Hub Digests

Hub digest – 23rd April, 2021

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Well, this week has positively flown by! We had our second Focused Forum on Tuesday and the topic of choice for this week was emergent language. It was an incredibly interesting chat as we discussed the importance of having emotional connections to language and time constraints around making space for learners to use the language they need in the classroom. We also talked about some of the challenges around dealing with emergent language on pre-service qualifications and shared some ideas for how to record new words and phrases which come up during the lesson.

Our Wednesday Question this week continued the theme as we asked members to share their favourite vocabulary revision activities.

Then on Thursday we had a wonderful webinar with Fiona Hunter, owner of Kids Club English. She shared her experience of developing and selling self-published materials with lots of great tips about which programmes to use, where you can sell materials and how to build a brand.

Next week we have a Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday and then our regular coffee breaks on Thursday.

Hub digest – 16th April, 2021

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This week saw the launch of our latest event, Trainer Talking Time. This is a monthly hangout for those interested or working in teacher training, be it in-house professional development for teachers, conference presenting or working on training courses. We had a great first session, which was largely spent discussing how we supported teachers during the move online last year. As with many of our events, there are notes coming soon for our members with a more thorough review of what was covered.

There have been some engaging chats this week too around using Google Earth, CV-writing and error correction. And it was lovely to see many familiar faces in our Thursday Coffee Breaks as well – such a wonderful way to connect with other Hub members and catch up.

Looking forward to next week, we have our next Focused Forum coming up on Tuesday morning; whilst on Thursday we’ll be joined by Fiona Hunter in our webinar – she’ll be talking about developing and selling self-published materials.

Hub digest – 9th April, 2021

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Wow, we’ve had a great week in the Hub! On Tuesday, we launched a new feature – a fortnightly Focused Forum. From the poll in the Facebook group, the benefits and drawbacks of using coursebooks was the topic of choice and it was great to be joined by some of our members to discuss the topic together.

The Wednesday Question this week was inspired by a tweet: “Learning is underrated. Grades are overrated.” There was some engaging discussion around alternatives to graded assessment which will be interesting to explore more in the future.

Then on Thursday we were fortunate to have not one but two webinars this week! In the morning session, we were joined by Lina Gordyshevskaya and we chatted about the essentials of teaching pronunciation; then in the afternoon, James Taylor and Ilá Coimbra came along to share the Raise Up! project with us and provided some great tips on creating more diverse and inclusive classroom materials. Lots of food for thought from both of those sessions and the recordings are available to all members who couldn’t make it on the day.

Next week, we have our first Trainer Talking Time on Tuesday and then Coffee Breaks on Thursday.

2nd April, 2021

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We’ve had a quieter week on the Hub, with many members in Europe having a bit of downtime around spring festivals. But, we’re looking forward to some new features which we’re rolling out this month.

Firstly, we decided to change our Progress Hangouts and are setting up a fortnightly Focused Forum in the Tuesday morning slot. We’ll vote the week before on one topic to be discussed during the hour and post it so members can decide whether to come along and chat. We’re also excited to share that we’ll be holding our first trainers’ session in mid-April too, also on a Tuesday morning.

The Wednesday Question was a little lighter this week as and there were some fun responses to the weirdest thing people had learnt from or for a coursebook. And on Thursday, our webinar with the Raise Up! team was unfortunately put back as James is unwell. We wish him all the best and hope they’re able to join us soon.

Hub digest – 26th March, 2021

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We had a change to normal scheduling this week as we’ll be joined by Ilá Coimbra and James Taylor for next week’s webinar, taking advantage of the spring break! So this week we had our Coffee Breaks on Thursday, as well as lots of lively chat on the Hub Facebook group.

We had our second Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday and some interesting questions came out of that regarding where we see ourselves for the next academic year as well as the future for online and hybrid classes.

The Wednesday Question was inspired by Katy Muench, who wrote a blogpost about the six things she’d learnt during a year of online teaching. There were lots of interesting comments on the post about our relationship with technology and some of the positives to come out of the move online, such as a reduction in photocopying.

In Thursday’s Coffee Breaks, we extended some of the conversations happening on threads: discussions around how trainers can be better prepared to support teachers going on to work online and the future of online assessment.

We’ve got some new features coming up in April which we’re feeling rather excited about too!

Hub digest – 19th March, 2021

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Well, it’s March not February as the first image suggests! But we had another week jam-packed full on great events and chat in the Hub. This week we had Progress Hangouts on Tuesday and Friday and suggested using the time to chat through our goals and career directions, based around the ideas from George’s webinar the previous week.

The Wednesday Question this week generated some good discussion, with teachers saying how they sometimes use the celebration of a festival they’re familiar with as a springboard for learners to discuss important days for them and how they are celebrated.

We also had our Coffee Breaks this week, again following the new format of going into breakout rooms with some questions to spark discussion if needed.

There’s a change to ‘normal scheduling’ next week as we’ll be having a Coffee Break again on Thursday, as well as our next Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday.