Back to Reality

I spent most of last week in Hiroshima attending the summer seminar for the MA TEFL course through the University of Birmingham.

It was stimulating, fun, and inspiring. The group this year was particularly cool. They seemed to have bonded from the first day, so when I got there on the 3rd day they were cruising right along as if they’d been together for months.

I made a presentation about collaborative learning using Skype. It went very well, especially due to the advice and support of Mark, Paul, Terry, Anthony and Matt. I hope others will be keen to follow my lead and offer to do other presentations at future events.

Anyways, here’s the video. There’s a 6-minute introduction, an 18-minute presentation and 7 minutes of comments and questions at the end.

Enjoy!

“The one book every teacher must read” (Shahar)

Just finished Lecture 2 by Tal Ben Shahar. He’s good – no doubt about it!

Marva Collins is one of his role models. She sounds good as well.

Here are the notes I took:

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Research into negatives …………………………………..Research into positive

Anger 5,584 ……………………………………………………. Joy 415

Anxiety 41,416 ……………………………………………….. Happiness 1,710

Depression 54,040 ………………………………………….. Life satisfaction 2,582

21:1 ratio of negative studies maybe reflects reality as evidenced at Harvard:

• 80% of Harvard students were depressed to the point of not being able to do anything in 2004.
• Depression 10 times higher than 1960
• Mean age for depression is 14.5 compared to 19.5 in 1960.
• 45% of college students nationwide depressed, 94% overwhelmed (Kadison, 2005)

3 reasons for more “Positive” Research

1. Psychology as active not only reactive
2. Happiness is not the negation of unhappiness
3. Prevention through cultivating positives

Disease model – to get rid of disease Health model – to get people to flourish

Focus on weaknesses Focus on strengths

Overcoming deficiencies Building competencies

Avoiding pain Seeking pleasure

Running from unhappiness Pursuing happiness

Neutral state (0) as ceiling No ceiling

 

Illness as the absence of health (vs. health as the absence of illness)

Neurosis is the failure of personal growth (Maslow)

 

The disease model has not helped to correct problems

Positive psychology strengthens our immune system

2 kinds of people who don’t experience depression, anxiety, etc:

1. Psychopaths
2. Dead people

What factors allowed “at risk” kids to overcome difficulties? Resilience was one of the keys and it was built up through:

1. Social support
2. Cultivating optimism and self-esteem
3. Faith and a sense of meaning
4. pro-social behavior
5. Focusing on strengths
6. They set goals
7. They had a role model

Marva Collins Case Study – She is one of his role models.

She began her class saying,

 

“We are going to do a lot of believing in ourselves. It’s up to you to succeed”

Tal says if you’re a teacher and you buy one book, it should be this one:

Marva Collins’ Way

NOT SURE WHAT THE POINT WAS (possibly ways to react to difficult life events) WAS BUSY ON AMAZON.COM

Passive Victim Vs. Active Agent

Self pity vs. Confidence

Blame vs. Responsibility

Frustration vs. Hope and Optimism

Anger vs. Forgive/forget

Happier, Harvard, H…

Had trouble coming up with a title for the first time. In reality, I probably had too many titles in mind.

Anyways, Thanks to Jon Stewart for interviewing this guy, Tal Ben Shahar , and thanks to Harvard University for allowing his entire course to be videotaped. Thanks to Amazon.com for the 32% discount and the prompt shipping.

Well, I ordered the book and I watched the first lecture. I was left with that old “X-Files feeling.” My wife and I used to rent a weekend’s worth of episodes (4-6) on a Friday night and then at the end of the first episode we would start the “just one more” chant until we had ploughed through them all very late that same night.

It was a great one-hour, opening lecture: after 15 minutes I even went back and started taking notes (it was THAT good).

So, if you’re still reading, here are the highlights imho:

The three phases in the history of modern psychology are:

1. Behaviorism
2. Psycho-Analysis
3. Humanism

It is through the third phase that “The Science of Happiness” has become very popular.

