Letter 1

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know a couple of things about TEFLclips.

First of all, there are now 50 lesson plans on the site. The 50th lesson plan was uploaded last month. It is called Panda Surprise and you can see it here.

Also, it's time to start thinking about the next phase for the TEFLclips. I am currently redesigning the site and deciding how best to sort the activities. For this I would really like some feedback. If you have ever used a lesson plan from TEFLclips or you would like to in the future, I would be very grateful for your comments. I am looking for information such as:

• The time the lesson took in class
• The level of learner you used it with
• How well it worked
• Whether or not you adapted it
• Etc

If you would like to 'pilot' a lesson plan, please drop me a line, tell me which lesson plan (or plans) you are interested in and I will send you a feedback form. My email address is:

jamiekeddie@hotmail.com

A big thank you to all of you who have been using TEFLclips and providing me with the motivation to keep things going strong.

Jamie:)

Letter 2

Dear Hania,

Just a short note to let you know that I have been enrolled on a PhD LINGUISTICS Programme at University of Bialystok.

The article I have published in your HLT magazine was accepted and your official certificate of publication was highly appreciated. As far as I know, I scored some points for this during the recruitment procedure. THANKS again!

All the best
Jack

Letter 3

I wanted to drop you a line after a fantastic summer at Stafford House trying out techniques and ideas from HLT mag, 'Humanising Your Coursebook' 'The Recipe Book' which have helped me become more adventurous and hopefully more creative, even with a few spontaneous ideas of my own. I guess this is an example of watching the 'Wimbledon ' like performance of yourself and other teachers who publish their wealth of ideas that enable us to watch from the outer circle and then try them out as imitators.

Cycling to and from Whitstable and Canterbury along the 'Crab and Winkle' route provided time for reflection and mental preparation and one lesson was inspired by a handful of hay, hurriedly grabbed from a freshly harvested field between Blean Church and the University and taken into the classroom to help present a number of related idioms .

Humanising Your Coursebook' particularly helped me to try out more creative ways of getting students to listen - the freedom from constraint of a tight syllabus during the summer school courses helped me to try out these methods in a non-threatening environment and now I trust them, or more to the point, my ability as a teacher, to now use them in the rather more formal settings in which I will be teaching for the rest of the year.

It is these activities, and the wealth of creativity and wisdom found on the HLT site that keeps me sane, excited and still motivated amidst the mire of paperwork and procedures inherent in the government funded Skills for Life ESOL agenda.

Thank you!

Peter

Letter 4

Hi Hanna,

"Humouristic Lang Teaching" Below takes the mickey out of HLT.
Fairly boring...thought you ought to see this even if you don't want to.

Use of the OISE logo shows he wants trouble. When people try and lampoon you there is nothing to say ... It's kind of absurd compliment. I have often been attacked quite personally by the Sandy blog.

I once wrote to Sandy a. thanking him for his iconoclasm, and b. suggesting that his satire is poor.
I got a quite human, personal reply. Mario

Letter 5

Dear Hania,

writing just to thank you again for the invaluable input you gave us in Canterbury.. and let you know I'm putting lots of your ideas from Pilgrims July into practice (my favourite ones being psychodrama & teaching through fine arts) and i feel great about it (my students too :)a very warm and ego- boosting feeling of being 'initiated' into HLT, still an alien notion to many…

Greetings
Iza Michalak

Letter 6

Hania:

Good to hear from you. I'm looking forward to seeing the next issue.

I recommended the HLT website to a former colleague a few days ago. He sounded interested and asked me to write down the URL.

Hall

Letter 7

Dear Hania,

I am grateful teachers of English from other countries have been encouraged to send articles to your magazine. I dare send you some ideas that could probably help secondary students and teachers of English. I will be glad if someone could read my article and tell me something about these ideas.

I am coming to the Pilgrims Training Centre on September, 1 and I am looking forward to starting the methodology course and attending it. I am interested in primary and secondary teaching and sometimes I myself have new ideas of teaching.

I would like to thank you in advance if you could tell me what you think about them.

Best wishes,
Angela Popescu

Letter 8

(…) I think that a journal should be established just for reviews of books in EFL, both academic and select textbooks. There are far too few reviews appearing anywhere. Some journals have a 'no review' policy (for example, the MELTA journal THE ENGLISH TEACHER here in Malaysia), since they don't want to 'offend' publishers who support their annual meetings [!], or be accused of carrying reviews of books by publishers associated with the association. That may be true elsewhere in the profession. Anyhow, I'm surprised how few reviews seem to appear. Your own book THE COMPANY WORDS KEEP does not seem to have an accessible review online.

I've been discussing such a journal around, including with people I met at Asia TEFL conference in Bangkok. There is a clear need for this. One paradigm in pedagogy is the EDUCATION REVIEW published by Gene Glass at Arizona State U. It is completely online http://edrev.asu.edu Features reviews and review essays. Now and then some TESL books.

I'd like to launch a review journal just for TESL, where teachers could also do some of the reviewing. Including of local TESL books in Asia and elsewhere that are never seen beyond their local space, like Hyacinth Gaudart's new book LIVELY LANGUAGE LEARNING, published here in KL a few months ago. The field needs such reviews, in a concentrated place. What do you think? I might be able to anchor at U Malaya. Maybe Pilgrims could have an interest.

We are also discussing launching the ASEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT, another idea I broached that has had an echo at U Malaya.

Bill Templer

Letter 9

Hi Hania,

I've just read the 3 articles (Danny Singh, Ms A's reply and then Danny S's reply)

I loved everything about Danny Singh's article. If I was asked to write a report re the differences bw Ireland and Switz I would choose exactly the same tone and humour.

In fact friends have asked and still often ask me about the differences I've found between the Spanish and the Irish / life in Spain Vs life in Switz and of course the Swiss and the Irish... and I always tell them about the *things that make me laugh the most, and if a little exaggeration is thrown in, what harm!

I think Ms A's article was quite unnecessary. I think it's obvious she didn't understand/appreciate Singh's humour... much to her own loss. (…)

Nuria

Letter 10

In athiest China I have been allowed to decorate my Holistic English classroom a little early for Christmas. (There are no Thanksgiving decorations available.)

Can you smell another article in the making?

Warm greetings,
Martin