Tim Thompson - Archer English Consulting
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Around the World in 80 Keystrokes

12/10/2019

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When my 12-year-old daughter comes home from school and I ask how her day was, the response is usually either “fine”, “nothing special”, or “same as usual”.  So when she replies, “We did something really cool today!” I’m all ears.
 
Trip Planning Project
She told me about an activity where her teacher gave them a budget of around $750 and told them to plan a trip to Jeju Island, “The Hawaii of Korea”. The budget would need to be enough for two people to get there, find a place to stay for three nights, eat, and do some sightseeing. We live in Daejeon, located in the middle of South Korea, so her transportation options included flying or taking a train/bus to the coast and then taking a ferry.  My daughter has been a several family trips but this was the first time she was put in charge of planning all the details and she really enjoyed the challenge.
The three main skills she developed with this class project were trip planning, internet searching, and budgeting.  She said that trip planning wasn’t that hard since the teacher told her what the budget would need to cover; but the devil would be in the details and she would need to hone the latter two skills to be able to plan her trip effectively.
For internet searching, each student was provided with a Galaxy Tab connected to WiFi in the classroom.  I understand that many classrooms around the world will not have access to individual devices or wireless internet.  However, if the school has a computer lab this could be an excellent use for it.  Students could also work in groups if there are not many computers available.
My daughter explained that the teacher didn’t recommend any websites for finding transportation or hotel options so she used search engines like Google or the Korean equivalent, Naver, to look for travel booking websites. She really enjoyed finding good deals and having a say in where to go and what to do.
She felt that budgeting was the hardest part of the project and as a parent I couldn’t help but smile and think, “She finally understands what I mean when I say that we can’t afford something!”  She admitted to me that it was challenging to decide whether to stay in a nicer place and slash the food budget or give herself a little more to eat with. She also decided to try to enjoy free activities like hiking and going to the beach instead of buying museum and show tickets. This is a real-life conundrum that adults face when planning a trip so it was great to see her recognize how difficult it is to make these tough decisions.
She said that over the course of the semester the students did several versions of the project.  They could choose to travel alone or with a friend and stay in Korea or travel overseas.  The project was very useful because in addition to honing the skills I mentioned above, there was so much learner agency involved.  There were no right or wrong answers.  She had the freedom to make all the decisions and she just needed to stay under budget. Kudos to her teacher for planning this activity!
 
Foreign Country Investigation Project
I have introduced a similar project while leading English teacher training workshops.  First, I put the teachers in groups and distribute five or six kinds of foreign coins and paper money that I collected during overseas trips to each group.  We compare and contrast the different currencies and talk about how to scaffold lessons using the money as a prompt.  For lower-level students, we could focus on teaching vocabulary describing the colors, shapes, denominations, and the pictures on the money.  We could also teach comparative words like “bigger”, “more colorful”, and “more valuable” to compare two bills or coins. We might even ask higher-level students to guess why they think the pictures on the money were chosen to represent that country and then have discuss their own country’s currency.  It’s interesting to see how both teachers and students can struggle to remember all the people and objects on their money.
If the students are at a conversational level, we can take things a step further and do an internet search to learn more about one of the countries.  I usually ask the teachers to choose the country that they know the least about or want to visit the most.  Then I ask them to search online and find the capital, the population, the flight time from Seoul to the capital, how much the money from that country that they have at the table is worth in Korean money, and three interesting things to do or see if they travel there.  They love the activity and think their students would enjoy it too.  One thing to be aware of is that even if the students to search in English, the location services and device’s language settings may cause the results to be displayed in the local language.  This happened with teachers’ phones so you be sure that it can also happen with your students’ devices. 
 
Travel agencies around the world took a hit when websites like Booking.com, Google Flights, and TripAdvisor started becoming popular.  These websites made planning a trip incredibly easy by aggregating many possibilities and putting them all in one place.  They can also act as a virtual gateway to help our students learn more about other countries and cultures while giving them experience working with a budget by prioritizing different aspects of a trip and deciding where to splurge.  Regardless of the language they are using, online trip planning is the kind of class project that is practical, fun, and one of the few things my daughter came home and raved about. In my book, that makes it outstanding.
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Who Should We Invite to Speak at Conferences?

