Top 10 Books for 2009





As we near the end of 2009, a look back at what we thought were the best publications of the year seems in order.

After a fair bit of discussion, we have whittled the new offerings of 2009 down to our Top 10.

And the winners are (in no particular order...)

• 50 Ways to Improve your Intercultural Skills
• The Developing Teacher
• English for Academic Study (series - couldn't just pick one they are all so great)
• Images
• Real Grammar
• Teaching Chunks of Language
• Teaching Unplugged
• Transferable Academic Skills Kit
• Vocabulary Matrix
• Word Knowledge

From Dogme, to lexis & corpora to academic culture, these resources stand out as unique and valuable contributions to our industry.

Packed with engaging activities, solid and useful information and presented in accessible formats, they have all earned honoured spots on our shelves.

Learn more about all these titles and why we love each one.

Since we are equally devoted to sharing these books as we are to raving about them, we are very happy to say that these titles are included in our end of year sale.

So make sure you stock up on the Top 10 books of 2009 before 2009 is over!

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Cool Websites

This month we are featuring websites we discovered throughout the year that we felt could provide inspirational activity ideas for the classroom.

These websites aren't specifically for the English language industry, but they all made us go, "Wow, that would be so great to use in class!"

www.wordle.net


Create beautiful art using lexical sets.


www.sixwordstories.net

Let Ernest Hemmingway's challenge get your students' reading and writing skills sparked with these fabulous 6-word stories.

www.austinkleon.com/newspaper-blackout-poems

Excite the poetically-inclined in your classes with these uber-cool poems made by blacking out words in newspapers. We challenge you to resist the temptation to create one of your own!

www.videojug.com

The perfect short video site that explains how to do anything and everything. Quirky and informative, we're sure these could be put to great use in any class.

*Caution - this site does have some adult content - not X-rated, but there are some videos you might not want to deal with in class.

lyrics.doheth.co.uk/songs/A.php

Lyrics...we know, nothing new here, but it's just good to know about a well-organized lyric website. This one seems very exhaustive and certainly takes the frustration out of trying to blow up the lyrics from that tiny CD booklet!



www.pictorymag.com

This is a brand new site devoted to the art of picture + story. Anyone can contribute one picture and a brief story to showcase their lives and cultures.

The stories already there are brief, personal, involving, relevant and connected to an evocative photo.

What better authentic material  could you ask for?

PS If you do come up with an excellent activity using these ideas, let us know!

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Teaching Tips

What is your Teaching/Learning Metaphor?

On the vast majority of teacher training courses there is a lot of attention given to techniques, best practices and classroom management.

All good and necessary things, but what about the expectations and underlying assumptions about  teaching and learning that teachers and trainees bring to this content?

And how conscious of these beliefs are we?

There has been some fascinating research done (both in general and within our industry) on how metaphor use can uncover what those underlying beliefs are.

The metaphors we have internalized about the teacher / student roles and the process of learning influence not only our thoughts and beliefs, but also our actions and choices.

 Our Tips

Take a moment and see how conscious your metaphors are by asking yourself a few questions.

What is your role as a teacher?

• Guide
• Assessor
• Friend
• Fount of knowledge
• Facilitator
• Authority

Other?
A mix of a few?  Some clearly more than others?

Consider what you actually do in class to help you decide.

The role of facilitator is quite popular at the moment, but before you decide that you are one, consider what specific behaviours and beliefs provide the evidence of being a facilitator.

For example, how much student-generated content do you have in class? Do you really see yourself as 'equal' to your students?

What do you think the role of the student is?

• child
• client
• plant
• container

Other?

How you see your students directly impacts on your choices of activity, lesson framework, contexts and how open you are to different approaches, techniques and methods.

Interestingly, research suggests that how teachers see their students is not reflective of how students see themselves.

We wonder what impact this has on the learning and teaching dynamic.

(BTW - if you want to have a discussion with your students about perceived roles of learner and teacher, Knowing Me, Knowing You has some good worksheets for exactly this.)

How do you view the process of teaching and learning?

Are you:

• filling a pail
• lighting a fire

or doing something else?

So...What are your metaphors?

And most importantly..

...do you own them, or do they own you?

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Tania did a well-received pecha kucha session at our first Anti-conference Conference on this topic and on her metaphor for teaching.

To watch it and for more words on this topic, please visit our blog (and we'd love to hear your comments!)