I blogged earlier about my first visit to the Comedy Store in Central London in the early 1990s, which was also my first opportunity to see the Comedy Store Players in action.
Even though I was gob-smacked by the inventiveness of the CSP on stage, I thought it might be possible to adapt some of their activities to the ELT classroom, so I tentatively started using them in the drama workshops and classroom demonstrations that I did in the 1990s.
Improv comedy and theatre are part of mainstream entertainment these days, but the first time I ever saw an example of it, it knocked my socks off and blew me away. When I came to my senses (and put my socks back on), I realized that I had stumbled across something of immense value in teaching - not just teaching English, teaching anything.
I realise that a lot of visitors to this blog (a) don’t live in the UK (b) come here for insights about English teaching and c) have no idea what is important about the UK National Health Service (NHS). There will be others who think I’m being a bit NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) in my persistent reporting of the attempts to close hospitals in West London.
My apologies for having devoted the last few blog posts to the campaign – I’m just doing my best to raise awareness of the situation, and it’s not just a local problem. The NHS has been under pressure from governments of both sides for the past 30 years.
So, for the last time, some information about the campaign. Then normal service will be resumed.
SAVE THE HOSPITALS CAMPAIGN
Saturday 6th October, protest march from Shepherd’s Bush Green to Charing Cross Hospital.
The consultation process ends on 8th October so this is the LAST CHANCE to demonstrate against the closure of the A&E departments at two hospitals in West London and the reduction of services at many more.
These closures would leave an area with a population BIGGER THAN THE CITY OF SHEFFIELD with no accident and emergency provision.
There were 10,000 people on the march in Ealing last month. We aim to get even more people on this one. Please alert anyone you know in the North West London quadrant.
The dismantling of the NHS is a national problem. Check out what your local Health Care trusts are planning. If they plan to close a hospital near you, fight it. It’s the only way to save the NHS.
SAVE CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN
There has been an underlying feeling throughout the campaign to save our West London hospitals that some Conservative local councillors are actually in favour of the suggested changes, which involve the complete closure of Charing Cross Hospital.
The feeling has been that a lot of people have a vested interest in the possible re-development of the Charing Cross Hospital site, if the hospital were to close. The hospital is located on a very valuable piece of West London real estate.
Fulham FC players wearing campaign T-shirts
I am therefore very pleased to copy part of the following newsletter, which was distributed by the three Conservative local councillors who represent the Fulham Reach ward, the area closest to the hospital.
As you will see, they not only believe the hospital should stay open, but they reveal the hidden agenda of the healthcare trust which is responsible for the plan, one which involves selling off the real estate to reduce their debts.
I think this is worth reading, not just for people most directly affected here in London, but also for anyone in the UK where there is a threat to their local NHS provision.
It can sometimes feel that nothing can be done to change government or local healthcare trust decisions. Our campaign in West London has shown that people power can make a difference.
Here are details of the councillors’ newsletter.
CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL UNDER THREAT
Charing Cross has been a constant target of NHS managers and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, who have a history of financial problems and stand to gain several hundred million pounds by selling much of the hospital site. The Shaping a Healthier Future consultation puts Charing Cross under threat again.
In NHS North West London’s preferred option
• Charing Cross Hospitals’ A&E department would close, as would the hyper-acute stroke unit, intensive care, all surgery and all major functions
• Only the Urgent Health Care Centre and some local functions would stay at Charing Cross
• It is likely that the entire site would be rebuilt, with three-quarters of the land sold off and developed as blocks of flats
This is not being driven by budget cuts: the NHS budget is going up both locally and nationally. Nor is this anything to do with the government: the plans have been drawn up by local GPs and managers from the local NHS Trusts. The whole process has been hi-jacked by Imperial’s anti-Charing Cross agenda.
Charing Cross is currently a world-class teaching hospital that undertakes advanced medical research. There is no sensible reason for it to be downgraded to a minor local hospital and stripped of all its key services.
What can you do to help save Charing Cross?
1 Sign the Council’s petition – www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-charing-cross.html
2 Respond to the NHS consultation – www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk
3 Ask your GPs why they are supporting the closure
The closing date of the consultation is 8th October 2012, so you only have a few days left to make your voice heard.
My wife Dede campaigning outside Craven Cottage stadium before Saturday’s game between Fulham and Manchester City
Changes are planned to the NHS which could lead to a huge amount of health care being farmed out to private companies. At the very least, these changes could lead to a serious discrepancy in the kind of service available, depending where you live in the country. At worst, they could lead to the complete dismantling of the service.
At the moment, it is proving very difficult to get genuine information about the true nature of these changes. The government, the NHS and/or local Primary Care Trusts seem determined to keep some of the proposals covert.
It’s hard to keep politics out of this story, at a national and local level. It is clear that some senior members of the Conservative Party may have vested interests in the part-privatisation of the health service. At a local level, the arguments can also be polarised by political allegiance.
For example, I live on the borders of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London. Our local Labour MP, Andy Slaughter, has been campaigning to save various hospitals in the area from closure. He admits that it was only because he noticed a small item in a new bill being presented to parliament that he became aware of the extent of the cuts being planned. And he’s an MP! If HE can’t get information, how are local residents supposed to find out? As it happens, the Fulham MP, Conservative Greg Hands, a very good constituency MP in many ways, has kept silent about it.