Grandparents of this field: Abraham Maslow (1906-1970) and Karen Horney (1885-1952)

Parents of this field: Martin Seligman, Ellen Langer, Philip Stone

Tal explains that his course is more about TRANSFORMATION than INFORMATION, offering a few quotes:

“The soul grows by subtraction, not addition” (Thoreau)

“In pursuit of knowledge, every day something is acquired; in pursuit of wisdom everyday something is dropped.” (Lao Tzu)

Tal reiterates that Knowledge comes from Information;

Wisdom comes from Transformation.

He relates his approach to the course in relation to his beliefs about education, quoting Maslow, “… [the] goal of education is… helping the person become the best that he is able to become” (Maslow)

“Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods.” (Neil Postman)

Tal tells a story based on research about some intelligent graduating class surveyed 20 years later. The graduates were all successful. What separated success from super successful were two things:

1. They believed in themselves and their ability to succeed
2. They always asked questions, wanting to know more

The problem with self-help pop psychology books is that they are full of a lot of charisma but little rigor. On the other hand, he states that academia is full of vigourous testing, proving, analyzing but often totally inaccessible (academic articles are read by an average of 7 people – his quote)

His course purports to be full of rigorous fun

There were many other good things happening in the first lecture, but this is what I got from it. I heartily recommend taking a peek if you’re into the pedagogical potential in positive thinking.

Steve

 

Barking up the wrong tree

I’ve learned yet another life lesson having just turned 44 a couple of weeks ago. This lesson is not related to age but falls more so into the “barking up the wrong tree” category. Let me elaborate…

“I’ve been pushing too hard on a couple of fronts and wish to repent”

Starting my MA TEFL last April (2006) was a long overdue idea that floated in and out of my mind for years. When I finally got going on it I was overwhelmed with energy, ideas and opinions. Since a few years back, I had thought that I had pretty much figured out this teaching gig through a combination of time, common sense, and an abundance of sheer trial and error. Moreover, this feeling was consistently reinforced through positive feedback from students and fellow teachers. However, after only a few months into the MA program I began to realize how little I actually knew, especially in comparison to how much more there was to be known. This triggered the little evangelist inside of me, and at about the same time my innate ability to see the huge potential in people and situations also kicked in.

I guess I’ve selfishly been searching for a “nakama” (inner-circle). I have found one in my MA study group and I wanted to re-create the power and support of that group in a professional type inner circle. I pictured like-minded JSHS teachers all eager to see what else there was in terms of stretching themselves and their students to new limits in learning English. I have new ideas almost everyday and for me the fun would be in trying new things in collaboration with others. Doing it on my own doesn’t give me near the rush that doing it with others does (loaded sentence, in a freudian way, huh!).
A general list of ideas that won’t go away, includes:

1. Classroom research – “yaruki” points, effort journal, dictogloss, motivational ideas, 10-minute writing, Use of L1 in the L2 classroom, Nations 4 strands,
2. Curriculum development – How much TBL can Japan handle? developing EFL HS writing class curriculum, textbook-free curriculums
3. Collaborative projects – Extensive Reading experiments, developing learner autonomy,
4. Publishing – JSHS EFL in Japan related, Redefining the value of experienced, well-trained NTs vs. the ‘backpacking’ garden variety of AETs
5. Action Research – problem solving, error correction
6. Collaborative blogging – documenting the work of the “inner circle”
7. Professional friendships – sharing the foreign NT experience

The categories are pretty complete but the ideas within are just some of what comes to mind at the moment.

I have tried to express my enthusiasm and have probably over-expressed myself (again?) therefore I’ve decided to stop pushing, especially the JSHS group and the Bham MASH idea. I’ll focus on the immediate things that are already in progress and just hope that these seeds may take root at some time in the future.

