Overseas Teaching Jobs Update!

Countries are continually crying out for English teachers. Every week, hundreds of new jobs are posted around the globe. Just look at all the new positions waiting for qualified applicants.

This Week's Worldwide Teaching Jobs as of February 23, 2015:

Austria 1, Brazil 1, Burma 4, Cambodia 2, China 100+, Colombia 2, Cyprus 1, Czech Republic 9, East Timor 1, Ecuador 1, Egypt 1, France 2, Georgia 1, Germany 6, Honduras 1, Hong Kong 5, Hungary 1, India 1, Indonesia 21, Italy 35, Japan 9, Jordan 2, Kazakhstan 5, Kosovo 1, Kuwait 1, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 2, Malaysia 2, Mexico 1, Morocco 1, Mozambique 1, Oman 4, Poland 2, Portugal 3, Romania 3, Russian Federation 12, Saudi Arabia 23, Singapore 5, Slovakia 3, South Korea 5, Spain 35, Taiwan 2, Tanzania 1, Thailand 3.

Can you qualify?  Do you have:

A degree? 

A TESOL/TEFL Certificate? 

A good command of the English language?

 Enthusiasm? 

Willingness to accept other cultures?

If you answered an enthusiastic "YES!" to the above, start applying today! If you are missing a TESOL/TEFL Certificate, we can get that for you in 4-6 weeks. Click here!

The 5 Best Study Aid Apps for Students

It’s not easy for students to stay on task these days. From Facebook to Instagram and Twitter to instant messaging to pop up, there are so many distractions. Some study aid sites even offer a ‘study break’ where students can take five minutes to check out the latest celebrity news. But it’s never really five minutes, is it? So why not use technology to fight technology? There are some fabulous study aid apps out there designed especially to help students stay on track and stay focused.

1. Self Control

The minute a student turns on their computer, they’re exposed to countless offers to do anything other than study. That’s where Self Control comes in. Self Control is an open source app for Mac users that allows students to block their own access to any website that they find distracting. Students can pick sites such as Facebook, Twitter and so forth, and block them for a specific period of time. For example, if they have a one-hour session with their tutor or study group they can set the timer to expire after 60 minutes. Self Control will not prevent a student from accessing sites they need for studying such as Dictionary.com, and is free of charge.

2. Sworkit

Many high school students sit down for extended periods of time throughout the day only to come home and sit some more. Regular exercise is extremely important to keep the brain going but, during finals and test prep time, many students can’t make it to the gym or outside in the sunshine. This is where Sworkit can lend a hand. Students can download this app and start by choosing the length and type of workout they want (stretching, yoga, and light cardio are recommended for study breaks),and then start exercising. The app takes students through their workout and gives them breaks as needed. Although this app wasn’t made specifically for students, it’s a great way to take a mental and physical break from sedentary study and return to homework revitalized and refreshed. Sworkit is free and is available on Apple and Android.

3. StudyRoom

Many students feel that they can learn better in a group, especially when it comes to those tough AP classes. Students can use StudyRoom in order to stay connected with their peers. Users can access student notes, get help with their homework from classmates and chat with them (hopefully about the lesson). This is a great idea for students who tend to come home from school and have forgotten important assignment papers or for those who forget to write things down. Students who belong to StudyRoom can keep in constant contact and get any last-minute important information. Great for a student budget, StudyRoom is free. Students can use it through their Facebook or email account.

4. StudyBuddy

Many students will sit down for four or five hours to study on their own only to find at the end of a session that they only got two or three hours worth of actual work done. Studying in a group can be a great way for some students to stay on task, depending on where they fall in the introversion-extroversion spectrum. StudyBuddy provides an instant study group from the comfort and convenience of a student’s home. This app serves as a coach or organizational tutor of sorts. StudyBuddy will help students keep track of the amount of time that they actually spend on study versus the time spent on distractions. Users will receive score reports and can use timers to help them stay on track. This app is available on iOS and Android. StudyBuddy is only $.99.

5. Vocabology – Word of theDay

One of the things that almost every high school student needs to work on is expanding their vocabulary. When students write assignments at home or need to prepare for an in-class essay, they often use the same word over and over again. This can easily result in a lower grade. Vocabology to the rescue! This app is only $.99 and well worth the price. Vocabology helps students expand and build vocabulary with ease while they do their work. It’s best suited towards students who need to improve their essays or in-class speeches.

In Short

Technology has expanded our educational spheres while simultaneously making them smaller and more global. Overall, the constant connection to the outside world can bring today’s students closer to a broadened education and help them connect to information at the click of a button. These top 5 study aid apps use our current technology to take students away from these constant interruptions, teach self-regulation, stay on task, and eventually improve grades and reduce unnecessary study time that can lead to the opening of more educational doors in the future.