To say that Conservatives are in favour of privatisation and Labour supporters are against it is an extremely simplified representation of the political divide, but something similar is happening at our local Town Hall.
The local council serves both Hammersmith and Fulham, areas of the city which are quite different in character. This is reflected in the fact that a small majority of councillors for Hammersmith are Labour members, and a huge majority of Fulham councillors are Conservative. It’s safe to assume that members of the two parties probably have profoundly different attitudes to the continuation of the NHS in its current form.
It’s quite easy to organise demonstrations and marches against anything in this country. As long as you clear your route with the police, you can more or less march where you want.
However, whilst marching along the streets chanting slogans may be good for the soul, it’s rare that this kind of activity can make any kind of genuine change. You only have to look at the fact that more than a million people marched in the streets of London on a cold February Saturday in 2003 to protest at a possible military attack on Iraq. Similar marches took place all over the world. Blair and Bush took no notice and the invasion began on 19th March.So, if marching is no good, what can individuals do if they want to see change?
A wonderful march to be part of, but one which had no effect on the government.
There are two possible routes to try to make your voice heard.
The first is the government’s own e-gov petition site. It’s a system which accepts that if enough people are concerned about something, and sign a petition to that effect, then the government will at least talk about it. Basically, if you start a petition and get 100,000 signatures, it will be discussed.
You can find out more about the petition site here – http://bit.ly/n4dhVA
Secondly, 38 Degrees is a political action group that campaigns on a diverse range of issues, including the current attempts to change the NHS. (The name comes from the critical angle at which the incidence of a human-triggered avalanche greatest.)
I don’t know anyone who is part of 38 Degrees, so I can’t vouch for their political allegiances, but they do have some interesting suggestions about ways of getting your opinion heard.
You can find out more about what they do here – www.38degrees.org.uk/
They are particularly good at finding ways to galvanise people in local communities. Here’s information from an email they have sent out regarding the NHS changes situation in Hammersmith and Fulham:
The government’s plans to privatise and fragment the NHS are taking shape in Hammersmith.
Local doctors are forming a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for the area. They’re going to get new powers to decide what health services you and your neighbours are able to access and who provides them.
Private companies like Virgin Care and Serco are ready to bid for contracts by promising to slash costs.The doctors on your local CCG will be under pressure from the government to hand out contracts to private companies. Most doctors are against carving up the NHS for private profit. Plus, the new CCG has a legal duty to listen to local people.
So right now, we’ve got a big chance to ask local doctors to use their new powers to protect the NHS, not privatise it. Together, we can make sure they hear from hundreds of local people as they make these crucial decisions.
Can you add your name to the petition to your local CCG now?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/CCG-petition
The reason I want to share this information is that I think the majority of people in the United Kingdom are being kept not-so-blissfully unaware of the true nature of changes that are taking place. And we need to know the real reasons why the government and the Primary Care Trusts want to make these changes.
It would be wrong to call the UK government corrupt, given the way governments operate in some parts of the world. But there is no doubt that there is an awful lot of self-interest amongst the people who are the architects of this latest attempt to radically change a long-standing British institution.
Protest on the front page – my wife Dede and others at one of the protest meetings regarding the closure of our local hospitals
Part of the magnificent tribute to the National Health Service that was part of the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games
With apologies to visitors to this blog who expect education-related material, and especially to those of you (the majority in fact) who don’t live in the UK, I’m going to devote the next few posts to the terrible destruction of the UK’s National Health Service which is taking place at the moment.
These cost-cutting changes started under the last Labour government, so they must take equal responsibility with the Conservatives who are currently extending them dramatically and dangerously.
Cameron and ex-Health Secretary Lansley in a typical staged all-smiling photo opportunity in a hospital in Salford, the city where I was born.
This photo of Prime Minister David Cameron and (now ex-)Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is part of the smokescreen concealing very radical changes to the NHS, particularly A&E (Accident and Emergency Services), which will affect everyone living in the UK.
Astonishingly, the only national newspaper which is putting this process under intense scrutiny is the Mail on Sunday and their investigative reporter David Rose. He has another worrying article in today’s paper, September 16th.
If you can’t bring yourself to part money for a Mail title or if you don’t live in the UK, you can read online his July article which kicked off the investigation. http://bit.ly/Qi6kPu
It starts like this:
A massive – and until now unreported – programme of closures of accident and emergency departments will leave millions forced to use so-called ‘urgent care centres’ that in reality cannot provide urgent care, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found.
The centres are allowed to handle only the simplest injuries and mild illnesses. An NHS document obtained by this newspaper reveals they are legally forbidden from treating a vast array of serious and life-threatening conditions, including shock, internal bleeding, most types of broken bones, breathing difficulties, stab or gunshot wounds, heart attacks, strokes and head injuries.
I appreciate that the National Health Service is a puzzling notion to many people living in other countries, but it is a vital lifeline to the most vulnerable members of our society. Costs have to be cut, but the current recommendations will mean the death of one of the NHS’s main services, and possibly literally the death of patients for whom the nearest A&E unit will be simply too far away.