6/9/2019

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Full disclosure: I am always looking for opportunities to speak at international conferences and conduct training events around the world.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to investigating the question in the title. Who should we award these coveted invited speaking slots to?  Whose names and photos (some up to 20 years old) should we put on the promotional materials in an attempt to coax classroom teachers who are looking for professional development opportunities?  Buckle up, because I have a couple of rants prepared.

First of all, why do teachers go to conferences and PD workshops?  I used to think it was to get some ideas for how to become a better teacher, you know, hone their craft.  But when I log in to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, I see more and more "rah rah" life coaches who want to help you be the best you that you can be, and these people actually have followings so that tells me that there is significant demand for pumping people up and telling them they are great.  I'm not saying that many or most teachers go to PD events for this but I'm sure there are some who do. So maybe we need to bring in the Tony Robbins types.

Another reason to go is to stargaze.  Who doesn't want to meet the person that actually wrote the writing textbook you have been using for the past six years?  And sure, if they have something new to say and have adequate public speaking skills, give them a plenary spot.  But reading Geoffrey Jordan's hilarious post on big name speakers reminded me that many of these big names in the field are invited to speak so often it is virtually impossible to have something new and inspirational to share. So maybe we need to lower our expectations, grab our textbooks to get signed, and keep bringing in the same big names year after year after year to satisfy the stargazers.

Oh, let's not forget the academics.  Grad students and researchers also attend these conferences and they want to hear about some quantitative findings that will help them with their own research.  And who doesn't want to add ten new references to their thesis bibliography?  I'm getting tingly just thinking about it.  So maybe we need to get some people down from their ivory towers to drone on an on about their t-tests. Just not before lunch or we'll never get to eat...

Finally, some teachers go to hear about new ideas and perspectives on education but from other practitioners. Here's the problem.  These people aren't under the wing of any publishing companies and unless they have a large social media following or established track record sharing their classroom successes and failures at conferences, how would any organizing committee think to invite them? So maybe we need to put together a database of people and share it, especially if these people are accomplished speakers who can keep an audience's attention and leave them satisfied. 

Let me know if you'd like to start putting together a database or add some good people to an existing database that I don't know about yet



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Musings About Retirement

4/2/2019

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I don't know about you, but my Google search history includes a lot of "retiring in (insert country here)".  This isn't new for me, I've been doing it for over a decade.  Part of me dreams of living in another foreign country just to see what it is like (I've been in Korea almost 20 years) and the other part just wants a new adventure.

When I think of retirement there are two main factors and then a plethora of sub-factors to consider.  The two main things are: 1. What do I want to do with my time? and 2. Will I have enough money to pull it off?  Since an endless supply of books, internet access, and red wine doesn't sound that healthy, it's probably a good idea to keep my online editing business active. This will help me maintain the "sense of purpose" that you hear about so many retired people losing and missing. Also, if I'm living in another country I won't have as many in-person training opportunities as I do now, and if I did, they probably wouldn't pay as well.  Here's why... The list of places I've been learning about just in the past week include Tunisia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and the east coast of Italy. Living in these places means I wouldn't expect to do much work (if any) inside the local economy. Instead, I would just try to keep up with my online editing work and slowly begin to phase it out 
when it becomes too much.
​
As a teacher turned freelance communications consultant, I'm looking for a places with lower cost of living and a climate that doesn't get too hot (and especially too humid) or too cold.  I'd like to live in a place that isn't too noisy or crowded but is still close to an international airport.  There are other factors to consider such as the difficulty of the local language, the local food and drink scene, the tax situation, visas, and a whole list of other factors that are too silly to mention here.

I have a former co-worker who has a cabin in rural Canada that he stays in during the summer and then every winter he chooses a new country, closes up the cabin, and heads out.  That could be an option if I wanted to keep Korea as a base, but Korean summers are no picnic.

So for now, I'll just keep dreaming and continue to travel whenever I can.  I've had great experiences in a lot of interesting places but I don't think I've found that one perfect place yet.  Maybe the thrill is in the search.

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Does Participation Constitute a Portion of Your Course’s Grade?

2/13/2019

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When I first started teaching university-level English courses in South Korea in 1997, the syllabus was given to me by the department and grading elements included attendance, participation, a midterm exam, and final exam.  Later, I was able to design my own courses but I always kept a small percentage of the overall grade for participation.  Why did I do that and would I still include participation as part of the course grade if I were to design a new course now? Answers to follow...
 
