Last week, I forgot to write my blog. Shame on me! Shame on me! I know it's only my second blog and I should still be in the first throes of passion for it, but I found myself uncontrollably in love with the life cycle of bees. No, it's not a film or a new band or anything so cool. I just became fascinated by larva, pupas, workers and drones and everything else bee-related.
Odd? You may well think so, but I think it is a well-known side-effect of creating your own materials when a teacher, especially an English language teacher. You sit down with a language point that you need to 'exploit' and you think 'hmmm what could I use to exploit this? I know, an article on the Nobel Prize'. Before you know it, you know Laurence Bragg was the youngest winner, that only 41 women have won it (out of 829 given), and can name the winners in chronological and alphabetical order (and reverse)!
Which brings me to my point; TEFL teachers are a mine of random factual information. I hate football, but I know the world cup is named the Jules Rimmet Cup (InsideOut Pre-Intermediate?), there is something called 'police speak' to help officers understand each other in international crime situations - god help us (Cutting Edge Advanced?), and natural rubber was discovered by Spanish conquistadors (IELTS Express).
So, bees... Don't ask me about them. I'll bore you to death. At Target English we are creating materials for IELTS and PTE practice, and I found out all about bees, wrote my listening, recorded it and was so engrossed and pleased, I nearly POSTED MY LISTENING ON FACEBOOK so everyone could enjoy this enlightening gem from the natural world. Fortunately, I stopped myself, realising I had clearly leapt over the line between teacher and geek. In fact, I was so far away from the line I couldn't see it anymore. I was getting ready for chess and an episode of The Big Bang Theory.
So beware (or release) your inner geek TEFLers! And do not hesitate to post me your random points of knowledge from your teachings please! I need more....
P.S. Don't get me started on the male to female ratio of Nobel Prize winners... I think I have found my next blog!
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ReplyDeleteDoes that make us "wiki-teflers" or wiki-teachers knowing all this random info? I've often wondered about the fact checkers for EFL coursebooks and how much is really true or "QI- style" true?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, random facts from EFL books you say - I think Headway produces a few gems such as the lights you can see from space are the fires of nomads in West Africa or Japanese fishing boats.
And Lazlo Biro being the Hungarian inventor of the pen bearing his name.
And my favourite IELTS reading is the cane toad which was apparently introduced into Australia with devastating effects on crops. (Insight into IELTS).
There's nothing wrong with the big bang theory! In it's own way, it is also educational - the juxtaposition of molecular physics and how not to woo a woman...
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