Ooooooh dear…. everywhere you look, there seems to be negative news.
Here in the UK, the banking crisis, the savage government spending cuts that are only affecting the poor, the terrible weather, and lesser disasters such as the worse than useless performance of the England football team at Euro 2012.
Andy Murray was supposed to lighten up the mood by winning Wimbledon. He didn’t.
Another gallant British loser at Wimbledon…
Factor in international news – the financial panic in most of Europe, the horrors taking place in Syria and the nightmare possibility of Mitt Romney becoming US President, it seems as if the bad news is constant and never-ending.
What can you do?
Covering your eyes and ears and sticking your head in the sand – a clever act of contortion if you can manage it – is not the answer. But deciding that the world is going to hell in a handcart and that life is just too awful isn’t the answer either.
Life has to go on. We all have to keep our shoulders to the wheel, our noses to the grindstone and our heads above water …
OK, no more idiomatic nonsense, I’ll stick to image-free words and thoughts from now on.
At times like this, you have to make your own personal list of reasons to be cheerful. Try to think of five and think about them all day. And tomorrow, think of another five reasons. They aren’t hard to find.
I have a lot of personal family reasons to be cheerful these days, so I won’t bore you with them. Except one, which I’ll talk about at the end.
Here are my five reasons to be cheerful.
1 The weather
Fulham High Street, earlier today…
OK, this is just for people based in the UK. Readers from other countries can skip this.
Spring and summer 2012 have been a washout. It has rained almost every day and we have had to endure the wettest April and June since records began. That’s what it says on the Met Office website – as far as I can remember, May was quite wet, too.
Now we’re in the middle of July and things haven’t changed. Temperatures in some parts of the country are lower than they were on Christmas Day 2011. Must be awful if you’re on vacation, planning a picnic, looking to get a suntan, sitting on your balcony, putting the washing out to dry etc etc…
My goodness, we have short memories, don’t we?
On 16th April, the Environmental Agency wrote the following on their website:
Seventeen counties in South West England and the Midlands have moved into official drought status, after two dry winters have left rivers and ground waters depleted. Public water supplies in these areas are unlikely to be affected yet, but the lack of rain is taking its toll on the environment and farmers, causing problems for wildlife, wetlands and crop production.
The Environment Agency is urging businesses, water companies and consumers all to play their part by using water wisely, to help conserve precious water supplies. In the Midlands, we have rescued fish from the River Lathkill in Derbyshire after it dried up, and the Rivers Tern, Sow, Soar and Leadon reached their lowest ever recorded levels in March. We are warning that the drought could last beyond Christmas.
Apparently, there was a very real worry that some reservoirs could dry up completely. Some areas would have no domestic water supply at all.
Well, this sure as hell ain’t the problem any more. Did anyone notice the news at the bottom of page 99 last week? All our reservoirs are now full to capacity! Yay!!
We needed this rain. It may not feel like it, but full reservoirs are slightly more important than a washed-out holiday.
2 Roger Federer
Federer in action at Wimbledon
Earlier this month, like many Brits, I was kind of hoping that Andy Murray would end ‘76 years of hurt’ and become the first man from these shores to win the Wimbledon Singles title since Fred Perry in 1936. In fact, 1936 was the third year in a row that Perry had won the title.
Murray didn’t win, of course. He lost to Roger Federer, truly a master of the sport, possibly the greatest tennis player of all time. I am so glad to have had the chance to see Federer play because he’s an artist. In ten years’ time, when all male tennis players are three metres tall, serving at 200 kilometres an hour and the game has lost its soul, we will look back with joy to think that we saw this Swiss genius in action.
Most of us have only seen Federer on TV, of course. Frankly, that is not a problem. The match with Murray was incredible to watch. Good sport is always incredible to watch on TV these days, because the technology is amazing. Another reason to be cheerful.
In fact, although people seem to find plenty to complain about, the fact is we’re living in a golden age of television – The Wire, The Sopranos, The Simpsons, House, Mad Men, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Lost – if there isn’t something in there that excites you, then TV isn’t your thing.
The Wire – the best of a good crop in TV’s new golden age
Oh, and there are some quite decent British TV shows, too!
If we can just do something about Fox News and other wildly inaccurate news providers, TV will indeed be a reason to be cheerful.
Actually, TV news in the UK DID get better this year. The live-screening of the Leveson Inquiry was a major reason to be cheerful. This is what happened….
3 The humbling of Rupert Murdoch and his cronies
Murdoch faces the Leveson Inquiry; at first arrogant, by the end just a little desperate…
I don’t know how much coverage the Leveson Inquiry has received in other countries. It’s an ongoing public inquiry into British media ethics after what became known as the phone hacking scandal, which initially focussed on the work of journalists from a Sunday newspaper called The News Of The World.
Lord Justice Leveson, the man who was asked by the government to set up the inquiry, widened its scope beyond phone-hacking to include allegations of illicit payments to police by the press, and further investigations into other aspects of the British media, particularly the relationship between the press and government ministers.
Prime Minister Cameron, who gave his consent for the inquiry to be set up, must have been astonished when he himself was called to give evidence. He had to do it, along with several other ministers and ministerial advisers.
