… and I would like to share some holiday spirit.
After Halloween and Thanksgiving comes Christmas, every year without fail. Amazing actually, how some things never seem to change. Especially after this year 2024 which has seen a fair amount of change in directions that make me wonder – and worry a little – what next year will be like. But now is not the time. I would like to share some of the things I love (re-) using in the time before the holidays.
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It’s time, I stick something new to the top of my posts. You find everything about ‘sporcles’ up in the page section. I will continue to add new ones I have uses there.
Thanksgiving is approaching again so let’s talk a little about food.
I used to share a wonderful New York Times special feature on the traditions of American families’ Thanksgiving cooking with others. The text is still available: The American Thanksgiving. 15 families talk about a special ingredient they add to the traditional American Thanksgiving meal around turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce.
Continue readingUpdate November 2024
The losers of the election are probably still stunned, shocked and busy analyzing what went wrong.
It was indeed one of the most exiting elections ever. Considering the outcome, the ostrich feeling has recurred a little. However, following how things develop is the better choice.
October 31st is approaching fast. Again. Every year actually. Time to revisit my Halloween post.
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This is an evergreen topic: Misunderstood song lyrics, also know as ‘mondegreens’. There are some classic ones everybody knows, and some where you wonder if they are truly mondegreens or not really attempts at humor. Why they are called ‘mondegreens’ and more of them ….
Continue readingI have written about this question in other posts that you find under Reflections and Recommendations on Learning and Teaching
Here I just wanted to share a link to an eight minute video on the subject.
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This year, 2024, Earth Overshoot Day has been calculated for August 1.
Earth Overshoot Day is the day on which we humans have used up all ‘the sustainable amount of biological resources generated on earth’ (wikipedia):
Continue reading(Sequel to the Gapminder post)
Triggered by the gapminder question tile ‘Plastics in Oceans’, I created a lesson around the topic of plastics based on the text below.
History and Future of Plastics | Science History Institute
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Some years ago, I watched a TED talk given by the Swedish statistician and physician Hans Rosling and his son. Hans and Ola Rosling: How not to be ignorant about the world | TED Talk.
I also started reading his book ‘Factfulness’.
Continue readingThe Case of Soccer and Football
The European Championchip is in its last week, the English team is still playing and it is high time that I write my football/soccer related post before the tournament is over and football talk will rest for two years before it resumes with the World Cup 2026. Taking place in North America and Mexico, there will probably then be more soccer talk than football talk, at least among the hosts.
Why DO Americans call what (almost) everyone else calls football ‘soccer’? And why do they call a game pretty obviously hardly played with any feet ‘football’. American football comes across as a (rougher) version of rugby, so why wasn’t it called American Rugby?
Continue readingUpdate 2024: Read all about the DNC in Chicago 2024 Democratic National Convention – Wikipedia Also: Democratic Convention 2024 – Videos ; The DNC in five minutes; 11 hours of DNC (highlights from Day 3)
Is it arrogance of the educated and privileged? Or deep-rooted feelings of decency and of moral and ethical beliefs so badly violated by Mr T. that we cannot understand how any American can support him?
After the election of Joe Biden in 2020, we probably all believed the topic of Trump would be history. We had wasted enough of our time, and emotional and intellectual energy and were happy to move on.
Ooops, no such luck. So here we are again, trying to understand.
Continue readingOur little language school has recently been dumped by a major company whose language classes we had been organizing and teaching for over 20 years. Their human resources department felt they could invest their training budget better by buying licences to two online platforms and releasing the practice of organising and learning into the hands of their employees.
Though I am very sad about this development – I lost groups and students of many many years – I don’t see online platforms as competition to our coaching. Even if some companies might believe in using them to replace us ‘real teachers’ (and save money?), most online platforms are there to support us. And those I would like to thank here for their very valuable services and introduce you to some.
Continue readingMuch of what I believe about learning – through experience and studies – I have already written about elsewhere (for instance in my post: ‘The Best Curriculum in the World’). But the topic regularly pops up in classes, often in connection with questions concerning memory – memorizing and forgetting – or when talking about ‘grammar’, where I still hear things like: “I hate grammar, I’m bad at grammar etc.”. Even from course members whose English is on an advanced level.
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The topic of schools, schooling, and education is one that frequently comes up. The reason is simple: education is of the utmost importance and many agree that our school systems do not always provide the best environment for learning. The whole structure is unnatural (large same age groups with one adult) and forces kids and adults (the teachers) into a strait jacket that might fit some, but many it doesn’t.
There have been educators who try to fight for better educational concepts, better schools, for approaches to education that consider the psychological and cognitive nature of humans. For concepts that cater better to our minds: our brain’s fascinating capability to figure things out, to recognize patterns, to be curious about our surroundings – and enjoy the whole process.
Continue readingTed Ed videos are short educational videos explaining a various number of different topics in a few minutes. Here I will share a list of those I have already watched or find interesting for future reference.
Continue readingThis topic has become a traditional choice at the beginning of the year. Last year’s post provides a little background to the topic.
Continue readingIn the podcast below from National Public Radio, Gregory Warner describes how he went from being obsessed with New Year’s resolutions to letting go of them. ‘Goal disengagement’ is the term; liberating yourself from old and repeatedly newly set goals, especially when, year after year, they remain unfulfilled.
Continue readingA great website I first found in 2014. And rediscovered in 2023. It has short podcasts you can listen to repeatedly for great learning effect.
Some I’ve listened to lately (updated May 12, 2024)
Related to Béyonce’s new album ‘Cowboy Carter’, there are several great podcasts. For instance: What her cover of ‘Blackbird’ means to a member of the Little Rock Nine.
(October 2023 update)
It seems, we will have to live with Covid 19 as an additional health threat here to stay. 2023 was very quiet in relation to the virus, and things feel almost ‘like before’. Every once in a while you hear of new infections, but the virus doesn’t seem to be as contagious as it was. Some changes in workplaces seem to have become more permanent. Office employees have returned to their offices at least for a few days a week, hybrid models and more flexibility seem to have become more common and Working from Home also seems to be here to stay. Since my class members are among those enjoying the flexibility of a hybrid working system, I am still mostly teaching online; and beginning to think whether I could become a digital nomad and work from a cottage at the coast or a tree house in the woods, or something like that – good internet connection provided.
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