TEFL Waffle

Yes, we do sequels. This movie stars a kindergarten cop too, and it involves children and a cop, because it's a copy of a movie about a cop in a kindergarten. This time, there is chocolate, and pigs, and a creepy IT guy who turns out to be (spoiler alert) a hero. The moral of the story is that cops are probably best not put into kindergartens to teach, and in this movie, you'll see the complete ra...

How invested are you in your students? How long did it take you to become invested in this way? Why are some teachers not invested? What does it mean to be invested? Steve and Troy waffle in a rather circular and convoluted way about these and other wondrous questions in this very podcast! Listen to it.

In this podcast, Steve fails a lot. It's on purpose because he is doing a meta-demonstration of how failure can be a marvelous way to mortify - no, to create learning, development, growth and improvement. See, failure is a good thing, actually, even though most schools avoid, dodge, escape and evade it. What this podcast really is about is Troy's wonderful journey into the world of teaching Young...

Do you like your CLIL hard, or soft? Or would you prefer your CLIL tempered with a bit of EMI? And if you want to have a CLIL lesson, would you like your maths with a bit of English, or do you like your English with a bit of maths stuck in it? Should language teachers even worry about content, or is content the new future of ESL? All these penetrating questions! We've never written a blurb in this...

Are our learners really learning language when they're learning online only? If you can understand that question, nicely done! Steve and Troy successfully waffle about the stigma of online learning in the light of the latest fashion of staying at home when you study (because of Covid, not because people are too lazy to take a shower and wear fresh socks). How on earth, Troy and Steve wonder, can w...

Troy and Steve watched a movie. This movie had many classroom scenes, it was set in a school, had students and a few teachers. There was drama. There were underlying themes relating to society. Troy got upset about it. Steve thought it was all a big joke, especially the interview scene. Many ladies in the old days of yore thought this teacher was rather dishy. The movie has a happy ending. This bl...

Sunee demoted herself from manager and teacher trainer to classroom teacher. Or was it a promotion? She's back to tell us about what she has learned about herself as a teacher since she's gone back into the classroom to, well, teach. If you listen carefully you'll hear just how well she is designed for teaching young children. We always love having Sunee on the show because she brings a sense of s...

Teachers talk. A lot. They talk in the classroom, but they also talk in the staffroom, and this kind of staffroom chatter can sound like complaining, but it's also a really good way for teachers to be cathartic, to reflect, to develop professionally, and to stay sane. As a manager, this kind of positive staffroom waffle can be threatening. So how exactly should we look at the kinds of things teach...

How exactly do you teach reading? Can reading even be taught? Is there a difference between teaching reading and testing students' comprehension? Are you even reading this and how do we know you are? If you are reading, is there any way you really know if you comprehend anything on here? Should this blurb have some comprehension question to find out? In this exciting episode, Steve and Troy waffle...

Rolling drums, crashing symbols, DRAMATIC INTRO!!! Oh, Wait, not that kind of drama... Steve: Children, what's the name of this episode? Children: Scream uncontrollably. Steve: That's right! Good job. And what are we going to do today? Children: Scream less uncontrollably. Steve: Good job! When are we going to do it? Visiting principal: Steve, are you ok?  

This movie demanded a lot of waffling. Really, a lot. See if you can see the link between spiders in the tropics, and the core themes embedded in this movie on children studying high school in America. If you find it, you get a chance to win an opportunity to enter a raffle which will draw from thirty seventeenths randomly chosen special entrants for the privilege of wearing your own white t-shirt...

Have you ever watched a movie that has every cliche rolled into one blonde? This one has them all in one classroom. You can have them all for the price of one Snickers bar, and more. In fact, there are so many cliches to talk about here, Steve and Troy need two episodes to do it. Troy's copious notes on the topic of this teacher and her management of her class includes such issues as: gerunds, sil...

Are you a good teacher? Do your students think you are good? How do you know? What sorts of things do they say? In today's session, Troy wants to waffle about how students compliment a teacher who is good (in their opinion) and how to deal with it. Steve has little to say today because nobody compliments him. However, the podcast cat, whose name is Katt, decided that today's a great day to include...

How do children learn the alphabet? How do ESL learners learn the ABC? It's complex. In today's episode we have some authentic material - recordings of Troy's son learning the alphabet with his amazing father/teacher. What Steve and Troy are up to is taking a critical view of the books children learn their ABCs with. This is a cute episode, but you know that Steve and Troy have a lot of really cri...

Do you want to be an exemplary teacher? Do you want to have an exemplary classroom? Or perhaps do you feel like having exemplary learning taking place in and around you? If you said yes to any one of those questions, you are amazing, and your prize is to get to listen to this exemplary podcast. You'll hear Troy start a lot of sentences and not always finish them. And you'll hear Steve waffling ver...

Troy and Steve are not usually too stupid. But when it comes to technology, they are. And why not - they are teachers, not computer geeks. So now that the world is crashing down in all sorts of random ways, and teachers are being called to action through a variety of online and technologically savvy platforms, some teachers (no names here please) are at a loss. Which apps do we use? How do you rec...

This is a long movie with lots and lots of cultural- and time-bound references, and it's also a classic. And, it's about pronunciation! Do you like linguistics? No? How about applied linguistics? No? How about sociolinguistics? No? How about love stories with cultural and time bound references? Well any one of those, and this movie is for you. If not, well, we didn't much like it either. Neverthel...

We need to keep our distance from people, because, well, it's Covid time. So teachers have to teach from home, and podcasters have to podcast from home(s). How hard can it be, right? Just do what you do, but do it at home. Well, we have empirical evidence, in the form of this podcast, that if things can go wrong with technology, they will, and that it feels super work through technology, especiall...

The end isn't nigh, but it does mean we need to change how we think about teaching, learning, technology, life in general and the nature of classroom interaction. That's hard for Steve - he isn't cut out for this sort of stuff, and you can hear him complaining about all this change on this very episode! Troy, however, is managing only slightly better. Really - these wafflers are not the best at on...

Parents have an important role to play in education. For one thing, they provide the children. But more importantly, they can support or undermine the school and the teacher depending on the way that they are trained. I mean, communicated with. Yes. So how can we make sure our parents work together with us as teachers in a way that benefits the child? Is that even possible? After all, the teacher'...

Today, we have Sunee as our superstar guest. Sunee is not just a superstar guest, she is also a superstar young learners guru. Now Sunee is moving back into the classroom to be with her children and abandoning her fantastic role as a teacher trainer, teacher manager and school supervisor. Why on earth would a teacher demote herself from a manager back to a teacher? Well, Sunee is going to explain...

Yort and Evets are lovers of movies. This time, it's a movie about a school, some teachers, and a bunch of amazing students. The basic premise, which they don't waffle about at all, is school corruption. We all hate corrupt schools, don't we? No wait, this is a movie about a good teacher gone bad and going back to good. Oh no, wait. It's about a school which needs an injection of life and energy....

Do you have colleagues? Are they are nice as Troy? Or are they lazy, rubbish colleagues like Steve? Are they complaining a lot because someone hasn't done their job properly? Is it your fault that the students didn't learn in that other lesson? In this podcast, Steve and Troy waffle, as usual, but they also say um and ah a lot, close curtains, make silly jokes and misunderstand each other's points...

Teacher's sometime forget to do writing tasks in class. Or maybe they don't like doing them because they involvement so much marking. Or maybe they think they aren't important. Anyway, when we do do them, how important is it it it it for the writing to me accurately? If their are mistakes, will it distract the reader? Is it the teacher's job to encourage, or discouraging mistakes? Who's brain brok...

We aren't in the mood to write this blurb.