest ever voluntary action taken by mankind. What's more, this year, it carries added poignancy due to the triple tragedy which hit Japan on Friday 11th March, leaving millions of people without electricity. Earth Hour this year is not only to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change, but to show solidarity with the Japanese people.

Earth Hour was conceived by WWF and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights for one hour, but each year sees more and more cities joining in. What's more, the call for this year is to go BEYOND the hour.



Will you be joining in?

Remember, tonight 26th March 2011 at 20:30 hours, local time.

To help Japan, go here.

Setting Goals

For most people, running to catch the bus will leave them panting, struggling to catch their breath.

Then, there are dedicated joggers who run regularly to maintain their fitness, or to keep themselves slim.

Some of these get hooked to running to the extent that they start running marathons, which cover a distance of 42.195km. These are normally run on roads, and the world record of 2h 03:59 is currently held by Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia).

Well, I thought that was the maximum. 40km is a lot of distance to walk, let alone run, and I admire these 'marathoners' greatly. Running just one marathon in your life would have been seen as a fantastic achievement, don't you think?

But, for some people, running is like an addiction; they just can't stop running. They compete in several marathons annually, and they train whenever they can, covering enormous distances. Stefaan Engels recently became the first man ever to run a marathon every single day of the year! He almost didnt make it, suffering a swollen foot after 21 days of running. But, what did he do?

For two weeks, he 'ran' the marathons on a wheelchair! After that, he never stopped until he crossed the finish line in Barcelona last Saturday, 5th February, using up 25 pairs of shoes!

Then, I had a student who competed in triathlons, swimming 3.86km, cycling 180.25km, and, for dessert, throwing in a casual marathon! That was when I first heard of Ironman triathlons.

Our dear friend, Stefaan, by the way, holds the world record for competing in 20 triathlons in a year!

So, what's the limit, right?

Now, I have a student who runs ultra marathons! What's that? And I thought a marathon distance was almost superhuman! These ultra marathoners run marathons as part of their training!

"What are ultra marathons?" you may very well ask. Well, basically, they are anything more than 42.195km. But, that isn't the end of it. Most of these ultra marathons are run over treks, not roads, covering beaches, mountains, deserts, and what have you. Distance? Well, they speak of 50km as a piece of cake!

Takahiro Sunada (Japan) is the official world record holder of the 100km ultramarathon distance, with a time of 6:13:33.

This student of mine participated in the recent 'Maraton del Meridiano' in El Hierro, a gruelling run through varying altitudes, reaching the summit of Pico Malpaso at 1500m, and then running back down again. The winner, Francisco José Rodríguez de Paz (La Palma), completed it in 4:17:45.

This very same student will attempt to run the Transgrancanaria Ultratrail, starting in Playa del Inglés on Saturday midnight (5th March), running along the beach to Maspalomas, then crossing the mountains, finishing on Las Canteras Beach some time on Sunday evening. Distance? Ahem... 123 kms.

So, what makes these people tick? Why do they punish their bodies so? Most of them, when asked, say it's to test themselves, to see what their limits are, so to speak. It's a question of setting goals, and to work at achieving them.

Stefaan Engels, who, incidentally, was an asthmatic when he was a young boy and who was actually discouraged by doctors to participate in sports, said, "if I can get somebody to run five or 10 kilometres, or get involved in any sport, I will have succeeded – because I know how good sports makes me feel, how important it is to a person’s life.”

What is your next goal?