Some of My Favourite Sites and Groups for Professional Development
By Tory Thorkelson According to edglossarry.org, “[i]n education, the term professional development may be used in reference to a wide variety of specialized training, formal education, or advanced professional learning […]
Confessions of a ‘LAZ(Z)Y’ University Professor
By Tory Thorkelson Early on in my teaching career, I recall a colleague storming into my noisy middle school EFL classroom in Japan and yelling at my co-teacher because our […]
How to Make Conversation Classes More Meaningful for Your Students
By Tory Thorkelson Just like that book about how Kindergarten teaches you everything important about life, much of what I do and how I do it in the speaking and […]
The ‘Proper’ Use(s) of Journals
by Tory Thorkelson Now that I have your attention, I would like to share some thoughts and my experience with using journals in my university EFL classes. In my experience, […]
Media Bias and Critically Evaluating Information
By Tory Thorkelson In 2016, Vanessa Otero created a chart showing how biased various media sources available in the US were (see: http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/). While there was some disagreement about how […]
Where I Teach: South Korea
By Tory Thorkelson Where do you teach? A private University in Seoul, South Korea. According to the Complete University Guide, “[there are 43 national and almost 180 private universities and […]
The ‘Painless’ Course Creation Cycle: Tips and Tricks from an EFL Veteran
Tory S. Thorkelson, M.Ed. Imagine being called into your Department Chair’s office three weeks before a new term begins. With all the real (and imaginary) reasons for this meeting going […]
Impressing your Students with Your Youtube Skills
By Tory Thorkelson As teachers, we are certainly aware of the place technology will take in the classroom whether we want it to or not. One reason I like to […]
Posterama Ideas for the ESL/EFL classroom
Posterama Ideas for the ESL/EFL classroom As I depend more and more on technology in the classroom, despite the potential for a technical problem or two to throw a wrench […]
Pronunciation and Accent: A Teacher’s Perspective
Pronunciation and Accent: A Teacher’s Perspective Although it is perhaps less common than it used to be, every year a number of students approach me with concerns about their pronunciation […]