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May 9, 2016

The Online Classroom: Benefits of Learning TESOL Internationally

After three years of teaching English as a foreign language in South Korea I decided that teaching was something I was passionate about and wanted to pursue further. I did […]
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April 18, 2016

Some reflections on using the L1 to reinforce learning in an EFL classroom

I have always thought the concept of learning English through the use of a student’s L1 to be the antithesis of what I believed to be sound English teaching. After […]
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February 1, 2016

Metamorphosis of an EFL teaching caterpillar

My teaching beliefs have changed quite significantly since I started teaching.  The MA TESOL at the New School and the DELTA both changed my ideas on the role of the […]
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January 25, 2016

First Impressions: Your Last Chance

Like any relationship, your students form an opinion of you that will likely influence their behaviour for the duration of your time together. And, like any relationship, their mental image […]
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November 17, 2015

“Someone like me…”

Is there a Social Class Dimension to language teaching in the U.S.? A number of years ago I was supervising a student teacher at her high school on Cape Cod, […]
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October 18, 2015

Rubrics for Integrated Assessment

The single biggest professional mistake I’ve ever made was to get my master’s degree in TESOL at The New School. Like, by a long shot. You see, prior to grad […]
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October 3, 2015

The Chronicles of a Language Learner

I have made a career teaching students how to speak “my” language. Yet, after 6 years living in Zurich (the German speaking canton of Switzerland), I still could not really […]
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September 2, 2015

Language or language arts?

At the very end of an intensive summer of methodology and language analysis courses one of my students, who I will call Alice, confessed that it had taken her until […]
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July 8, 2015

Bringing the Best from the Old Career into the New: Why I Plan Fastidiously

In my Methods: Systems course I had great debates with my classmates about the importance of planning for classes. Some of the teachers I admire the most argued for walking […]
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June 23, 2015

Connecting and Learning in Online Communities

Working through an MA in TESOL was not an easy feat for me. Reading any given text took me a considerable amount of time, and creating a link between theory […]
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