Why Did I Include Participation?

When I reflect back on my attitudes toward assessment early on in my career, I wanted the grade to include elements of both effort and ability.  I am a strong proponent of students feeling like their grades were earned, not given.  Thus, the grade would include criteria such as attending the classes, bringing the textbook and a writing instrument, utilizing my office hours, and participation during in-class activities to represent effort-based criteria. Exams, quizzes, writing assignments, group and solo projects, and any other productive output would be used to determine each student’s language ability or aptitude in the skill that is being taught through the second language such as essay writing or how to give a presentation. 

{I sincerely apologize in advance for the next two paragraphs.}
I am not including growth as a factor because it requires accurate pre-testing to determine each student’s level of familiarity with the course’s content as a starting point for the semester.  When schools implement pre-course ability testing to attempt to create a level playing field for the students in the course or in the sections across the course, a new can of worms is opened.  In theory, the students would now enter the course without having to compete with other students who have
 vastly different ability levels.  The first potential problem is that this could only be achieved if prospective students who show proficiency in what the course aimed to teach are able to test out of the course while others who are not adequately prepared for the course would be required to take a remedial course first and this is not always the case.  Another issue is that if course is divided into different sections and the students are grouped by ability level, the course should not be listed in the same way for higher level sections and lower level sections.  Otherwise, a student who earns an A in a lower section of Course 101 would appear to be more impressive to a graduate school or potential employer than a student earning a B in a higher section of Course 101.  This can lead to students purposely tanking the entrance exam to get into a lower level section in the hopes of getting an easy A.

It should also be noted that I am assuming that the department does not have a mandatory grade curve in place.  I am against curves because I don’t believe that grades should be based on intra-class competition but on meeting or surpassing the instructor’s expectations for what should be learned and experienced during the semester. I realize that the fear of grade inflation and instructors “giving” too many As in order to garner higher evaluations are reasons given for implementing grade curves but I feel that if the right educators are hired and departments do not put too much weight on student feedback, there is very little to actually fear.

So, to get back to answering this section’s question, I included participation factors in my course’s grading criteria because I wanted all of the students in the course to be able to earn an A and I wanted both ability and effort to play a role.
 
Would I Include a Participation Element Again?

The simple answer is yes.  However, I am assuming that the course in question is not lecture based and would have opportunities for the students to actually develop skills instead of only studying theory.  If I was asked to teach a large, theory-based course that had out-of-class readings and then a lecture element, the grading would lean on traditional assessment criteria like multiple choice tests to determine if the students were absorbing the content.  This would be appropriate for courses that have a large number of students and little to no productive requirements.  In a course like that, I might not even choose to track attendance and use it as a grading criteria.  They are university students after all and don’t have to be there.  If a student can do the readings and pass the tests by borrowing lecture notes or attending study groups then good for them.
 
How Much of the Grade Should Be Designated for Participation?

In the original syllabus that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, 10% was allocated to participation.  I kept this over the years and deducted points each time a student was not prepared for class or did not participate at a satisfactory level (following a warning).  I believe 10% is reasonable because it constitutes one full letter grade in a traditional 100-point scale.  Students who work hard to meet the teacher’s expectations will get full participation points and their final grade will come down to how well they do on the tests and activities in the course.  Students whose poor choices result in losing participation points will have a harder time earning a higher grade.
 
Conclusion

Grading and assessment are complicated issues and sources of great debate among educators.  When I began teaching, I didn’t question the syllabus that was given to me and the students didn’t complain about the grading elements, just the final grade itself. I have changed a lot as an educator but I still see the value of reserving 10% of the grade for participation.  Change my mind.

 


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How to Write Articles for Language Teaching Magazines

2/11/2019

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Writing articles for magazines that focus on language teaching can be great for your teaching career.  It boosts your CV, enhances your name recognition which will generate opportunities at professional development events and conferences, and best of all it helps other teachers.  So what do you need to do to get your article published in a language teaching magazine?
 