Robert Jay, QC – Leveson inquisitor…
The undoubted star of the inquiry was (and still is at time of writing) a quietly-spoken barrister called Robert Jay, who has done most of the questioning. This small, bespectacled man is not only brilliantly prepared, extremely bright and articulate, he is also as persistent as a Rottweiler hanging on to a postman’s trouser leg. No one can get away with an airy generalisation for an answer.
I hope I’m not the only one who has enjoyed seeing all kinds of people, including Rupert Murdoch himself, looking desperately uncomfortable in the face of Jay’s calm, methodical questioning.
4 ELT professional development
OK, this one is just for English teachers. Anyone else can skip to number 5.
I’ve been involved in ELT for 40 years, so of course I’ve seen a lot of changes. But I honestly believe that the business of English teaching is going through a golden age at the moment. There are some terrific educators around and some great new ideas.
What makes things extra special is how available and accessible these educators and ideas are.
As recently as ten years ago, if you wanted to see an ELT ‘star’ talk about their work, you had to go to a conference, or to some special presentation arranged in your area. If you couldn’t afford to attend conferences, and you didn’t live in or near the cities where the presentations took place, that was that. No chance for that kind of professional development.
Conferences are getting better, and being there is still the best thing. But it is no longer the ONLY thing. Live-streaming has made it possible to at least sample the flavour of some of the bigger conferences on your computer screen. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes easier for smaller conferences to live-stream, too.
And between conferences, there are webinars and Eltchat. Personally, I think webinar technology has a way to go to be completely riveting, but all these things help bring people together and make teachers feel less isolated, especially the ones who don’t feel they have sympathetic colleagues.
ELTchat on twitter is also brilliant for helping teachers feel connected to the wider ELT community.
The most famous dog and owner in ELT
A special mention here for my friend Shelly Terrell, who manages to provide free weekly webinars about all kinds of ELT-related matters, no matter where she is. In April, I was at a party in London with Shelly and others. At the appointed time, Shelly took herself off into another room and did the webinar she had promised. What a trooper!
For information about Shelly’s webinars, go here - Http://Bit.ly/ELTLINKs
5 My daughter Anya’s blog
Anya’s blog
And blogs! Another reason to be cheerful. I’ve always been a disorganised, eclectic reader, and this is true of my professional development. I prefer reading snappy articles in magazines like English Teaching Professional and Modern English Teacher rather than the more worthy stuff in English Language Teaching Journal. Sorry if this makes me sound a bit superficial or if is upsets anyone who prefers to read the heavier stuff, but it’s the truth.
Following blog trails is completely random and exciting. And they open your mind to new ideas from young, enthusiastic teachers as well as crusty old gits like me and … well, you know who the other crusty old ELT blogger gits are.
But my favourite blog at the moment – surprise, surprise – is written by my daughter Anya Hayes.
Anya had a baby son this time last year and like all new parents, she and her husband Ben had to deal with the sudden changes and demands that these new circumstances require. Anya has also been setting up in business as a Pilates teacher.
She decided to blog about it all – the mix of parenthood, work and the other changes in her life.
I love the way she writes – I know, I WOULD say that, wouldn’t I? But the main thing about Anya’s blog posts is that they cheer me up, and I hope they do the same for other people who read them.
Anya’s baby is called Maurice, or Mo for short. When you know this, the title of the blog should make sense.
http://memoandjoepilates.wordpress.com
I hope you have taken some positives from my reasons to be cheerful, and I’d be really pleased if you add your own reason(s) in the comments below. Together we can banish the blues caused by a combination of terrible weather and even worse governments.
PS – My next blog post will feature the blogs of some ELT people I have encountered in the last couple of years, all of whom have something interesting to say. And I’ve asked them to identify a blog that they like reading, too. So two for the price of one, in all cases.
Teaching can be a tiring, frustrating and totally annoying business to be in, but there are definite plusses to dedicating one’s working life to it. One of the ways in which an old crusty like me maintains enthusiasm is by feeding off the energy and excitement of people that I meet.
I’ve been lucky enough to visit Brazil on a number of occasions, and every time I go there, I seem to meet yet more dynamic, enthusiastic teachers who enjoy their work and who light up the room when they walk in.
I have met dozens of teachers like this at conferences in Brazil, and I’ve asked a few of them to write about what they do and how they feel about their work. You will note how often words like passion/passionate, inspired, energized etc appear!
Most of the people below are also bloggers, and this is also my way of drawing your attention of blogs you might not have visited yet.
So, with apologies to all the other great Brazilian educators I’ve met who aren’t featured, here they are in their own words.
I am an Educational Technology Supervisor at Casa Thomas Jefferson, a Binational Center in Brasilia. Besides teacher training, I am in charge of the e-learning program, which started in 2007 and is in full steam. We are currently working on an m-learning program with the implementation of iPads in the classroom with student production in English as the core pedagogical premise. What I love the most about my job is to multiply what I’ve been learning with other teachers.
