Image credits: Stefan Baudy
Answers can be great. But questions are seriously cool.
I don't know about you (though I suspect if you're reading this you're likely to relate!), but I have a lot of questions. Questions that keep me awake at night. Questions that make for pleasant company on longish drives from one destination to another.
Some questions feel like they have roots that go far beneath anything that can be possibly dug up without somehow altering or damaging them in some fundamental way. Others are more casual - darting about like sunbeams, and more fanciful in some ways as well.
Although they only make up a small portion of the myriad queries floating into and out of my daily life, here are some casual questions particular to ELT (and, in many ways, my PLN) that I've enjoyed pondering of late...
How cool will it be in the not-too-distant future to be able to say to colleagues "Oh, Shelly Terrell? Yes, I know her - sort of - and I was corresponding with her when she only had about 2,000 Twitter followers, can you believe it? And now she's doing TED talks in front of millions..."? Because, Shelly will be famous (or even more famous) in education circles one day, trust me.
How great would it be to see an ENTIRE coursebook series (or series of series) built ENTIRELY around drama, and who else but Ken Wilson could possibly do such a project justice?
How could something like Dogme ELT possibly come more into the mainstream, into large classes that are subject to stupid (verging in some cases on criminal) examination systems, being taught by teachers who aren't veterans, experts or private freelancers?
Wouldn't it be refreshing to sort of "replay" my basic teaching qualifications and go and do a (new) CELTA? How much will it have changed since those days long ago when I got my first teaching qualification? How awesome would it be to go and do it at Marisa Constantinides' school in Greece? And if so, how could I possibly leave my adorable family at home for a month on their own - or else keep them occupied for that time on their own during the day in Athens?
I've recently been approached by a government-sponsored ELT program (for migrants and refugees) provider in Australia to put together a PD seminar for the teachers in my local area with emphasis on how to use technology to enhance language teaching and learning. What on earth would Gavin Dudeney say if he got wind of that?
He's a great coursebook writer, editor and presenter, and somehow manages to stay cutting edge while epitomising diplomacy, but what would Lindsay Clandfield come up with if he was given absolute 100% free rein (or free reign, for that matter)? I'm talking sort of Clandfield Unfettered. I get the feeling it would be frightening. As in, frighteningly good.
How amazing would it be to have a pint and do a bit of teacher talk with Diarmuid Fogarty?
I wonder how many people truly know or appreciate what David Deubelbeiss has achieved and continues to achieve...? He does teacher training in one of the most conservative and bureaucratic ELT contexts in the known universe, but somehow manages to keep both his vision and his job.
And should I ever blog about how Pearson Longman Asia ELT has finally confessed (after more than two years of misleading, sidestepping and then blatantly avoiding the issue) it has no intention of paying me even one cent for all the work I did for the Boost Teacher's Guides, despite the specific agreement made in the office that day when I agreed to write the series? Should I try to describe how the almost 400 years of a proud and reputable publishing tradition line used to entice me into writing for them now feels and looks like it was meant to be written on soon-to-be-applied toilet tissue?
Or should I, erm, let sleeping dogs lie - so to speak?
And just how many people (some of them high profile) will read that last question, wince, and mutter to themselves "Golly... Not going near that one in a hurry!"?
Anyway, as I mentioned at the start... lots of questions, not all that many answers.
But fun, if occasionally slightly perilous, to think out loud from time to time!
:-)
