The TEFL Industry
A rotting, putrid, stinking corpse
EFL teachers are put into positions of authority and responsibility, most at a time in their lives when they have yet to learn what it means to be responsible. EFL teachers must learn to teach properly. They must learn to love their work. They must learn to see it as a mission and an honor. They must learn to be accountable for their actions, or their inactions. In essence, they must learn to become fuller human beings.
On Reading
Is the golden age of reading truly over?
Now we have new communications mediums that, firstly, are more naturally intriguing to the human brain – they offer images, moving, real-time pictures, and sound all at the same time.
A noble profession
Postbox letter from CMP
A teacher's job is not much different from a doctor's or a lawyer's. All three require expertise in the area you're practicing extensively. All three have their students', patients' or clients' lives in their hands.
Notes on a semester
What can you do when teaching starts to get you down?
How can I or any teacher that feels he's underachieving turn things around? I doubt there is any magic formula, but I've come up with a few ideas. Many of them are blindingly obvious but it's often the easy points we miss during difficult classes.
A very bad day indeed
Today was one of the most unpleasant in my four years plus of teaching
My problem was discipline. You see, I've been teaching for over four years and until today I had only received two complaints.
An Indian teacher in Thailand
Bobo Meitei faces the perils and pitfalls of finding a teaching job
Bobo gets to grips with sliding pay scales and agents bemused by his pseudo-American appearance. Well worth a read!
Colored education
The road to becoming a teacher
Bobo Metei came to Thailand as a fresh graduate on the lookout for different things. So being a young man with little money in his pocket, he decided to take up teaching.
Book review
Bangkok Exit
As a refreshing change from someone writing about their ten years of hell in a Thai prison, you might want to take a look at Bangkok Exit written by Ryan Humphreys. Ryan gives readers a humorous warts 'n' all account of his first year teaching in Thailand at Sathit Wittaya School.
The end (sort of)
Reflections on a last decade
It has been a long and interesting decade. When I applied for my first passport I was still living in a car. I imagined that an overseas teaching job might get me off the streets. I ended up teaching homeless and illiterate Americans instead as an VISTA volunteer. This is how I acquired the taste for classrooms.
We don't learn like that!
Arrogance at the top and the politics of language schools
I realize that many language schools have a huge problem listening to their teachers, especially the native English teachers. It's as if they want us to shut up and tow the party line; don't rock the boat; don't try to fix things. How is anything suppose to change for the better in an atmosphere like that? It's not enough for many language schools to tell us what to teach; they also feel they need to tell us what to think. It's their way or the highway.