My professional life was turned upside down in 1995, when I first entered a class as an English teacher. At that time, I worked for the government. I simply couldn’t resist the call and quit my job to pursue my biggest passion in life, teaching. Since then, I’ve been learning every single day with my students and my co-workers, Plus, I feel inspired and re-energized with all I see and get from my online network made of tweetmates, Facebook pals, edubloggers, Pinterest network, Flickr photographers and educators.
I also owe a lot of who I am in my personal and professional sphere to a group of educators always ahead of their time, willing to share, collaborate and try out new pedagogies for the EFL/ESL classroom, the Webheads. Most of my development in the ELT world was due to what I learned with the Webheads, my friends at Casa Thomas Jefferson and my Personal Learning Network.
I really believe in the transformative power of education and the inspirational role of educators as agents of change and innovation, and technology has its merit when it comes to enhance students’ creativity and help them learn another language in a connected, hyperlinked world.
That’s why I love blogging. First, I listen and gather from my online community, and then I give my share to the educational world, talking about edtech, adding my lesson plans, and exploring new findings at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com and Twitter (@carlaarena).
Like many teachers I know, I started teaching English to make a little money while I was in college, getting a BA in graphic design. It was supposed to be a temporary thing, but little did I know I would fall in love with it. I never stopped teaching English after that.
I am very passionate about teaching and I believe in the changing power of education, the power to change people’s lives and make them better. I don’t see what I do as simply teaching my students a foreign language, it goes beyond that many times. I teach them skills, I help them develop as learners and as individuals. And I learn with them, and I develop as a teacher a learner and an individual as well. Teaching is a two-way process.
I think we can never stop learning – I certainly don’t want to! – and I have become involved in continuous professional development, online and offline. That’s something else I am passionate about. So I blog about teaching and ELT; I present and attend conferences around the world and online; I take courses; I give training sessions and workshops and more than anything I share and learn with other teachers, from all corners of the world. It’s been an amazingly enriching experience. I am especially interested in assessment, reflective teaching and the use of technology in education. I currently teach at a Binational Center in my hometown of Recife, Brazil.
Blog: http://cecilialcoelho.wordpress.com
Twitter: @CeciELT
I’m proud to say that I’ve been an ELT professional for 20 years.
I always dreamt of being a teacher (apart from when I was convinced I’d become a dentist, but that only lasted until I didn’t pass my Chemistry & Physics O levels). I trained as a primary teacher and took an initial EFL teacher training course at International House. On coming to Brazil, I began teaching at Cultura Inglesa, where I still work.
Today I run the teacher training/development department, something I began doing in 2007. I hope my work is still imbued with the same energy and wide-eyed passion as I had when I was in the classroom. I’m passionate about teaching. I am who I am today because of teachers who believed in my potential and allowed me to “bloom” at my own pace. This has been my principle and cornerstone as a teacher and as a teacher trainer/developer.
I love new professional challenges. I’m never happy just reading about something, I need to experiment with it personally, as I’m doing with integrating technology in the language classroom and using puppets.
I devote much of my time to supporting initiatives in the field of Brazilian ELT (Braz-Tesol Rio Chapter & National association, #BReltchat) because I believe in our profession.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/vbenevolofranca or @vbenevolofranca
Blog: http://valeriabfranca.wordpress.com/
I grew up in a family of teachers. My mum, two aunts, an uncle and two cousins were teachers. I vividly remember answering “anything but a teacher” when people asked me what I wanted to be in the future. The future, however, has come and here am I in the field of ELT for almost ten years. The same passion I have today began when first entered a classroom with a teacher’s guide in my arms. I felt no power, I felt no amusement. On the contrary, I felt free and liberated. I felt I could give wings to people who wanted to fly. And we flew!
I’m currently employed at Cultura Inglesa, Rio de Janeiro as a teacher and a consultant, developing projects related to technology. One thing I like to mention is that my whole perspective towards the teaching of English drastically changed when I opened my Twitter account and discovered the power of a PLN (Personal Learning Network). There are tens of thousands of teachers out there in the virtual world who are willing to share and collaborate, which immensely adds to our professional development. And that is what I feel most interested in ELT nowadays: the power of connections.
I have been experimenting with the use of technology in class for quite some time. However, as time passed by I realized that teachers need to have a better understanding of the implications of ICT in Language Learning. No piece of technology will teach our students, therefore I strongly believe that in order to reach the whole student we must aim at a way of using technology that humanizes our teaching, taking into account the unique needs of the human users.
I believe that a more humanistic framework concerning technology in class is that one that emphasizes strategies and techniques that promotes the integration and development of critical thinking skills, the fostering of student engagement and interaction, and the development of the sense of community.
You can follow my reflections at: www.edutechbrazil.blogspot.com
or on Twitter: @brunoELT
I’ve always had a passion for teaching, but I landed in ELT accidentally. I started teaching English as soon as I finished high school, so I was yet to turn 18. I’ve had the chance to work in different places and educational settings, but I found myself in the language classroom of language institutes.
Seven years ago, I had the chance to start my own language school with a very good friend of mine, also an English teacher. I’ve always looked at language teaching as something that goes beyond the language itself – it’s education in the complete sense.
