New Blog At TEFL.net: TEFLtastic

There is a cool new blog to check out at Tefl.net. At TEFLtastic you can read the adventures and insights – which can be serious, spot on and amusing at the same time – of Alex Case, an EFL teacher working in Japan. In his words, TEFLtastic is “a place where we can all let off steam and so continue acting like the saints we really are in the classroom and the rest of our lives.” And comments are welcome.

One of the latests posts starts with this:

Teaching (college student) teenagers again despite my best efforts to avoid it, there is one factor in the classroom that stands out more than other kinds of classes and, subtly or sometimes not so subtly, affects the classroom dynamic of almost every class. This certain something would, however, under no circumstances get a mention if my lesson was observed and is not written about in any books on teaching English I have ever seen. This is the totally taboo TEFL teaching factor X…

Sorry, you have to read the post to find out what it’s about.

Case has worked as a teacher trainer and in a variety of locations around the world; he is also the Reviews Editor at TEFL.net and as such is prepared to “have the occasional rant about the state of the EFL publishing industry”, as something of an ESOL Jerry Springer. I’m not totally sure what this entails, but I have to admit that I’d be ready for a bit of gossip about the Soars’ love triangle or long-standing feud about the content of Everyday English – so I’m all ears.

Finally, are you wondering what TEFLtastic means? In fact, it refers to “something that is genuinely fun and useful in the classroom, but is so like something you learn to do when you do your first teacher training that it’s kind of embarrassing to get too excited about.” I get excited about dorky stuff all the time, and started thinking if anything on the TEFL Logue would fit the bill…

I suppose I would nominate this super paper-cutting activity as TEFLtastic (though I wouldn’t call it fun in the classroom) – I figuratively hung my head for a few days after posting that, but, hey, you gotta share this stuff because what good is it if you don’t? You can, of course, point and laugh when your colleagues spill paper all over the floor, but that’s only funny so many times.

In any case, do check out TEFLtastic.