1. Choose a magazine and study it
The first thing to do is select the publication you are interested in writing for.  What kinds of articles do they publish?  How long are they?  How are the articles laid out?  Are they more academic and research based or are they more about sharing thoughts and classroom experiences?  Do most of the articles have a long list of references?   Make sure your topic is something that fits within the magazine's scope and isn't repeating something that was published recently, t
hen read the submission guidelines carefully.
This is a tip I give to anyone writing for publication, whether it is a letter to the editor in a local newspaper or a scientific journal article: Make sure your manuscript looks like articles that have been successfully published.  This means the length, the tone, the format, and even style choices like serial commas and British/US spelling.  If the format doesn’t match the editor’s expectation, it’s probably going to be rejected unless the content is so good that is makes up for it.  Even then, the editor is likely to ask for revisions.
 

2. Write for a target reader
Think about who will be attracted by your title and read your article.  Does the title accurately portray the benefits your article is offering?  Your reader will most likely be a less experienced teacher or a teacher who is interested in new ideas for their classes.  Focus on sharing what worked for you and make sure you clearly lay out what the reader will need to do to duplicate your success in their classes.  Explain your teaching situation so the reader can determine if they will need to make any adjustments to implement your ideas. 
 

3. Outline your ideas
It is very hard for me to start writing without planning what I want to say.  I need to outline my thoughts on paper (yes, actual paper) and make sure I have a clear plan for what I want to share and enough content to make it worthwhile.  I try to assemble my main points or tips as bullet points and find a way to make them flow together.  Writing from an outline also allows me to focus my concentration on clearly explaining my ideas for each subsection instead of being distraction by trying to make sure the whole article is tied together while I’m writing. 
 

4. Take your time
It is important not to rush and fire off your first draft.  Put it away and look at it again after a day or two (or seven).  Try to absorb the article with fresh eyes and imagine that you are someone who is trying to learn from it.  What might not be clear to someone who is new to your topic?  What could explained more succinctly?  Is your tone consistent?  Ask a colleague to look it over and give feedback.  Hopefully they will also catch your typos. Thanks, Michael F.
 

5. Send the article with a short email
I usually keep my submission emails short.  In fact, they are rarely more than three sentences but the one I never leave out is the one that explains how I feel the article can benefit the magazine’s readers.  I find that this helps the editor approach the article with a more positive attitude.  This has been the case for me both as a writer and an editor.
 
It feels great to see something you wrote in print or published on a popular website.  I have had good luck with magazines like English Teaching Professional, Modern English Teacher, EFL Magazine, and KOTESOL’s The English Connection.  Regular publications are always looking for new content so if you have a creative idea to share with your fellow educators, follow these tips and you should see your article in print in no time.
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Teaching Street Smarts in Primary Schools

12/6/2016

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Teaching in elementary schools is a tough job.  Overcrowded classrooms, both overdemanding and absentee parents to deal with, a national curriculum mandated by a government department often run by people who have never taught a day in their lives, debatable wages, like I said... tough job.

​Put all that aside for a minute though and dare to dream for more.  What if we decided that street smarts were as critical as book smarts in the primary school curriculum?  What if we ignored the fact multiple choice tests couldn't be utlized to determine students' street smarts competency and it would be nearly impossible to decide what an acceptable level of competency is?  What if we just decided that we wanted our children to learn how to be more successful later in life and that such learning needed to start when their habits were still forming?

So, good.  It's decided.  We want our children to grow up and be more successful.  What does that entail exactly?  Here is a tentative list of things they need to learn:

1. Manage your time. Do your work then you can play.
2. Treat studying like a job.  Act responsibly.
3.
 Build a professional network of peers and mentors. What can you offer?  Who will risk their reputation to recommend you? 

4. Develop more skills.  It's a competitive world.
5. Diversify.  Try to balance your activities and interests.
6. Look for opportunities to create something new.  
7. Don't waste your summer and winter breaks.  
8. Follow your own path. Not everyone knows what they want to do at age 16. 
9. Know how and where to get help. Ask teachers, friends, students in the grades ahead of you, and the internet when you don't know something. Don't be satisfied with ignorance. 
10. Become more
 global. Meet international students.  Read more international news.


So when would these things be taught and in what manner, you ask...  Well, I haven't figured out the details yet, but as the father of a daughter currrently in third grade, I see the need for these things.  Likewise, I saw these things lacking in many of the university student I taught, and it was very difficult for them to break bad habits that were already deeply embedded by that age.


So let's brainstorm together, shall we?  What am I missing?  Are we already doing this?  If not, is it doable?  Should it be done?  If so, how?