Since then, I’ve been wearing many different hats, among which the ones of teacher, teacher trainer, material developer and director of studies. It’s a lot of hard work, for sure, but the reward is being sure that we’re doing something we believe in, and the results have been amazing. The most exciting part of having your own school is being able to implement all of your beliefs in language learning and put them to the test. Currently, I’m also the president of Braz-TESOL Brasília chapter, and together with a wonderful team we’ve put up a couple of great seminars for teachers in Brasília.
I started blogging a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t sure how long it would last. There are many fantastic ELT blogs out there, and I didn’t know if I’d stand a chance. However, I found in it a great opportunity to reflect on my teaching practices and find a group of like-minded educators who also share the same passion for language teaching and learning.
I do hope one day I’ll have the chance to meet each and every one of them for more pictures as this one, in which you can see some people who inspire me in my teaching career (Ken Wilson, Valéria Benevolo, Shelly Terrell, and Carla Arena).
It was one of those rare moments that comes perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, a moment when you know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life, and that happened some twenty years ago.
Nobody was more surprised than I was. Long before that, I had wanted to become a pilot, had pictured myself in a bottle-green army uniform and had vowed that I’d be nothing else but the best doctor in the whole world.
Silly me. At the age of 19, I knew it. I wanted to teach and that meant lots of hard work, moments of disbelief, tears, dusty books, shiny gadgets and many, many people who’d be willing to place their future in my hands, people who trusted me enough to sit for hours in my class. Listening to, speaking, experimenting with and discovering a new language.
I am thankful for those moments of trust and for my students. They’ve made me a better learner; they’ve made me who I am. I am a teacher and an Ed-tech consultant at Cultura Inglesa, one of the largest language schools in Brazil. I am a happy professional and I believe in the power of sharing best practices and investigating possible new ways to optimize learning and teaching.
I believe language is alive, and so is the classroom. And no lesson will ever be like another. I blog and tweet, I scoop and socialize, and all those things have made me a better teacher.
Joss Whedon said, “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping… waiting… and though unwanted… unbidden… it will stir… open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us… guides us… passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?”
I can tell you, what other choice do I have but to teach?
Mind you, I have worn a bottle-green army uniform, have been in the cockpit of a plane and had to use my first-aid talent to help a friend, and all that because I chose to be a teacher.
Giselle Santos www.feedtheteacher.blogspot.com
Twitter @feedtheteacher
And finally, a token foreigner 
I am a teacher trainer, MA dissertation supervisor, ELT publishing professional and I speak at conferences in Brazil and other countries. I am also an enthusiast of the use of social media for Continuous Professional Development.
I began teaching English in 1989, in Brazil, and have taught all ages and levels, having run my own language school, as well as having worked with ESP and designed and delivered post-graduate courses in translation/interpreting. After working for seven years with International Publishers and for four years with the British Council throughout Latin America, I am currently Educational Partnerships Manager for the publishing department of the Cultura Inglesa chain of schools.
I am passionate about education as a path to global citizenship, including the promotion of English as a tool for social inclusion and access to opportunities for both personal and professional growth. Fortunately, my job enables me to observe teachers all over Brazil on a regular basis, so I am constantly motivated by colleagues to reinvent myself as an ELT professional and question my own assumptions about HOW language acquisition takes place!
I’ve been active on twitter since 2009 and enjoy learning daily from my ever-increasing PLN.
Twitter: @grammylatino
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/grammylatino
Yeditepe University in Istanbul will be hosting the With or Without Technology conference in a couple of weeks’ time and I’m very pleased to have been invited to give a talk there.
I have been lucky enough to make working visits to Turkey more than a dozen times in the last ten years. Most of these visits have been to ELT conferences and I am constantly amazed at the friendliness, enthusiasm and openness to new ideas shown by Turkish teachers – well, the ones who come to conferences, anyway.
In that time, I have also met some really excellent Turkish teacher-presenters, a lot of whom are into stuff that I know very little about, particularly how to use technology in the classroom. There seem to be thousands of ELT bloggers based in Turkey, too.
I’m really pleased to see that they have also begun to spread their ideas internationally by appearing at conferences outside their native land.
The last IATEFL UK conference in Glasgow had the usual gang of enthusiastic young Turks, so I asked some of them to write a little about what they do and to give details of their blogs. I extended the invitation to some others who weren’t there, and also to a couple of non-Turks who work there.
So, here they are, talking about themselves. I hope you enjoy reading about what they do.
I am an EFL teacher, international speaker, a teacher trainer, Voki team ambassador, Cambridge University speaking examiner and blogger.
I have taught adults, young and very young learners since 2002 and currently I am teaching kindergarteners aged 3-6 at a private foundation school in Istanbul.
I strongly believe in the power of combining web-based technologies and story-telling as they are both engaging and fun ways for teaching and learning. I have a blog where I share my ideas and experiences. Since 2008, I have had a twitter account where I have built and continue to build my personal network, learning from and sharing with colleagues and friends from all over the world.
Twitter: @ekamin
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ekkamin
Blog: http://esraakiskali.edublogs.org/
I’ve been teaching English for more than twenty years. I love my job very much. I love learning too, so I attend PD courses and conferences as often as I can. Three years ago, I stepped into social media a little reluctantly, and then I started blogging.
