(c) Wesley Fryer, via Flickr

So, I’m sitting in a train on my way to the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. The ISTEK ELT Conference is taking place there this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to going for several weeks, but now I’m angry. The train’s on time, and I haven’t forgotten my passport, but travelling by train gives me time to make plans or brood (depending on whether the planning is finished or not). No, the reason I’m fuming mad is because of my colleagues.

Let’s go back a few days… On the last day of term the conversation in the staff room turned quite naturally to the holidays. The activities varied from doing nothing to moving house to going away somewhere – all quite normal, until I said I was going on a training course and then attending a conference in Istanbul. Actually, the reaction didn’t surprise me too much. Some people were surprised that I was going given that I was not being sponsored, others couldn’t see the point (without even asking what the conference was focused on), and a sizeable group stated flatly that they would never do such a thing in the holidays. Even the professional conference attender on the staff wasn’t prepared to give up time during his holidays for such an event. No-one expressed any interest in getting feedback after I returned, though many wanted a report from a colleague who was going to Mallorca. As I said, I wasn’t particularly surprised by this, and I got on with more important things in my life. Until this train journey. No planning to do. Time to brood… Continue reading »

According to its website Didacta is “the largest trade fair for teachers from all education sectors within Europe and the most important continuing education event for the sector.”  It could be that BETT would dispute that, although BETT is purely focused on educational technology.  It probably comes down to how you define largest.

There’s no mistaking however, that Didacta is a very important show, at least in the German-speaking area of Europe.  It rotates round three venues – Hanover, Cologne and Stuttgart – and if you are involved in teaching, then you really should plan at least a day there to catch up on what’s new as a lot of publishers and manufacturers time the releases of new products to coincide with Didacta.

One thing you notice immediately about Didacta is that this is clearly the only trade fair that many teachers ever attend.  Stopping in the middle of gangways to chat with friends is not particularly nice to the 500 people that get held up by this action.  Dragging suitcases large enough for a round the world trip is also not particularly practical when 10,000 people are trying to get from stand to stand, and don’t get me started on the teachers who bring children in pushchairs!  Please, I can promise you, those kids get nothing from the experience, and I’m sure a teacher must be capable of organising child-care for 1 day a year (Especially a day when the teacher should be in school anyway – or do they take their kids to school too?) Continue reading »

I know this isn't the current logo, but it's my favourite!

There are times when I consider myself very lucky to do the job I’m in.  I love technology and have the chance to teach it, but my main role is that of English coach and every now and again I get the chance to combine the two.  This week is Cebit in Hanover which, according to the organisers, is the largest IT trade fair in the world.  Of course, the linguist in me wants to know if largest refers to area, exhibitors, or visitors, but hey, who cares?  It’s a big show and there is more than enough to keep you occupied for a day.

Now some of my colleagues are a bit suspicious of my motives for taking my English class to the show.  In the eyes of many of them I’m a geek, so it smacks of self-interest.  (OK, I know half a dozen command line orders in Linux, and I’ve got a fluffy Tux on my desk. If that makes me a geek… )

The real reason I take the English class to Cebit is that it gives them the chance to practice their English skills in a real-world environment – something which isn’t all that easy to simulate in the middle of Germany!   Continue reading »

(c) Michael Sarver, via Flickr

I listened to a disturbing conversation last week.  I was standing at a buffet table with two experienced teachers who I’ve known for some time were discussing the relative merits of the English curriculum in their respective states in Germany.  Quickly it broadened out into a debate as to which of the major publishers produced the most curriculum-oriented course book.  One major publisher apparently only focuses on competences, another is slavish in following the prescribed pedagogy.  Part of my job is to know what’s on the market, so the opinions on the books were interesting.  However, as the conversation went on my irritation grew and eventually I felt forced to add an opinion.  The two teachers stared at me as if I had suddenly grown another nose on my face and ignored my question completely and continued discussing which publisher taught Shakespeare better.  What had I said, that was so totally unimportant? Continue reading »

This article was originally published as a guest blog in Betty Ray’s edutopia.org blog.

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(c) trix0r, Flickr

To put it bluntly, teachers have a major image problem. Seen from the outside, teachers have excellent job security, long holidays, they aren’t accountable for their performance and then to cap it all, they are constantly complaining about their pay and conditions.

It gets worse. Although teachers may be great at presenting information, they are not usually skilled at defending themselves against adversaries in the same way that politicians, journalists and business managers are. This means the teacher is holding a really bad hand when getting involved in emotive arguments like how to reform education.

Because reform is an emotive word. If you put it together with education, you have a heady mixture. At the same time reform is an elusive thing. It’s like quality. Everyone wants it, but no-one can agree what it is. So when the #edchat discussion last Tuesday took on the issue of education reform and the role of the teacher in it, I knew it would be a dynamic discussion. Six-hundred ninety-one posts in an hour from 83 different contributors around the world confirmed my expectations. Continue reading »

(c) Gary Hayes, via Flickr

If you’re a Twitter user and you’re looking for great, thought-provoking ideas on education then a good place to start is @spedteacher.  His blog, Education On The Plate is a must-read for anyone looking for stimulating input on the subject of education.  I saw through Twitter that he’d blogged on the subject of running schools like a business – something which I feel has great advantages.  One thing that Deven did was to identify that this is not only controversial, it is also not simple.  Teachers are almost naturally resistant to the factory model for a school, recognising that students are individuals in their formative years and have differing needs and skills.  I’ve even heard a teacher use Pink Floyd’s, The Wall as an example of how school can be too focused on creating drones.  Sadly when it comes to this piece of music, I can’t forgive the band for the first line – We don’t need no education.  Countless kids know this line without understanding or even having heard the rest of the piece. Continue reading »