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Some Thoughts on Long-term Educational Goals

11/30/2016

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Talking Turkey

11/27/2016

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Spending eleven days in Turkey earlier this month was a fantastic experience.  I was able to meet Ayşegül through my friend, Anne (who is now in Japan), and invited to speak at Bahçeşehir University. Ayşegül then introduced me to Işıl, who invited me to speak and observe her class at Yildiz Technical University.  It was a pleasure to interact with the faculty members at both schools and work with the students there who aspire to be English teachers when they graduate.  I'm very grateful to everyone who made it possible and treated me so well after I arrived.  

Here are some observations from my trip:
1. The universities I visited were well-equipped and modern.  The faculty members were very professional but also welcoming and friendly.  As usual, it was the people that made the experience special.  Thank you to all the professors who took the time to show me around, have lunch with me, and trust me enough to let me spend time with their students.  

2. Istanbul is a wonderful city to visit.  It is great for walking around and taking photos; when your feet get tired the public transportation system is efficient and affordable.  It was interesting to see so many cats and dogs roaming the streets that seemed to be able to find someone to feed them.  People dress fashionably and there are a lot of smokers.  I felt safe walking around the city and the police presence was reassuring more than intimidating.  I was also (pleasantly) surprised not to see many homeless people.

3. Cappadocia is amazing!  The landscape was beautiful in an alien way and the hot air balloons added to the already striking scenery.  While the locals complained about the lack of tourists, it was great to be able to hike without seeing other people for hours at a time and the hotels and restaurants weren't packed so the service level increased.  If you're planning a trip (as you should) and would like some tips on hotels, places to eat, tours, etc. feel free to send me an email.

Teşekkür ederim to my new friends and PLN in Turkey.  I hope to be able to visit again next year.
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Institutionalized

6/23/2016

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This popped up in my Facebook feed this morning and it really struck me.  One of the biggest reservations I had about leaving KAIST to work for myself was the loss of my coworkers and the professional network that came from having our offices so close to each other.  So far, I don't feel that much loss.  I keep in touch with many of them online and still attend some social functions so I don't feel "lonely".
The second part about feeling powerless was more striking as I really don't know if I can work for an institution again.  While not impossible, it would be challenging to go back to someone else's goals and rules for how I should work and spend my time.  Everything goes through fazes and the time may come when I'm tired of the hustle, but after six months out of the classroom I'm not lonely and I am enjoying having the power to be both the manager and the employee.

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Taking the Show on the Road

6/19/2016

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I enjoy visiting new countries whenever I can and I check airfares on Google flights fairly regularly.  When I saw that I could get a flight to several interesting cities in Europe this fall for a very affordable rate I jumped at it.  Lisbon was an option and Athens was very affordable, but there was something about Istanbul that stood out.  Turkey in November just feels right, doesn't it?  (Sorry, bad joke.)

Anyway, call it hubris but I also thought that I could line up some workshops and seminars while I'm there.  Why not, right?  I do professional development seminars for Korean universities and government organizations, why not in Turkey too?  I have former students from Turkey as well as a few contacts who I met at a conference in Cambodia a couple of years ago.  Surely, I can pull this off.


Well, it's happening.  The ticket has been purchased.  No turning back on that front.  I've been chatting with a few teachers on Facebook and today I sent my first email to a training center that offers free Saturday workshops to teachers and volunteered to conduct one for them in November.  If I'm accepted it should be easier to craft emails to the universities explaining that I'll be in the country for the first event and would be happy to do another one for them.  It's funny how it works that way but people are more likely to give you a chance if someone else has first.

I'm expecting to spend time in Istanbul and Ankara and have several universities that I plan to contact.  It wasn't hard to find people to get in touch with since most of the universities have EFL departments or language centers with English websites that list their faculty members and directors/deans.  

This is an exciting challenge.  Can I line up training opportunities at these schools through cold emails?  We'll see.  Of course, I'd prefer to be recommended by a friend but the people I know don't seem to know the right people for this kind of thing so I'm starting with emails.  Luckily, it's only June.

No matter what happens, it's going to be a fun trip.  If I spend the entire time walking around, taking pictures, and sipping coffee I'll be ok with it but if I can meet a new network of educators, share some ideas about teaching, and add a couple of international training events to my CV it will be even better.  

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