An Innovation-Ready Generation

... “because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge.

To read the entire article, click on the following link: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/friedman-need-a-job-invent-it.html?_r=0

AM I READY TO BE A TEACHER TRAINER?

Experienced teachers sometimes ask themselves the question, 'Am I ready to be a teacher trainer?' They may ask in response to a request from a boss to run a workshop, in response to seeing a job advertisement, or in response to their own desire to keep developing and moving on in their professional field.

Each individual needs to answer the question for themselves, of course. But in this article, I’ll provide a few areas you might like to think about when turning the question over in your mind. 

These are:

1. What do you need in order to be any kind of teacher?
2. Do you need anything more in order to train, educate or mentor other teachers?
3. How can I judge if I’m ready to be a teacher trainer?

To read the rest of the article, click the following link:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/am-i-ready-be-a-teacher-trainer

THE CHALLENGE OF MIXED ABILITIES by Norman Whitney

After I have spoken to teachers about my work, teachers often say to me something like "Thanks for the talk. But you don't understand. Here, we have a lot of mixed ability classes". To which my reply is something like "But I do understand. Which teacher – in any part of the world – doesn't have mixed ability classes? Mixed ability classes are the norm, not the exception. So you are not alone!" 

And there is another point, though I must confess that I do not always say this openly. It is this: just as students come with mixed abilities, so do teachers. No one is perfect, or equally good at everything. Students have good days and bad days, and so do teachers. Teachers have things that they like to teach, and things that they don't. In my own case, I like teaching stories, reading, and even pronunciation. But teaching writing scares me to death! Consequently I am not very good at or confident about teaching writing. Therefore I have my own 'teacher mixed ability' to deal with, as well as the mixed ability levels of my students. And like all teachers and students, I find that if I am well, I perform much better than if I have toothache! 

To read the rest of the article, click the link below:

http://elt.oup.com/teachers/articles/mixed_abilities?view=Standard&cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub

Teaching Listening: From Comprehension to Acquisition

Professor Jack C. Richards examines the two functions of listening in language learning: listening as comprehension and listening as acquisition.

http://fdslive.oup.com/www.oup.com/elt/general_content/articles/teaching_listening.pdf?cc=us&selLanguage=en&mode=hub