DEVELOPING TEACHERS.COM Newsletter

Welcome to the September Newsletter.

The holidays are in sight for us - hence the early delivery this month. We're off for a couple of weeks of beach, snorkelling, food & relaxing. For those of you who also subscribe to the Weekly Tip, it will be back on Monday 15th September.

Before we go, here's the slightly abbreviated September offering - articles, plans & a review plus a few links to both teacher-related & non-teaching related stuff.

If you have a lesson plan, an article, a training session -anything that might be interesting for an ELT-teacher audience, please send it in to mailto:articles@developingteachers.com .

Fancy a DOS job & China? There's a DOS job going in Qingdao, China. Contact Mark for details - see the Job section below.

Happy teaching!

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INDEX

1. THE SITE - plans & articles

2. FORUMS

3. E-MAIL COURSES

4. TEACHING LINKS

5. CVs & JOBS

6. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS

7. PS - Internet/computer-related links

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ADVERTISEMENT

STREAMING SPEECH: A Course in Listening and Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English - An electronic publication that aims to solve the problem of the misrepresentation of speech. http://www.speechinaction.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

If you'd like to buy a Streaming Speech course you will receive a discount if you tell Richard you heard about it at Developing Teachers.com!

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1. THE SITE

The new articles on the site:

Education: Crisis and Criticism by Dimitrios Thanasoulas

In their seminal book, "Language and Ideology," Hodge and Kress (1979: vii) say that 'disciplines, unlike cows, yield least when most contented' - and theirs is a legitimate contention. The very moment something, anything, be it a theory, a philosophical system, or a relationship between two individuals, is taken for granted, it is vitiated; it becomes fractured and cannot yield anything. For some people, what is taken for granted may have been exalted to the status of an axiom, which obviates,
even pre-empts, the need for constant negation and reconstruction. Yet, axioms are the result of a long and rigorous process of such reconstruction; they are not mere labels tacked onto theories and things. Rather, it is on the basis of the Hegelian notion of Aufhebung that process can be made. Knowledge is a negation on a previous negation (a process that I call crisis), and the attempt to examine the validity and viability of previous knowledge paves the way for new knowledge (a process that I
call criticism). Apparently, criticism generates crisis and crisis necessitates criticism. In the present paper, we will draw our attention to a number of theories, notions and contentions that permeate pedagogical practices, approaching them from a, more or less, critical perspective.

To read the article

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Developing Grammar at Upper Intermediate Level by Sam Smith

Introduction Evaluating my experience of teaching grammar, I have realised that it has been an area I have paid too little attention to in general. In this paper, I hope to set out an outline of theoretical and practical ideas for me to follow, with a particular focus at upper intermediate level, when focusing on grammar and when practising it. I hope to do this by answering the following questions.

What is grammar? Why do we need it? Should it be taught? What happens if we don't pay enough attention to it? What does learning it involve? Some points to keep in mind when teaching it. How should we go about teaching it?

To read the article

The lesson plan is for upper intermediate students & the aims are as follows:

Main Aims:
To raise awareness of 'would' and 'used to' signify repeated actions and habits in the past, 'used to' for states and past simple for 'one off' events.
To provide receptive (aural and written) and productive (spoken) practice of above forms.
To highlight the difference between 'used to' in the past and the present.

Subsidiary Aims:
To practice listening for checking predictions and for overall understanding.
To practice perception and production of target language in connected speech, with attention to weak forms.
To provide personalised spoken practice in the context of past habits and repeated actions.

To read the plan

Thanks to Dimitrios & Sam.

