Category: teaching
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Shut up and just listen: taming the problem-solving teacher
Here it is Friday afternoon, and I find myself feeling out of sorts, wandering around the house, somewhat aimlessly. The reason? I’m obsessing over a class I had this week. Why? Well, I’m not proud of how I reacted and in fact, I’m tired of reacting this way. Here’s the deal: at the start of […]
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One Crisis, Three Questions
Going into Week 8 of confinement, how’s the morale? I don’t know for you, but for me it’s been such a roller-coaster of emotions! Sometimes, I feel short-tempered and irritable (especially when watching the news or reading other people’s reactions to government decisions). Then I swing to frustration at not being able to go running […]
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Clarity in confinement?
It’s important to say things as they are. Love is the opposite of avoidance. And so, it is important to be able to say things as they are, beginning with our fears. (Boris Sirbey) I read that piece of wisdom this morning in a LinkedIn article entitled Le hamster épris de ciel bleu (The Hamster […]
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Outer mess, inner stress?
“Tell me something you don’t like”, I asked my student. “I don’t like when things are messy.” “”Really”, I responded, “why? “ I don’t know.” “Okay, well, what does it make you feel?” “No idea.” “You just don’t like it. You prefer when things are in their place, organized, structured?” “Yes, let’s say I arrive […]
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ESL Mixologist: What’s the deal?
I am never just teaching an English class! I am on the lookout for new insights or epiphanies I may have while talking about vocab, grammar or functional language. ESL Mixologist is all about my journey as an ESL teacher who just can’t get over the serendipitous glimpses into the parallel universe of philosophy while […]
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Have you connected today?
People matter. With those two words, American psychologist, Chris Peterson, summarized his life research on how to enable people to go from surviving to thriving, discovering and pursuing what really what makes life worth living for them. In the Huffington Post Canadian edition today, publishes a video with the astounding title: The most connected generation […]
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In Honour of Father’s Day
How many ways do you know how to say father in English? Three? Five? More?! I thought it would be à propos on this Father’s Day (note that it is Father’s, the day of father, as opposed to Fathers, plural, the day of/for fathers) to write a post on that precise question, and perhaps provide […]
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In a rut? Maybe it’s time to follow Sarah’s Script!
“ But I don’t want to follow the script! I hate scripts.”, I commented emphatically to a colleague while discussing a professional experience I had had a few years ago. “Me neither”, agreed my colleague Sarah, “Whenever I try a new recipe, I can’t just follow the instructions, I have to add my own personal […]
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Wishes, hopes and regrets (or: where’s the magic?)
This week, we were up to the unit on conditionals, and I noticed the caption Wish and Hope in the class activity book. My imagination went wild immediately; although, be honest: isn’t the topic of wishes and hopes enough to make any introverted, creative individual diverge into an ecstatic reverie? Wishes… hopes… palm trees swaying […]
CLAIRE MARIA FORD 