Why was I reluctant? I was wondering whether it was a good idea to keep a personal blog or not as there were so many great bloggers out there whom I admired very much. I was just a teacher, what could I share? Yet, the challenge was there and I took it.
Once I started, my blog decided what kind of blog it would become. I love keeping a blog because I share ideas, lesson plans, I collaborate with classrooms over the world, I ask for advice, I reflect on my teaching and I see where I am going. In short, my blog is my voice. It is my journey in teaching.
A Journey in TEFL http://evasimkesyan.edublogs.org
Twitter @evab2001
I was born in Germany into a Turkish immigrant family in 1971. It was there that I picked up my first words of English in the early 80s from Heavy Metal songs by Iron Maiden and the Scorpions. I remember trying to figure out what these guys were so angry about and discovered that they were actually talking about some really interesting and cool topics.
We returned to Turkey in 1986, and I was not very happy about it because my Turkish was not that good since I had only spoken Turkish at home. However, I was happy to discover that my English was better than my high school teacher and I became the guy to sit next to in exams!
In 1997, I completed my experimental MATEFL thesis on Computer Assisted Language Instruction. I was fascinated about the idea of using computers in the language classroom because when I had my first computer in high school, everybody was telling me that it would help me learn better. I was playing only games, but I guess that also had a huge impact on my language skills!
I started working at Yeditepe University in 1999, and I’ve been Educational Technologies Advisor and Administrator there since 2010.
I am very interested in Web 2.0 applications and classroom technologies because I believe that the learning habits of today’s learner have changed radically and that we have to address those habits. That’s why I am working on finding new ways and approaches in language teaching and instruction.
My take on using Prezi (http://prezi.com) in the reading class is a direct attempt to make teachers aware of the different options the Internet provides for language teachers. I want to make teacher aware of the different learning environments the Internet can provide for students.
http://teach-me-tech.blogspot.com/
I work as an EFL instructor at Ozyegin University School of Language Instruction. I worked as an EFL instructor at Bahcesehir University for six years and as a materials developer for some language courses before that. My MA thesis is on Online Communities of Practice. I have been a member of Webheads in Action for five years.
I have co-moderated some Electronic Village Online sessions and done workshops, talks and webinars both in national and international conferences.
I have always considered learning as a never-ending journey and I believe that in order to cope with the increasing amount of information and to keep up to date, we need to look for alternative ways of professional development. Therefore, I look for different options and try to turn the challenges into opportunities both in classroom teaching and professional development.
As a result, I believe that utilizing the Internet for both of these purposes is extremely important for life-long learning and equipping learners and teachers with twenty-first century skills sets. I consider research to be a very important part of this teacher development process. My research interests cover teacher development, multi-literacies, use of Web 2.0 tools in language teaching and professional development, Online Communities of Practice, instructional design and learner autonomy.
I work as an ICT Coordinator at Yildiz Technical University, School of Foreign Languages in Istanbul and I’m studying for an MA in Educational Technology and TESOL with the University of Manchester. I also work as a teacher trainer, and have conducted various ICT training courses in pre-schools, high schools, and universities.
I am also organizing an ELT conference entitled Wired In or Out: Web Technologies in ELT Classrooms – Evaluating Current & Future Practice, which I am immensely looking forward to. It will take place in Istanbul in December.
You can follow me on twitter as @isilboy and on my blog, http://isilboy.edublogs.org/, where I share educational technology resources.
Contact me whenever you need help. Isn’t teaching about helping others, anyway? 
I would like to extend my special thanks to Ken for this great opportunity; he is always supportive, encouraging and inspiring!
I am an English teacher, teacher trainer and educational consultant in teaching young/very young learners and teaching with web-based technologies for international organizations, schools and institutes worldwide.
I am the main author, songwriter and the educational coordinator of the Minigon ELT books that aim to teach English to young learners though stories. I am also working for Mindactiva in the USA as the content and story coordinator of the Yes, I Speak English DVD series that’s designed to give EFL children a jump-start in English. I am the script and screenplay writer of these DVD series and I am developing a course book for the DVDs at the moment.
I have been developing animations, digital games and smart phone applications with my young learners for the last four years.
I have won many awards for my work, including the Medea Creativity and Innovation award and the ESU Cambridge University New Writing Award, which earned me a visit to Buckingham Palace to receive my award from the Duke of Edinburgh.
I am also a nominee for this year’s British Council ELTons awards with my Bubble and Pebble project. I have a blog where I write about teaching English through technology and web-based tools. I am teaching in kindergarten at the moment and enjoying every minute of it.
My blog: www.ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org
My Twitter handle: www.twitter.com/ozge or @ozge
I’m an English teacher who thinks that learning never ends and the passion for sharing and inspiring is key to being a good teacher. I’ve been in this profession for eleven years and I consider my job as a great opportunity to make a difference, and this gives me an increasingly strong sense of satisfaction. Our profession is becoming more and more challenging since the conventional education systems do not meet today’s students needs and interests. I aim to develop my teaching, training and management skills continuously and help other teachers overcome the challenges and turn them into opportunities.
I started teaching English part-time in summer camps and private schools while I was still studying at university and I’ve been teaching professionally for two years now. I’ve taught English to many different age levels, from five to forty-five. Currently, I’m teaching primary level students and also university students in a language school.