If you've given a course or seminar or have a lesson plan & would like to give it a public airing then do send it to:

mailto:articles@developingteachers.com

ADVERTISING - We reach a few thousand teachers every week with the Weekly Teaching Tip & the same each month with the Newsletter, not to mention the 1000+ unique visitors a day to the site. If you've got a book, course, job...anything that you'd like to advertise, then do get in touch at:

mailto:advertising@developingteachers.com

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2. FORUMS

Lots of different Forums to choose from. Post your jobs, your CV, your questions, finds on the net, ideas, activities, questions, grumbles, suggestions, your language courses, your training courses...they are there for you to use.

http://foro.developingteachers.com/

Kracker writes: Could someone explain the usefulness of spending time on 'process writing'? It seems that it is much more than a quick brainstorm, a quick draft, corrections & then the final piece of writing. I'm not sure I have much time for more than this in my classes.

Any ideas? http://foro.developingteachers.com/viewtopic.php?t=249

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3. E-MAIL COURSES

Relax & maximise your time by getting started on a quality personalised teacher development course.

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4. TEACHING LINKS

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tl/

'... over 785 examples of how the web is being used as a medium for learning. Just how can the web be used for something more than surfing, chatting, making money, or idly wasting time? Can it provide an environment for learning? We found that people learn well from examples, so we created for our faculty this collection of the ways the web was being used in different disciplines. This searchable collection includes sites that range from courses delivered entirely via the web to courses that offer specific activities related to a class assignment or perhaps courses that offer class support materials via the web. '

http://www.lessonplanspage.com

LessonPlansPage.com - over 2000 free lesson plans from mainstream US site.

We received this in the mail: Thought you would like to know about The Language Show, which is happening on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th November at the Novotel, Hammersmith, London. There is an extensive exhibition, full conference and interactive seminars. Conference topics include: methods and resources for primary school language teaching, ICT in the classroom, training and recruitment for language teachers, and the National Language Strategy at Key Stage 4. Please let me know if you need
any more information, 020 7736 4022. Best wishes Abigail Fulbrook mailto:abigailfulbrook@clareville.co.uk

http://onelook.com/

Think of this web site as a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, we'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, we'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook(r) search engine.

http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/advice/V1.htm

Vocabulary learning from the Language Centre at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

http://www.ruthvilmi.net/hut/EST/

If you teach English for Science & Technology, Ruth Vilmi has put together a helpful page of links.

http://www.madsci.org/

One of the links on Ruth's site was to the Mad Scientist Network - Welcome to the laboratory that never sleeps! MadSci Network represents a collective cranium of scientists providing answers to your questions. For good measure we provide a variety of oddities and other ends as well.

http://www.ddc.com/cheferic/gloss.htm

For those budding cooks amongst your students - a glossary of culinary terms.

http://www.agameaday.com/

Lots of word games.

http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/7608/index.html

Sayings & Everyday Expressions - explained.

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BUYING BOOKS? If you're going to Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk then please go through our Books page. You will pay the same & we will receive a few pennies to keep the site & newsletters free. Thanks.

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ADVERTISEMENT

ENGLISH IN CAMBRIDGE

If you or your students are thinking of the UK for an English language course then The New School of English in Cambridge should be at the top of the list of schools to consider.

Here are a few reasons for choosing The New School of English

- centrally located in the city of Cambridge
- small enough to provide very personal attention to our students in the classroom
- accommodation and in their social activities
- no large numbers of one nationality
- self-catering residential accommodation in the summer for students who want more independence

If you mention that you found them at Developing Teachers.com, you'll get a 5% discount on the course fees. To visit their web site:

http://www.newschool.co.uk/index.htm

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5. WEEKLY TEACHING TIPS

Free weekly practical teaching tips by e-mail.

Recent Tips have included:
- SQ3R - study skills on approaching extended reading
- Getting personal - a look at personalisation
- Grade the reader - using class readers
- Get with the rhythm - introducing rhythm to our students

As we're off for a couple of weeks, the Tip will be resumed on Monday 15th September.