Source: http://www.edudemic.com/5-best-study-aid-apps/

Imaginary vs. Imaginative

Reading that a child in Texas was suspended for bringing “an imaginary ring” to school, I marveled that the school officials were able to detect the ring’s presence.

Here’s the headline:

Texas School Suspends 9-Year-Old for Terrorism
Because He Brought Imaginary Hobbit Ring To School

In fact, the child brought a real ring to school, presumably a replica of the ring carried by Bilbo Baggins in the Peter Jackson movie The Hobbit.
The ring was real, but its magical powers were imaginary.

The English word image derives from Latin imago. One meaning of image is “mental picture.” Something imaginary or imagined exists in the mind.

Here is a review of image words with definitions and examples:

imagination (noun): The power or capacity to form internal images or ideas of objects and situations not actually present to the senses. Example: It is because of the development of the imagination during childhood that adults are able to do many of the tasks that daily life demands. 

imaginary (adjective): Existing only in imagination or fancy; having no real existence; not real or actual. Example: Lilliput is an imaginary country visited by Gulliver.

imaginative (adjective): relating to, or concerned in the exercise of imagination as a mental faculty. Example: Imaginative Artists Find New Ways to Deal With the Western Landscape Tradition

imagine (verb): conceive in the mind. Example: The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

imagined (past participle): invented, created in the imagination. Example: The second basic axiom concerning power is that the powerful always try to create an outside enemy, real or imagined, to bind the followers to the leaders. 
Errors also occur with the pairs imaginary/imagined and imaginary/imaginative:

Incorrect: It is easy to perceive a country as an imaginary enemy.  
Correct : It is easy to perceive a country as an imagined enemy.
The country actually exists, so it can’t be imaginary. It can, however, be “an imagined enemy.”

Incorrect: Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginary play.  
Correct : Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginative play.

The play is not imaginary; it is real. Because the child is exercising imagination, the play is imaginative.

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/imaginary-vs-imaginative/

Putting humanity back into Thai education

Putting humanity back into Thai education 
Published in the Bangkok Post: 13 Feb 2015 
Writer: Wasant Techawongtham

One of the most excruciating experiences of being a parent in Thailand is looking for the right school for your children, starting as early as pre-school age.

Internet forums like the popular Pantip.com are crammed full of posts from anxious parents relating the trials and tribulations of making such choices. For many parents, the experience is most grueling when their children are ready for kindergarten because they believe it will lay down the foundations for their entire lives. 

And who's to say their anxiety is unreasonable when the Thai education system
can be described as, for lack of a better term, one huge mess?

But it's a necessary mess that parents must deal with. And to be on the safe side, they try to get their children into the best school they can find, whatever it takes, to ensure their children the bright  futures they deserve.

Once in kindergarten, many of the youngsters will find that their carefree days, for all practical purposes, are over. It's now study, study and study some more.
Many parents — quite possibly the majority of them — put their children in tuition schools just so they don't fall behind their classmates and also to improve their chances of successful entrance into the first grade. Imagine that — children must face the horror of preparing for an entrance exam at the tender age of six!
By this time, the parents themselves are nervous wrecks, and usually it's the mothers who suffer the most.
One of the horror stories circulating on the internet last year was the heart-wrenching tale of a kindergarten child whose upper-middle class parents put him through an educational hell.
After the boy's regular school day was done, he was sent off to a tuition school. Following dinner he had to study. The next day, he would have to get up at 5.30am for regular school.
On Saturdays and Sundays he had more classes at tuition school, with a swimming lesson thrown in. There was practically no play time for the child. The only TV programmes he was allowed to watch were educational and infotainment shows, no cartoons or other "nonsense".
One evening the child went out riding his bicycle alone, as he had made no friends in his housing estate due to his tightly controlled schedule. When his parents called for him
to come back in for dinner and study, he ignored them. Finally, the father forcibly took him in and threatened to destroy his bike for being "so naughty".
Eventually, the boy passed the entrance exam for first grade. But life remained as study-intensive as before. Many tearful pleas from the boy for play time fell on deaf ears. To cut a long story short, one day the boy suffered a severe nervous breakdown and withdrew into himself so completely no one was able to draw him out.
I chanced upon this story after reading a recent report that the National Reform Council and the Education Ministry have agreed that kindergarten should be included in compulsory education, thus extending it from nine to 11 years.
I honestly don't know what to make of the announcement but it seems to me the initiative, if it comes to pass, does not address the problem where it matters.
The problem, as many experts and commentators have pointed out, is too much emphasis on rote learning and obedience to authorities, which causes a lack of creative thinking among students. Many schools also fail to provide quality education and lack qualified teaching staff.
But the most serious flaw of our education system, as far as I'm concerned, is the philosophy behind its policy — a policy that aims to produce human resources to fulfill the needs of the economic sector rather than nurturing ethically and socially responsible citizens for future society.
So what we have are educational institutions that operate like factories, turning out products to satisfy the market; or military academies producing obedient troops, instead of being places of learning and enlightenment.
Education Minister Adm Narong Pipatanasai was quoted as saying: "Basic education is essential to equip students with knowledge to further their studies at higher levels. The sooner they are taught, the faster they can remember and learn."
But why should they have to "remember and learn" at such a young age? Shouldn't they be allowed to play, get dirty and even get hurt sometimes as children should and in the process learn the art of living with other human beings in society at large?
Shouldn't parents be allowed to enjoy their children while they are growing? Shouldn't parents and children have opportunities to enjoy their moments of fun and tenderness together more?
Why should they be pressured into turning out economic warriors rather than common, decent citizens?
This is not to say that the goal of running an economy effectively is not important. Everybody knows it is. It is a matter of survival, after all. But that should not be the primary objective of an education system. 

