TDSIG Blog
A tale from Tuzla
By Elma Velić Bešić Being a teacher carries a lot of weight and responsibilities, as well as joy and laughter, long hours and many unsolvable problems, great and bad days, but mostly a lot of paperwork. I read somewhere that if you want to work in administration with...
Accountability: are we developing?
CPD ideas that may keep you moving by Marcela Cintra One of the biggest challenges in English language teaching is guaranteeing continuous professional development. Often times, teachers complain about the demands of the teaching profession and the lack of time...
My interview with Adrian Underhill
By Tyson Seburn The TDSIG pre-conference event at this year's IATEFL in Manchester was well into its afternoon activities. Our main speakers had problematized and illuminated; our attendees were putting into action the law of two feet; and our Divya was a half-dozen...
Accountability: are we teaching?
The TDSIG Blog is up running again after a busy #IATEFL Conference this year. Huge thanks to all our readers who have been sharing the posts and, especially to those who got in touch with us, we love hearing from you! We are very proud today to showcase the writing of...
Problematizing for teacher development
by Tyson Seburn The highlights of our TDSIG PCE day for me were inspired by its overarching theme from the morning talks which fueled much of the afternoon Open Space sessions: the development that can derive from problematisation. Why? How? Yes, those are the...
Peer-motivated teachers
by Anthony Gaughan One challenge that arose from the open space conversations was how to encourage teachers to engage in CPD, and especially the recording of this development for governmental purposes, when there are no obvious financial motivations for doing...
Thoughts on teacher training from our SIG members
Riin Kont-Kontson TTK University of Applied Sciences My initial teacher training prepared me for….sorry my mind went blank trying to finish this sentence. To be honest, everything I have learned has come from my practice as a university lecturer- there I have...
What can you do when everyone loves your work but you?
by Tyson Seburn Anthony Gaughan wonders how often we are applauded as though our teaching is perfect. Regarding the context of his teacher training experience in Germany, he notes how much his practice had become a finely tuned machine. In this apparent perfection,...
‘The ideal candidate should be…’ The Native Speaker – Non-Native Speaker Debate.
by Higor Cavalcante In our third talk of the day, our facilitator, Higor Cavalcante gave a brilliant, witty talk on deep issues of prejudice and avoidance that we need to address in our field of ELT. He drew on quotes from well-known authors and speakers in the field,...