Hey everybody

Hey everybody,

Very happy to be along for the ride on yet another iTDi advanced skills course. Not sure how many I've taken now but it's a handful over several years - starting with Breaking Rules w/ John Fanselow. I'm also an occasional iTDi blog author and, well, overall enthusiast. Barb and Steven and everyone else involved with iTDi have created the kind of teacher-friendly vibrance in a professional learning and development community that just feels so...right. To the point it kind of makes you scratch your head and ask "why in the world is this so unique?!?!".

Anyway, I started in ELT in 2004 in Sri Lanka, moved to Thailand in 2005, back to the US in 2011, and returned to Thailand this year. I'm currently at Silpakorn University in a small city an hour west of Bangkok supervising young local future English teachers and teaching English to college students. Beyond participating in iTDi happenings I engage in various online professional community activities like ongoing discussion on twitter, IATEFL TDSIG's annual web carnival and bi-monthly podcast, #ELTchat, etc.

It's late Friday night and somehow during a very busy week I managed to get the basics of my Week 1 assignment thrown together but it does need more attention. So, hope to be able to post it tomorrow night or at the latest Sunday morning (on the late side, I know!) and catch up with the pack.

It's been great so far!

The picture is me earlier this evening - my wife took me out for a (gulp!) 40th birthday dinner, and although I love, love, love the local Thai food it was special occasion that called for American beer and a big ol' cheeseburger! :P

The restaurant really had STYLE, which makes me think about one thing I'd say I like about certain materials (not sure if it's quite a 'principle' or not) is actually style. It seems maybe superficial, but I think good aesthetic quality can really support cognitive engagement and flow. And what type of style? I think many...but I have found myself inching more and more towards appreciation of more minimalist, streamlined design (maybe this has something to do with turning - gulp again! - 40?).

I think this is because I want the 'action' to happen within and between the people in the room, not 'stuck on the page'. I think a streamlined, basic approach to written materials puts a certain trust in the teacher and the students to have the ability and the energy to make something happen with just enough input, delivered in style.

Speaking of energy, I'm out of it! Goodnight and I sincerely look forward to the rest of this course! :)