Hello
First of all congratulations on making it here, you might have arrived by way of the Modern Languages & Culture Digest which is now archived and searchable on this site. Over the past few years, our audience has been the language learning community and those interested in teaching about culture and identity. However as readership has grown, so has a fear that it wasn’t quite doing what it set out to do, that something needed to change.
So here you go, if you’re already interested then feel free to subscribe.
This is a newsletter that builds on the previous good work and hopes to provide some insight and signpost useful ideas that might help you with your teaching and research. The emphasis is still going to be on technology, language, and culture, but the hope is that unshackled from the previous newsletter, I might offer a new perspective, one that might break free from certain expectations.
I want to write a little more from the heart and recognize that I’m fortunate to have a perspective that bridges two countries with contrasting approaches to learning. I hope to offer more intimate and personal reflection and provide insight that I hope you will find interesting and useful.
As always, I’m really interested in the conversation, so I hope that you’ll hit reply and send me a note or comment. I’m on Twitter (just about) and I have a blog that I update occasionally and provides some more information about the work that I do.
Thank you again, let's get to work.
Stephan
This note by artist Steve Chapman seemed to speak to me, it’s been pinned to the wall since the summer when he kindly dropped into in the envelope along with a piece of art I purchased. It’s in my eye line every time I look up…
Teaching & Learning
Understandably this has been a strange week and it has been a struggle to be productive, I taught my class on Wednesday to a subdued group of students, we kept it light and although I asked if anyone wanted to talk about the election and how they were feeling, they mostly kept their thoughts to themselves. I think the class provided some distraction, we looked at ways to plan an instructional video and the sort of kit that might be useful for filming and creating content.
I’m currently reading Hope, Utopia, and Creativity in Education by Craig A. Hammond, which is an excellent work exploring critical pedagogies. I was moved by the introduction where Hammond talks about his working-class upbringing and move through academia. I share some aspects of this route, moving from teaching in Further Education and “learning on the job” gaining my teaching qualifications while juggling around thirty hours of lessons every week. However, I recognize that I come from a long family tradition of teachers, and am privileged in many ways. The book helps scratch the feeling that there are alternatives to the teaching traditions that we still seem so rooted in, and reading helped me recollect some of the inspiration for wanting to teach using a constructivist approach. I dug out a neat pile of books by theorists that have guided and helped to shape my personal philosophy of teaching.
You’ll find many of these books in the reading list for my new course “Everyday Learning: Teaching in Times of Unrest and Uncertainty” (link to the syllabus). I’d also add to this list “Teaching to Transgress” by Bell Hooks, it’s one I keep returning to, especially at this time.
The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.
Bell Hooks
Life Lessons
Democracy has been under attack this week and for all of us, this is a frightening time. We love living and working here, the people we meet are kind, and we’re still hopeful for a positive outcome. What is clear is that there’ll be no quick fix for America’s systemic racism and gross inequality.
As a Non-immigrant worker, I can’t vote (obs) but we have been doing our bit to encourage others to vote. We added a new sign next to our flag, which we purchased through @flagsforgood which has a terrific selection of protest flags and stickers.
Flags are a big deal here, many houses have flag mounts on the side of houses or towering poles on the front lawn. While most display political affiliation, sometimes you’ll see more benign Halloween or Holiday flags at different times of the year. Our neighbor over the road is an Arsenal fan (yes, a Gooner on our street!) so you’ll see the red and white of Highbury fluttering when there’s a game on.
Lost and Found
I lost my way with Flipgrid some time ago, but the new features and improvements look good. If you’re after a video discussion tool, where you can share and upload videos, attach questions and invite comments, then this is free, easy to use, and manageable for students.
The FLTMag has been a dependable and useful source of tools and platforms to assist with language learning and technology. This week’s article provides a summary of the Learningapps platform, providing a way for educators to create learning objects, including tests, quizzes, polls, and much more.
I can relate completely…I don’t understand. via The Nib - (Thank you, Felipe)
Thank you
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