I’m still completely open to a variety of collaborative efforts, however, I’m going to instigate less.

I apologize if I’ve been overbearing to anyone and no hard feelings on my part.

Cheers,

Steve

For the Polo-est Marco

Sorry, for the linkless idea. I was at the in-laws house and was rushing through a little private English escape moment. Unfortunately, I was given a beer and invited to the table (away from the computer) for another chat.

There are three or four others that could lead to some kind of discussion/learning opportunity…

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks for the comment!

Random ideas

Reading Beyond Methods (Kumaravadivelu, 2003) gives me some ideas culled from his book and other ideas inspired by his book. In random order:

1. Learning Strategy Posters – He writes that successful learners use both more strategies and more appropriate strategies than average learners. It’s easy to pick out the more successful learners in my classes. I may ask them to make a poster outlining some of their thoughts on learning strategies. This goes back to my belief in sempai (one’s senior) power.
2. Recently a news survey said that Japanese perceive Ichiro (baseball), Nakata (soccer), and Fujiwara Norika (actress) as successful English learners. I’ve started to look for samples of their English prowess. I found a series of TV comercials that Ichiro did for the Seattle Mariners. They seem very usable in class because they are short, fun and cultural.
3. I have a private student at home who just passed the Eiken Pre-2nd test. She is 13 years old (grade eight) and has studied one hour per week (40 times/year) for seven years. That’s roughly 280 hours plus whatever she’s done on her own (minimal) . She seems to be way above most students her age. I swear she’s succeeded to this point because she has focused on MEANING vs. anything else. Of course she began to study grammar last year, but I want to know why she is so good…
4. I have a writing class of 5 returnees (a year in Canada or New Zealand). I want to know how much English they think a) they were exposed to, b) they processed (input), c) they used, or d) they studied. The reason is related to the above point 3 in that I have no idea about the difference between ESL vs. EFL in the volume of English that they experience.
5. Portfolio marking is one approach to grading. Kumaravadivelu talks about a journal tracking one’s EFFORT. I’m thinking about whether my HS students could track their efforts in 3 ways: my class, other English classes, and outside of class. I would give them credit for doing their homework, going to cram school, listening to English music, watching English online (YouTube, CNN, etc,) and studying online (listening, reading sites, etc.)

To be continued…

Summer Book Selection

Having begged, borrowed and bought some 58 books since the beginning of the MA TEFL, I’ve just raced through them all: trying to keep up with the required readings and looking for stuff related to whatever essay I’ve been working on. I haven’t read one book cover to cover yet…

 

Well, with 3 weeks off I decided to sink my teeth in to at least a couple of the many interesting books lining the wall next to my desk. Here’s my top 5 list:

 

 

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – The only problem with HP is that I can’t do anything else once I open the cover. I’ve learned that from reading the first 6 books, so I decided to wait until school starts and make it bedtime reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Linguistic Imperialism (1992) Phillipson, R. – Fascinating, but I need to be in the right mood to fully enjoy it. That elusive mood is a combination of ‘ranting against the system’, and ‘wanting to right a wrong’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Observation in the Language Classroom (1988) Allwright, D. – I hope I have the stamina to get to this one. Anything he writes is WISE and PRACTICAL. I’ve learned to perk up and focus whenever he is cited in something.

 

 

2. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001) Nation, I.S.P. – Pretty much the bible for teachers wanting to develop professionally – it is practical, detailed and overwhelming in its depth. From the perspective of teaching vocabulary, he introduces his four strands of a well-balanced English Program. He has recently expanded his four strands as an overall approach.

 

 

 

AND THE WINNER IS…

 

 

1. Beyond Methods (2003) Kumaravadivelu, B. – It’s one of those books where you highlight something on each and every page. As an 18-year English teacher it speaks to me like no other book has of yet – I wonder if it resonates with new teachers as well? You know you’re a fan when you can either say his name smoothly or write it without checking – I can do both!