TEFL Waffle

Troy has a colleague who has a problem with him and is suffering from a critique. Troy also has a problem with that first sentence as he's unsure who the subject of the second verb is. Steve has a problem with criticism of sentences. Anyway, why anyone would dare critique Troy is beyond anything we can understand because he's perfect in many ways, nevertheless it happened. Have you had a colleague...

It's time for an analysis of a teacher in the movies, and it's 'Fast Times at Richmond High' this time around. And our fantastic teacher is Mr Hand, whose first words we hear are "Aloha. I am Mr. Hand." Pretty cool, huh? If you haven't met Mr. Hand, let Evets and Yort lead you through the intricate pedagogy of this teacher at Richmond High, as seen through the lens of a bunch of teens. He is a fas...

If you listened to our last podcast about lesson planning, you'll remember Steve planned a lesson for Troy, who then taught it and reported it to be a disaster of Pompeii-an proportions. This time, you can listen to Troy and Steve doing it the other way around. Troy is planning and Steve is commenting inanely in the background.  To make things more complicated, they don't know the students nor the...

Steve read an interesting paper and wants to share it with everyone - and you are included. The paper really is interesting, he isn't wrong, though Troy has some things to say about what Steve finds interesting and how sad his life is generally. Anyway, the thrust of the paper, and this podcast episode, are the really useful tricks and tips for how to be a boring teacher. Trust us, these are the b...

Love it or hate it, testing is an integral part of a teacher's life, and an even more integral part of a student's life. Hate it because it's time consuming, irritating, overblown, and in many schools poorly managed. There is also that awful problem of negative washback. Love it because it provides everyone with useful feedback on what is happening with the learning process, and also because stude...

Troy has a problem. That's not really true - he has many, but this is one particular problem with one particular group of students. Can Steve help him solve this problem in any meaningful way? Can Steve even understand what the problem is? Along the way, we discuss the nature of teens, the ego of a dedicated teacher, the bizarre relationships between teachers and teen classes, and the importance o...

You know, some movies have a lot of stuff going on in them. This is not really one of them, but if you are a teacher interested in bad teaching, task-based learning, student motivation and self-actualization of large crowds of parents, then might just work for you. Ignore the first 10 minutes, which we discussed in Part 1, which is absolutely remarkable in terms of cringe-worthiness, Troy and Stev...

Have you ever been in a class where a teacher is a complete tit? Have you ever seen a teacher so embarrassing you've wanted to commit suicide? Do you know teachers who are so bad that you wish they, you and all the students were just not there for the duration of that class? Or perhaps have you ever watched a movie that you've hated so much that you've wanted to throw the TV at Troy? Well, In Scho...

Classrooms are places where students are encouraged to sit quietly, listen carefully and basically be awesomely well behaved. That's probably not a good idea if you want the students to learn. You really want students up and about and shouting and moving and speaking in order for learning to take place. Do teachers know that movement is important? Even for adults? If not, should they be taught to...

 When people think of 'teaching', they often think about a knowledgeable person at a whiteboard talking to the class. What they don't consider is the hours and hours and hours of loneliness at desks with stacks of papers and red pens. Boring and useless, right? Wrong! Or perhaps right! We don't know - or maybe we do. Listen to us fight, argue, bicker and quibble about this with much righteous indi...

What do you think - should teachers teaching English teach English English or American English? How's that for a question, huh? What if you are a South African? Can you teach South African English? And how about if you are Australian? Can an Australian teach English English with confidence, or should he teach American English, or would he have no confidence with that either? And what should the st...

In this exciting episode of TEFLwaffle, which is the 41st of the series, incidentally, Troy challenges Steve to go through his lesson planning process. Steve, challenged and up against the wall, plans a lesson under the watchful gaze of Troy, whose critical approach to watching Steve is both stressful, hurtful and rather amusing. If you are a lesson planning sort of person, you can compare what yo...

Yort and Evets give a lot of spoilers away here. If you haven't seen this movie - don't listen to the podcast if you plan to. But if you are a teacher, and you want to find out about why this movie is called Bad Teacher, it gets explained here in exquisite detail. Find out how not to teach, what a bad teaching colleague is like, how to buck the system, and how to just be completely awful as a teac...

