Ddeubel's Blog (28)

Movies and Philosophies of Education

Click to take the quiz about your own philosophy of education

I've written lots about philosophies of education. How important they are to develop and sustain. A lot of what is "stress" in today's teaching world, derives from teachers working in settings that conflict with their own underlying philosophy of education - often, the teacher not really even knowing that this conflict… Continue

Added by ddeubel on October 27, 2011 at 1:38pm — 2 Comments

Extensive Watching (move over books!)

The last few years, I've been very focused on the role and possibility of video in the classroom. Thus, my recent work developing EnglishCentral and my focus on the potential of a "Flipped Classroom".

I had an interesting skype…

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Added by ddeubel on September 17, 2011 at 7:58am — No Comments

EnglishCentral - a new version

We've cleaned up things and have started a vocabulary tracking focus. Use youtube videos and increase your word power! Lots more features to help in ESL, literacy, vocabulary building and public speaking. Learn more about the changeshere.

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Added by ddeubel on August 14, 2011 at 1:00pm — No Comments

EnglishCentral - what's coming...

As an "insider", I'm privy to a little of what is going on at EnglishCentral. The team has really been working overtime and coming up with some fantastic changes that will be in a new release.

Here's my insider's sneak preview!

I hope you like the new look and…

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Added by ddeubel on July 23, 2011 at 9:17am — No Comments

Websites for Practice Speaking English

Full Screen HERE

I recorded my talk at the recent KOTESOL National Conference - Getting Students Speaking: Harnessing the Power of New Technologies.… Continue

Added by ddeubel on May 26, 2011 at 7:00pm — No Comments

Two Tech Tips for Language practice

Today, two quick tips of two very innovative and adaptable tools. The Cue Prompter and Transl8it.com. Listen/Watch as I show you them and suggest some uses. Get the dialogues mentioned… Continue

Added by ddeubel on January 2, 2011 at 7:37am — No Comments

Teachers. Who Needs Them?

I just came home from the movies. In the film I saw (The Kids Are Alright), one character when asked why he dropped out of school says, "I just thought it was a big waste of money for something I could learn myself, from a book."

This was something I had realized early, sitting in the town library one "PD" or professional development day, years ago in grade 8. I was flipping through a National Geographic and chanced upon an article about Jane Goodall. I was stoked, we had… Continue

Added by ddeubel on October 26, 2010 at 1:01pm — No Comments

#1 series in teaching

It has now been a year since I first started the #1 series. A catalog of what I believe is important in teaching and particularly ELT. See it below, share, download.

Here it is faithfully edited, updated and relinked, facelifted. Lots of stuff that might remain as important reference.

Download a hardcopy to print, carry around, use as toilet paper and win paper airplane contests… Continue

Added by ddeubel on September 30, 2010 at 6:35pm — No Comments

New eteaching rooms - what do you use/think?

This next year, I'll be setting up my own eTeaching system and doing online teacher training. Mostly out of interest and to see if I can do it. As part of that process, I'm presently setting up my own audio/video eteaching suite. And since I'm doing it for myself, I thought, "why not do it for everyone?". Technology has that benefit, once you do it for yourself, it costs little to share it.

So, I'd like to ask what you are looking for in an eteaching system. You know, I've… Continue

Added by ddeubel on September 23, 2010 at 6:00am — 1 Comment

Can you help Zacharia get an education?

Over the last several months, I've been corresponding with Mike Marzio, the wonderful engineer behind Real-English videos. Corresponding about a campaign to raise funds for Zacharia, a poor, bright spirited deaf man in Kenya.

We wondered how to go about it. Would others respond? Fortunately, Mike has the resolve and has got things organized, including a website where… Continue

Added by ddeubel on September 6, 2010 at 3:45am — No Comments

TEFList - a new way to find an English teaching job

Well, it is finally here! TEFList, the video ELT job site. A l ot of work went into it and it really does some amazing things. Ning is charging us through the nose and I hope any revenue provided by TEFList will help our community survive.

1) All the jobs in ELT in one spot (no being a chicken with your head cut off)…

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Added by ddeubel on September 2, 2010 at 4:00am — No Comments

Zen and the Act of Publishing a Book

Jeremy Harmer made a comment in defense of big publishers the other day. He said, "the cost of producing a book is horrendous these days, the investment staggeringly high."

I took that as a challenge so within 8 hours I CREATED and PUBLISHED a book. Not some frothy, blablabla book but something substantial and which practicing teachers or teacher training programs can use.… Continue

Added by ddeubel on August 16, 2010 at 7:33pm — No Comments

18th ESL / EFL / ELL Blog Carnival posted1

This blog carnival is REALLY a carnival! You'll experience a lot of fun and learning.

Many thanks to all those in the wider ELT community for participating and good luck riding the ferris wheel!… Continue

Added by ddeubel on August 2, 2010 at 5:24pm — No Comments

The Future of Teaching is Learning

I really enjoyed Charles Leadbeater's - "We-Think" (see the cool video clip of its premise HERE). He really hit the nail on the head when it came to how the world was changing due to communicative technologies, Web 2.0 and the rise of the "amateur" and mass participation in innovation/ideas.

Today, watched for… Continue

Added by ddeubel on July 15, 2010 at 11:56pm — No Comments

Technology and Teaching Languages

My thoughts on how technology is part of the curriculum for language teachers. You might also like my ebook of top sites for language teaching

Here is a presentation in brief - focusing on how technology relates to curriculum. Some tips, some thoughts .......…

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Added by ddeubel on July 11, 2010 at 9:05pm — 1 Comment

18th EFL / ESL / ELL Blog carnival

The EFL Classroom 2.0 newsletter is public and find information about the forthcoming 18th EFL / ESL / ELL Blog Carnival we will host August 1st.

You can visit the last blog carnival HERE. Submit your entry in our handy…

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Added by ddeubel on July 5, 2010 at 3:00pm — No Comments

MeeGenius - text to speech for reading

I really believe in the power of ebooks with audio, the power of text to speech technology, to help our students learn. You'll find loads of that on EFL Classroom 2.0. Thus, my constant promotion of TTS- through English Central, the Tarheel Reader, Chatterbots and all sorts of other… Continue

Added by ddeubel on July 5, 2010 at 2:39pm — No Comments

A Classroom's Hierarchy of Needs

A Classroom’s Hierarchy Of Needs

I just got home after a morning of observing two classrooms. One was wonderful, a place that all students would long to be in. One was dreadful, a place that students would only just barely tolerate and where one student actually said, when asked to make a metaphor using the word school, “School is jail”.

What made them different? On the face of it they were both… Continue

Added by ddeubel on April 12, 2010 at 6:36pm — No Comments

The #1 ..... (documentary about education)

** Not your ordinary endless list - just what's number 1. Just the BEST.

Jane Elliot's Daring Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes Experiment

This is a timeless classic. Always ready to give us pause and get us thinking about the "ghost inside our machine". Jane has continued to do this experiment over many years and even… Continue

Added by ddeubel on December 19, 2009 at 5:21pm — No Comments

What makes a teacher?

Here is a presentation in a series I produced. (get all of them, all inspirational, on EFL Classroom 2.0) about what is the defining character of a teacher. I'll let you watch and not let the cat out of the bag. Let me know if you agree....…

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Added by ddeubel on July 6, 2009 at 2:40am — No Comments