To see the Past Tips

To sign up to receive them

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6. CVs & JOBS

Vivien is looking for ELT work has posted her CV in the Forums. To check all of the CVs out: http://foro.developingteachers.com/viewforum.php?f=18

Metro Education, Shanghai, is seeking qualified native speakers with experience of teaching in companies or for Business English examinations. Good conditions and pay rates are being offered for this work in central Shanghai. Full-time and part-time opportunities available now, August 2003. Please contact Eileen Crawley on 021-6391 0881. mailto:eileen.crawley@metro-education.com

Director of Studies - China
International House Qingdao International House Qingdao is looking for a DOS to start as soon as possible. Must be DELTA qualified, preferably with IELTS examiner status. We are also looking for teachers with at least 2 years post-Celta experience for our new school in Beijing. For more information contact Mark Falvo at: recruitment@ihqd.com

Beijing, China
Are you an English teacher or an early childhood education specialist? Are you a native English speaker or is your accent very close to that of a native speaker? Are you looking for a unique teaching experience? Do you enjoy travel and adventure?
If you answered YES to these questions, please read on. If you qualify, Ewas International can offer you a one-year appointment to teach children in Beijing , China.
Conditions: 1.$1000 a month salary + $1000 bonus at the end of the year. (Food and transportation and clothing and many other items you need on a daily basis are relatively inexpensive in China. Your dollar will go a long way.) 2.One-year contract with option to renew. 3.Round-trip fare paid. 4.Free furnished apartment 5.Half of health insurance paid by employer and half paid by the teacher. International EFL experts recommend EWAS programs!
There are many advantages in working in the EWAS network schools. These advantages will make your overseas teaching adventure memorable, enjoyable and successful. EWAS offers a series of four original programs of English-language instruction suitable for children aged 2-11. All EWAS programs are original and exclusive to EWAS schools. Each EWAS program includes storybooks, activity books, story and music CDs, and songbooks. Each program features an original story with EWAS characters and original music and lyrics. EWAS provides teachers with a complete set of teacher props and a handbook with hundreds of pages of detailed lesson plans for each program. EWAS provides teachers with an intensive 40-hour training program in the EWAS methodology as well. We invite you to check out our website: http://www.ewasintl.com/ We will respond to qualified applicants only. We look forward to hearing from you. Contact us at: mailto:roni_ewas@hotmail.com

For the Jobs Forum
http://foro.developingteachers.com/viewforum.php?f=8

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CAMBRIDGE ESOL TEACHER TRAINING COURSES
Train in Spain - Courses running in the near future at the British Language Centre in Madrid:

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Full-time four-week courses, next courses October & November
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Very high pass rates on both courses. June '03 DELTA results - excellent!

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Reasonably priced accommodation can be arranged for the duration of all courses.

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7. PS - Internet/computer-related links

http://www.freewebs.com/singulingua/index.htm

The Singulingua Project - interesting idea but doesn't seem to be taking the world by storm.

http://www.colormatch.dk/

You need to match some colours?

http://www.wig-wag-trains.com/UPFire/UPFire.htm

Bad day for Union Pacific - good for predictions?

http://www.20q.net/

20 questions anyone?

http://www.mensa.org/workout.html

Take the Mensa workout.

http://www.buzzwordometer.com

'It's the ultimate tool for scoring and ranking web pages by their Buzzosity a measurement of buzzword density. Buzzwordometer will examine any page you submit, and give it a score on the industry-standard Buzzosity index. If you suspect a website is full of waffle, meaningless techno-babble, marketing drivel and other such nonsense, submit it to Buzzwordometer.'

http://www.drivershq.com/

You need drivers? - this is the place to go.

http://www.burzurq.com/forum/delindex.html

The primary purpose of Delindex is to delete Index.dat files which are never resized, and only get bigger. These files contain all your web surfing history since they were (re)created, and large index.dat files can cause performance issues with browsing. Index.dat files cannot be deleted if Explorer is running. The secondary purpose is to delete junk files for reasons of space, privacy, and performance. Delindex is "stand-alone" program and requires no installation and no other files to run. All
notes are within the program, so there are no separate ReadMe or Help files.