I believe that if an education system provides nurturing and intellectually stimulating learning experiences, the economy will be taken care of in due course.
I believe the ethically and socially responsible citizens who will emerge from such a system will know what has to be done to keep the economy strong. There will be competent − and likely honest − people who will be able to run businesses and government.
So let's fix the system where it is broken. The problem, I fear, is that we are too stuck in our current malaise and inertia to move in a different direction. 

Wasant Techawongtham is former News Editor, Bangkok Post.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/473848/putting-humanity-back-into-thai-education. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Farangs need to pass "Thainess" course to get teacher license

Bangkok:- To get a teachers’ license in Thailand, foreigners must first take a 21-hour course on Thainess and Thai education laws.

Prof Dr Paitoon Sinlarat, who heads the Teachers Council of Thailand (TCT), says the course is mandatory for any foreigner who is interested in taking a teaching job here.

“We have required them to take this course because Thai culture and theirs are completely different,” he says.

According to him, the course is a must even to foreigners who have already got a teacher’s license from their home country.

“For those who have already been a licensed teacher in their homeland, they take just the 21-hour course. For those who have never got a license from their homeland, they must take a longer course,” Paitoon explains.
He adds that the longer course covers a total of 42 hours, with content spanning from Thainess, to Thai laws, to Thai education concepts, to Thai educational psychology, and to educational evaluation.

Paitoon says in the past, only two universities were authorized to conduct such courses. However, the TCT has now decided to make these courses available at more facilities.

“Other universities should contact the TCT now if they want to organize such courses. They can even arrange the training in collaboration with schools,” he says.

The TCT has made these courses on Thainess mandatory for foreign teachers despite loud complaints from international schools, which lament that the courses make it even harder to recruit foreigners to teaching jobs.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/800012-farangs-need-to-pass-thainess-course-to-get-teacher-license/?utm_source=newsletter-20150213-1502&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

Punctuation Mistakes: Possessive of S-Nouns Singular in Meaning

The rule that plural nouns ending in s form the possessive by adding only an apostrophe is well understood. For example:

the babies’ beds
the writers’ laptops
the witnesses’ testimony

The rule that nouns singular in meaning but ending in s also form the possessive by adding an apostrophe is perhaps not so well understood. For example:

mathematics’ rules
politics’ true meaning
Highland Hills’ late mayor
the United States’ role

Here are some examples from the Web that do not follow the rule:

Incorrect: The world beyond the United States’s borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways. —Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2009.
Correct: The world beyond the United States’ borders can be conceptualized in any number of different ways.

Incorrect: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’s beaches. —Business site for wedding photographer.
Correct: Some of them have had weddings on the powder-soft sands of the Bahamas’ beaches.

Incorrect: The United States supports Belarus’s efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible. —US government site.
Correct: The United States supports Belarus’ efforts to complete this commercial project as expeditiously as possible.

Incorrect: Cyprus’s parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor. —The Wall Street Journal.
Correct: Cyprus’ parliament rejected its government’s bailout deal with the euro zone without a single vote in its favor.

Incorrect: It turns out that much of General Motors’s profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. —Environmental blog about electric car.
Correct: It turns out that much of General Motors’ profits were derived from the sale of such parts through its Delphi division. 

Source:www.dailywritingtips.com