edgeblog 07
I begin this edgeblog in hopes that Richard’s lesson on how to attach a document will have stayed with me, though it is certainly as hazy in my memory as it seemed complicated at the time. In order to keep our shared ideas in play. I’d like to post the text of the talk I gave at the ABLA Convention in Cali, Columbia, at the end of July. It was an excellent event altogether. Other plenary speakers were Kathi Bailey, Jeremy Harmer, Kumaravadivelu and Bob Oprandy. The theme was ‘Teachers as Learners’, which was very much in my area of interest, and participants from all across Latin America provided a very high standard of presentations and of involvement in the sessions that I saw. As well as the plenary, I had the opportunity to do a Cooperative Development workshop with Bob Oprandy that included us working as Speaker and Understander. It’s a bit risky to do that in front of an audience, but working with Bob is always a rich and rewarding experience, and so it proved again. The quality of engagement by participants and the level of questioning and comment was very satisfying. Cooperative Development lives.
Back on the topic of that text I’m posting, by the way, let me clarify what it represents. It’s not something that I read aloud at the audience — I hate that practice and I think it is, actually, dying out. When I am doing a straight talk to a large group, however, I do these days write a text in order to help me be sure that I have a coherent message and to help me judge the timing. I read the piece several times before the talk itself, including reading it aloud. So, when I get up to speak, I have the shape of the thing pretty clear in my head. What this also means is that I feel confident about improvising where appropriate and still finding back to a coherent line. On this occasion, for example, I was closing the conference and I could refer back to points that had been made by previous speakers and try to tie those separate statements together into themes.
Let me highlight just one such. When people ask me how to start developing their teaching, a regular suggestion of mine is that they make a recording of one of their classes and listen to/watch it. You may find yourself witnessing a perfect event, but most of us see something in there that would be worth working on. This suggestion was written into my text. In her talk, Kathi Bailey reported on research into the kinds of developmental activities that teachers liked more or less. Right down there at the bottom of the list, least favoured of all, was, yes, you guessed it, making a recording of your class.
Hmmmm. Highly effective and least favoured. Now, why is that? My intuition is that it is because it is the most directly challenging option. We can talk about what we do and we can keep our diaries and we can read the journals and always there is some wiggle-room in which to find a little comfort, but that recorded data of what happened in our class just stares back at us and cannot be denied. This then also links up with that threat of ‘being observed’ that makes most people feel uncomfortable. I think that’s interesting.
Well, that’s enough for now. Next week, I’m off to the BAAL Annual Meeting in Aberdeen. I’m taking part in a colloquium organized by Robert Phillipson on the topic: British ELT in a state of existential crisis. I’ll report back next time.
Best,
Julian