I love music and sports. And I can see the effects of my hobbies on my teaching. I play the guitar and the keyboard, so I use these instruments whenever I’m teaching a new song. I like moving and action and my students and me often do activities where you can move, dance, play and etc.
I developed an interest in using web 2.0 tools in the classroom, but I don’t want to put it at the centre of my teaching. I enjoy integrating literature, music, drama & role-play and arts & crafts into my teaching.
I started writing a blog in November 2011 and so far I’m loving it. My adult learners also wanted to blog as I keep talking about blogging.
I see myself giving presentations at conferences very soon.
Twitter: @NihallYildirim
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nilayildirim
Blog: http://nihalyildirim.wordpress.com
I don’t technically fit into the ‘Turk’ category (but would like to include myself in the ‘young’ part for a while yet!) hailing as I do from Staffordshire in the UK. However, I’ve been in Turkey long enough to qualify for bizden oldun artık (you’re one of us now) status.
Apart from a brief stint in Barcelona, where I earned my Trinity TESOL certificate, I’ve spent my teaching career in Ankara, first working at a dershane (language school for adults) before taking the plunge and into the young learner domain. Ten years on, I’m still working with the little angels in a private college and am now on the verge of completing an MA in EdTech and TESOL via the University of Manchester.
As well as my studies, I’m interested in effectively applying technology in the classroom and through blending learning programmes, autonomous learning and materials-light, student-driven (though not pure dogme) learning experiences.
I’m also active on the busy Turkish conference circuit. I try to bring all of these experiences together with a bit of critical reflection on my blog Reflections of a Teacher and Learner (www.davedodgson.com) and you can also find me on Twitter @DaveDodgson.
Like Dave, I’m an honorary member of the posse, both in the ‘young’ and in the ‘Turk’ sense. I’ve been here for twelve years now and love the place more than ever. Having swapped Yorkshire for Istanbul, that’s not too hard, though!
I’ve spent all of my time here working in the tertiary education sector, preparing students for academic life in English-medium universities. I got qualified here initially and managed to land my first job in the same building where I took the CELTA. Since then I haven’t looked back and enjoy my chosen career as much as ever, although it is getting increasingly tough to see the students staying the same age while I get one year older each academic year.
In the past three or four years, I’ve been really growing into the job of teaching – it took that long – and now feel confident to take a regular place on the conference circuit here in Turkey. A big part of this confidence has been a result of the fantastic friendships I’ve made and the goodwill I’ve received since I started blogging about my everyday life as a teacher in a foreign country.
My main goal as a teacher remains trying to make a positive impact on the lives of those I teach, which I feel goes beyond merely improving their language skills.
https://www.facebook.com/theadamsimpson
https://twitter.com/yearinthelifeof
http://www.yearinthelifeofanenglishteacher.com
PS I meant to add a dictionary definition for ‘Young Turk’, so here’s one:
It must be a nice feeling to win something, but I wouldn’t know…
When I wrote my last blog, I had just received one of those notifications that basically said You’ve been nominated for this really exciting ELT blog award, which is actually a cover for some commercial venture – aren’t you excited?
Well, yes, I WAS excited the first time I received a nomination for one of these awards a couple of years ago. At that time, I immediately went to the site and checked out the blogs who had also been nomimated in the same category. I visited some of them for the first time. I thought some of them were great.
So the pro-blog award people are right, the system DOES mean that we get to visit blogs we might not have heard about before.
Some of the nominated bloggers were people I already followed on twitter. What happened next was that a number of them started pitching for votes on that very same social media site.
I realised that if I didn’t do the same, I would be left behind. And like anyone, I don’t like to be left behind!
So I wrote a tweet advertising the blog awards and writing a typically English self-deprecating appeal for votes for me. All in 140 characters. A model of efficient self-advertising.
I read the tweet, realised that I didn’t actually WANT to self-promote in this way, and deleted it. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t win the award. Also unsurprisingly, the winner was someone who had relentlessly and repeatedly self-promoted on twitter.
When I got nominated this time, I wrote about my misgivings about the whole idea, here, on twitter and on Facebook.
In the subsequent conversations that took place, there were a number of pro-award comments. How are people supposed to find out about blogs if their attention isn’t drawn to them in this way? The very point I made above, and one that has to be answered.
I suggested we should all promote blogs we had found that were worth a visit. Not a new idea, lots of people have already done this, but a nice bottom-up system to promote good writing, good thinking and good people.
So this is what I’m going to do in my next blog post, with a slight twist.
A lot of teacher-presenters from Turkey have been making their mark at ELT conferences in the past couple of years. Some of them have been pushing the boundaries of the use of technology in the classroom. All of them have been engaging presenters and fun people to meet on the circuit. A lot of them are bloggers. Most of them are quite young (well, from where I’m standing they’re ALL young!) and they are all very enthusiastic about their work.
I asked a few of them to write something about themselves, and to advertise their blogs, too.
So this is my way of advertising a new set of blogs that you might want to read.
The Young Turks are coming to a computer near you. Very soon!
Four of the Turkish bloggers who will feature in my next post
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