Steve really goes on a waffle hunt of note today, on and on and on about the content, nature, use, purpose and philsophical nature of an EFL course curriculum. You had no idea this was such an interesting topic. Just listen - by the end of this, you may just firmly establish for yourself that this is really not that interesting at all. Troy is patient and kindly offers suggestions when Steve deign...

Teachers who are already teaching benefit from additional training: what we called in-service training. Should this in-service training be internal (at school) or external (out there somewhere, like a nice fancy hotel), and how much time should be given to it? Who should conduct it? Who should be the teachers who go for this kind of training? What exactly are the benefits of it all? Today, Troy ha...

Do you ever ask another teacher to help with lesson ideas? Do you give other teachers advice on how to run their lesson? Well, in part 1 Troy stupidly asked Steve for advice on a lesson, and Steve stupidly gave it. In the mean time, Troy went and stupidly taught the lesson, and brings his stupid tales of woe, suffering, hardship and destruction. Of course, it's all stupid Steve's fault because his...

"Oh man, I've go to teach this page tomorrow and I have no idea how to." "What am I supposed to do for an activity?" "Huh, Really? OK, I'll try it..." Sometimes teachers ask and give one another advice on lessons, activities, dealing with students and the like. That's great because teachers share, get new ideas and form part of a community of professionals. But how does it go? Can your ideas easil...

It's Teachers in the Movies! Yort and Evets are analyzing the Breakfast Club - that paragon of teen angst with a hateful teacher and 4 troubled individuals who find themselves and each other and help us find ourselves along the way. If you're a teacher, there are lots and lots of things going on here that need to be questioned with deep concern. If you haven't seen it, don't bother - just listen t...

Eliciting and concept checking form an important part of teacher talk, at least according to some. But what are they? Are they really necessary? How do you do them well? Why bother? What's the point the point of asking redundant questions that you already know the answers to, like this one? Would anyone ever do that? Well, teachers do, and students don't seem to mind, and there is a possibility th...

How experienced do you have to be to be considered experienced? This is the circular kind of question that Steve and Troy love waffling about. So, are you experienced? What does it mean to be experienced? When exactly did you become experienced? What changed when you suddenly became experienced? Do experienced teachers help students and other teachers more than inexperienced teachers? We waffle ab...

Steve and Troy waffle up a storm. It's Steve's turn to be belligerent and he's doing on about marking. Or is it grading? Or evaluating? Or giving feedback? Whatever it is, teachers hate it, students hate it and yet it has to be done, and it's really useful for students' development. Or is it? Listen to Troy dancing around the edges of this very prescriptive and red-pen laced topic which sits close...

Troy and Steve have a heavy duty waffle about the things we have been led to believe are true but are not in fact supported by research. Troy brings up the example of the myth that we only use 10% of our brain, but a more interesting waffle is about the myth of VAK, then even more interestingly a waffle about MI, and we touch on learner strategies, and then we get onto the myth that Steve actually...

It's not TEFLWaffle!! No, instead Yort and Evets are waffling about teachers in the movies. Ferris Bueller has a lot of teachers in it, and they are wonderful to talk about because they are all so stereotypically awful. Really, they are. Well, Evets thinks so, anyway. If you've seen the movie, come share in the discussion. If you haven't, come find out what you have missed from the 80s. And if you...

In some schools, a clear distinction is made between the local teachers and the foreigner teachers. Working in these schools as a foreigner means things are sometimes rather opaque. This is the topic of today's episode. Why does that happen? What can be done about it? As usual, Steve and Troy will waffle endlessly, throwing ideas around, solving all the problems, and just generally being show-off...

Why are you a teacher? Yes, Troy and Steve waffle about this question, whether we make a difference, how teachers stay interesting in their jobs and all other kinds of stuff like that. Troy uses wonderfully banal analogies, Steve gives bizarre examples and neither of us have any doubt about the benefits and wonder of teaching. But really, why do some teachers teach well? This, in fact, is the real...