As teachers, we try to personalize our classes for our students. But as supervisors, trainers and mentors, how much do we personalize our feedback to teachers?
Going From Teacher To Buisness Owner (with Ed Dudley, Jake Whiddon & Peter Liu)
Have you ever thought about starting your own school, start-up or just going freelance? As the educational landscape changes due to Covid, branching out on your own is becoming a necessity for many teachers. This week I speak with three people who have gone from being teachers to becoming their own bosses. Peter Liu tells us how he got the inspiration for his online education company, Jake Whiddon tells us why he founded his own school after fifteen years of working for other people and Ed Dudley tells us what kind of people should avoid going freelance.
Racism and Ethics in Teacher Recruitment (with Ekitzel Wood)
Ross speaks with Ekitzel Wood about online marketing ethics and discrimination in teacher recruitment. We know data from Facebook was used in the last US Presidential Election, but how does your Facebook information change the job advertisements that you see? Online marketing affects the jobs we have access to, who are colleagues are and the expectations our students have. Hear the power schools now have to discriminate by gender, age and race, and how this affects you.
Ethics of English Education (With Dave Weller)
Podcast: What's Wrong With Performance Reviews And How To Fix Them (With Matt Courtois)
The end of the year means performance review time. How often do you go into a performance reviewing thinking “I’m really excited about this”? If you’re anything like us, probably never. We talk about why performance reviews get a bad reputation, why they’re not all bad and what teachers and managers can do to get the most out of them.
Podcast: Discrimination in ESL - Sexism and Homophobia
How to Market Yourself or Your School
In the the words of McKinsey, "we're all marketers now". But what can teachers and schools do to better promote themselves? We interview three ESL marketing experts (David Weller, Jonny Arthur and Peter Liu) about how (if you're a teacher) you can promote yourself and (if you're a manager) how you can promote your school.
Lying Less in Language Teaching (with Jessica Keller)
"By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is. Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they can make—and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to" (Sam Harris). So what of lying in language teaching? How honest are we with our students? How honest are schools with their teachers? And how can we be more honest with ourselves? We discuss with ESL recruitment guru, Jessica Keller.
Racism In EFL (with Asia Martin)
Highlights from IATEFL 2018 in Brighton (Part 2)
The second of our two-part special from the 2018 IATEFL conference in Brighton. We chat with our friends, fellow teacher trainers and returning podcast guests David Weller, Simon Galloway, Fifi Pyatt and new guest and DipTESOL candidate Will Ferguson about technology in the classroom, activities for teenagers, creating positive group dynamics in classes, native and non-native English teachers and effective practices in language teaching.
Highlights From IATEFL 2018 in Brighton (Part 1)
Podcast: How to Start Thinking Straight - Cognitive Biases for Teachers, Trainers & Managers (with Simon Galloway)
Cognitive biases screw up our thinking. They make us make bad decisions, come to wrong wrong conclusions and for the most part we're completely unaware of them. This week we speak with Trinity DipTESOL course Director Simon Galloway about cognitive biases for teachers, cognitive biases for trainers and cognitive biases for managers and how to avoid them and start thinking more clearly.
Podcast: Is "Less" Sometimes "More" In Teaching, Training and Management? (Matt Courtois)
The "Native" / "Non-Native" English Teacher Debate (with Dave Weller)
What are the real differences between "native" and "non-native" English teachers? How did we end up with these distinctions in our industry? And what should we be doing about discrimination? We meet with Dave Weller to discuss the issues surrounding "native" and "non-native" English teachers such as attitudes of parents and teachers, the responsibilities of language schools and how to change opinions.
Podcast: What Motivates Teachers?
What is Testing and How Does it Shape Our Teaching? (with Dan Ellsworth)
Testing is a huge part of learning, but most teachers don't know a lot about it. We ask test guru Dan Elsworth all about testing. What is a test? How is it different to an assessment? How Can you go about writing a test? How can you assess students for a learner profile? How do tests affect teaching? Yes, we asked him a lot of questions. Listen to hear the answers...
Podcast: How Teachers Can Find The Right School and How Schools Can Find The Right Teachers
Career Paths in Teacher Training - How Teachers Become Trainers
Becoming a teacher trainer is super popular career goal for new teachers, but it can also seem pretty daunting. How can you move from teaching into training?We speak with three teacher trainers (Simon Galloway, Ray Davila and Dave Weller) about their careers; where they started, where they are now and how they got there.
