TEFL Waffle

Episode 80: TITM: To Sir With Love 2

This podcast is not a sequel. We all hate sequels because they are never as good as the original. Except Star Wars. And Star Trek. And To Sir With Love. Yes, it's true, although that's simply Steve's opinion. This teacher is now an old man, in a grungy American school, with awesome students who we are supposed to dislike initially. We watched this movie, and versions of it, on multiple occasions, so you get to hear us talking about these themes again. It's fun - listen, or go fight your gang in the playground! Look, a whole blurb without a to two too joke!

Episode 79: Prescriptivism vs descriptivism

How good are you at grammar? Or should that be 'with grammar'? How seriously do you take things when someone makes a mistake? Are there such things as mistakes? Do you think teachers should take things like grammar as part of their core job? How about disagreeing with another teacher about grammar mistakes? Troy and Steve are good at disagreeing, even when things are fairly clearly wrong (in Troy's case). The thing is, when someone is really arrogant and a ruddy know-it-all, like Troy, isn't it a lot of fun to get into arguments just for the sake of things? On a side note, isn't it a fun idea to help students with their research?

Thanks to our sponsor - www.analgrammar.com

Episode 78: Working from home

In this exciting episode, which was recorded at home, Steve interviews our guest speaker, Troy, on his experience of working from home during these unprecedented (at least in our lifetimes) times when going to work is illegal, banned, disallowed, and generally not a good idea. Troy tells us about his difficulties, challenges and the rewards of spending a whole day at home working and at the same time being a parent. Tough stuff. Thank you to our sponsors, for sponsoring. Please use the code announced in the episode to claim your discount at a store near you, if it's open, and you're allowed to go shopping. Otherwise, you can't get a discount.

Episode 77: How do Germans pronounce brie?

Yes, and how do British people pronounce Wagga Wagga? Or how do Americans pronounce 'Sawatdi Krap'? And how does anyone pronounce Edinburgh? Are these political questions? Or are they issues of phonology? Does it matter? Well, today Troy and Steve make it matter a lot. Not only are these political and phonological, they are also podcastical and wafflable. Should South Africans really be upset when Australians mangle 'braai'? Should Troy be upset when Americans get a barbie confused with something feminine? Thanks to Te Reo for the closing clip we stole from www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2pjPdEskbs. Check out their podcast at https://bit.ly/tereopodcast​

Episode 76: Nomination

Nomination is the process of selecting individual students in the classroom to respond to a question. In this episode, the cat decided to nominate itself to be a very vocal member of the podcasting team, blasting Steve and Troy into oblivion with its eagerness to participate with you, dear listener. In between the cat, Steve and Troy self-nominate to discuss the question of nomination in the classroom. We nominate this episode to be the seventy sixth-episode. We also nominate you to figure out where that hyphen should actually be.

Episode 75: TITM: Kindergarten Cop 2

Yes, we do sequels. This movie stars a kindergarten cop too, and it involves children and a cop, because it's a copy of a movie about a cop in a kindergarten. This time, there is chocolate, and pigs, and a creepy IT guy who turns out to be (spoiler alert) a hero. The moral of the story is that cops are probably best not put into kindergartens to teach, and in this movie, you'll see the complete range of idiot things a beginner (or cop) can do to make any kindergarten lesson a complete failure. Watch and cringe. I know this pun is a cop-out, but blurb over.

Episode 74: Emotional investment

How invested are you in your students? How long did it take you to become invested in this way? Why are some teachers not invested? What does it mean to be invested? Steve and Troy waffle in a rather circular and convoluted way about these and other wondrous questions in this very podcast! Listen to it.

Episode 73: Failure

In this podcast, Steve fails a lot. It's on purpose because he is doing a meta-demonstration of how failure can be a marvelous way to mortify - no, to create learning, development, growth and improvement. See, failure is a good thing, actually, even though most schools avoid, dodge, escape and evade it. What this podcast really is about is Troy's wonderful journey into the world of teaching Young Learners. Step aside, professional YL teachers - Troy is here!!

Episode 72: CLIL

Do you like your CLIL hard, or soft? Or would you prefer your CLIL tempered with a bit of EMI? And if you want to have a CLIL lesson, would you like your maths with a bit of English, or do you like your English with a bit of maths stuck in it? Should language teachers even worry about content, or is content the new future of ESL? All these penetrating questions! We've never written a blurb in this style before!

Episode 71: Teaching and learning online

Are our learners really learning language when they're learning online only? If you can understand that question, nicely done! Steve and Troy successfully waffle about the stigma of online learning in the light of the latest fashion of staying at home when you study (because of Covid, not because people are too lazy to take a shower and wear fresh socks). How on earth, Troy and Steve wonder, can we even know when students are actually learning - but then again, we wonder this even when they're right in the classroom with you. What are the ways in which we now learn online? What are you learning from reading this blurb online? Perhaps you should stop reading this meandering waffle and go listen to people waffle instead.