Ross Thorburn
Refocusing Very Young Learners' Attention

It can be very difficult to get and keep the attention of very young learners. I was once teaching a class about toys when a boat sailed past the classroom window. How can you compete with that?! Whatever you do to get the attention of your very young learners it has to be more interesting and fun than just shouting “sit down” or “look at me”. Below are my four favorite refocusing strategies. Each of these packages “sit down and look at me” in something more fun than whatever is distracting your class. Start whenever you feel your students’ attention is beginning to wander. Everyone will join when they see the fun.

Refocusing Very Young Learners' Attention
Classroom Management
Ross Thorburn
Grade your language: 1 acronym, 5 strategies, ...

The concept of teaching English in English is so common, we rarely stop to think about how unconventional and challenging it is. No other subject is taught so immersivity. Can you imagine receiving instruction on interpretive dancing through an interpretive dance? Or getting taught to code by reading java? Probably not.

 

Teaching English in English would be impossible without one key skill - grading language. Here are 5 strategies to help you help your students understand. And to help you remember them, they spell G-R-A-D-E.

Grade your language: 1 acronym, 5 strategies, every level
Teaching & Learning
Ross Thorburn
5 Cognitive Biases That Screw Up Every ...

Cognitive biases screw up everyone’s thinking. They make us more afraid of flying than driving. They stop the U.S. enacting universal health care. And they convinced Tony Blair and George W. Bush that the Iraq War was a great idea, even when we knew it wasn’t. In short, cognitive biases make us less logical, less rational and less efficient decision makers. All of this applies to teachers too. Here are five cognitive biases that screw up your thinking in the classroom and why they stop you from being a better teacher.

5 Cognitive Biases That Screw Up Every Teacher's Thinking (And What You Can Do About Them)
Teacher Development, Academic Management
Ross Thorburn
5 Reasons to Stop Using PowerPoint This Year

“Please email us your training."

 

"What do you mean? How can I email you interactions, epiphanies, questions, reactions, reflections and learning?”

 

"Just send your PowerPoint deck".

 

When did people start to think that “PowerPoint” is a synonym for “training”? Do they think the “T” in “PPT” stands for “training”? Training is so much more than a series of slides, handouts and bullet points. If your new year’s resolutions included cutting down on fats, sugars or caffeine, here are five reasons to add PowerPoint to your list of things to avoid in the new year.

5 Reasons to Stop Using PowerPoint This Year
Teacher Development
Ross Thorburn
Five Fool-Proof Ways to Destroy Teacher ...

Maybe you hate your school. Maybe you’re working undercover for a competitor. Maybe this is your next gig after hacking the American election. Whatever the reason, you’re in good company; there are a lot of people dedicated to destroying teacher development. Little has been written about the field of destroying teacher development (or “DTD” for short), so to make your work easier, I have compiled this list of the highly effective DTD techniques. Go forth and destroy!

Five Fool-Proof Ways to Destroy Teacher Development

Classroom Management

Grade your language: 1 acronym, 5 strategies, every level

Grade your language: 1 acronym, 5 strategies, every level

The concept of teaching English in English is so common, we rarely stop to think about how unconventional and challenging it is. No other subject is taught so immersivity. Can you imagine receiving instruction on interpretive dancing through an interpretive dance? Or getting taught to code by reading java? Probably not.

 

Teaching English in English would be impossible without one key skill - grading language. Here are 5 strategies to help you help your students understand. And to help you remember them, they spell G-R-A-D-E.

4 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR ESL TEACHING MATERIALS AWESOME

4 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE YOUR ESL TEACHING MATERIALS AWESOME

Hold it! Step away from the photocopier. Do you really need those extra materials for your next class? Are those handouts going to help your students learn or just clear a couple of inches of Brazilian rain forest? Before printing anything more, check your materials (or ‘mateRRRRials’) against the four ‘R’s (real life, relevance, reaction and recyclability) and make sure you and your students get the most out of them.

    The Futile War being Fought in Language Classrooms

    The Futile War being Fought in Language Classrooms

    In 1998 the United Nations decided that it was going to eradicate drugs from planet earth by 2008. This project was doomed to failure from the start. Human beings have been getting high since prehistoric times. How could the UN ever obliterate in 10 years something which has been in used for 10,000 years? Instead of removing narcotics from society, the war on drugs created public health crises, mass incarceration and violence. Counties are now trailing alternative approaches - Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001 and drug use hasn’t increased there since. In many TEFL classrooms a similarly futile war is being waged. I call it the “war on L1” (L1 = students’ first language).

    THE GOLDEN RATIO: GET KIDS TO BEHAVE, FIND SUCCESS AT WORK AND HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE

    THE GOLDEN RATIO: GET KIDS TO BEHAVE, FIND SUCCESS AT WORK AND HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE

    100 couples get divorced in America every hour. These divorces cost 11 billion dollars a year in legal fees and result in 43% of kids in the States being raised without their dads. Tragic. But what’s causing all these divorces? Getting married too quickly? Staying out too late? Not enough sex?

    PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY!!! OR NOT.

    PUT YOUR PHONES AWAY!!! OR NOT.

    How many of us start lessons by asking students to put their mobile phones away? Probably too many. The vast majority of our students come to class with a computer more powerful than all of NASA had in 1969. NASA used their technology to put men on the moon with a rocket. Our students use their technology to fight zombies with plants. Doesn’t that sound like a waste?

    ,

    THE SOUND OF LEARNING

    ,
    THE SOUND OF LEARNING

    Listen. You can’t hear learning taking place, can you? You can’t hear the cogs in students’ brains turning as they try to get their heads round a new language concept, can you? You can’t hear the humming of a learner’s’ brain as they internalize a new word, can you? Well, I think you can. The best classes I’ve ever observed and taught all had this sound in abundance. You’ve heard this sound before. You know what it sounds like. What’s the sound?