Hub Digests

Hub digest – October, 2022

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I’m a bit behind with the October digest as we’re already eight days into November…hopefully that’ll mean less to do next month!

We had a couple of fabulously practical webinars last month, with Rachel Tsateri talking about eclectic planning and teaching and Dylan Gates sharing ideas for doing more with less in Speaking Unplugged. As always, there were insightful comments to our Wednesday Questions:

Lots of quality content from Hubsters too, as always! There are a couple of things which have now passed, but keep an eye on future opportunities….for example, Melissa shared an opportunity to join the MEXTESOL Journal team and Rachael ran a fabulous 5-day LinkedIn visibility challenge – you might have seen some posts from folks involved! Ciarán also shared an awesome list of webinars in October and November. 

We had resources from Silvina on quiet quitting, ideas for incorporating STEM from Elen, Halloween activities from Charlie’s Lessons, storytelling with Bhavna and Robert shared the next issue of The University Grapevine.

There was some chat around financial stability in our profession thanks to a post from The Chilled Investor, Nicola. Jane shared a link to a Russell Stannard video on using Wordwall and we had a question from Stephanie on resources for a learner who works in project management. There was also an article from Jo on dealing with stressful situations.

Erin from Everything EFL Podcast was busy this month, speaking about lexicalising grammar, posing questions on setting boundaries, how to put yourself first and feeling under pressure, making mistakes as a teacher, advice for new teachers, making the most of context in a lesson and sharing ideas for using audioscripts. 

Hub digest – September 2022

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I love September ❤ It’s getting a little cooler here in Spain, but still nice enough to be outdoors, plus the leaves are starting to turn more autumnal. Plus, although things tick over in the Hub in July and August, a lot of our Europe-based members also take a well-deserved rest from thinking about work, so come September there’s often a little more buzz in the group.

So, what’s been happening in the Hub this month? We had a couple of great live sessions, with Kelsea and Gonzalo from Eurospeak chatting to us about their Erasmus+ project, Teaching Grammar for Spontaneous Communication, and a conversation with Dr JPB Gerald on his book, Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness.

Here are the links to our Wednesday Questions for this month:

And our fabulous Hubsters shared lots of great posts too:

At the end of August, Charlie shared his latest video about Google Classroom. There were two new issues of The University Grapevine and Everything EFL had podcast episodes on using dialogues and lesson planning.

There were also posts on creating business English resources, motivating teens to speak, getting ready for the DipTESOL and (un)planning your CPD. There was also a handy thread from a Hubster asking about qualifications in ELT, plus a question followed by a blogpost on Creative Commons.

Hub digest – 31st August, 2022

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What lexis will you probably NOT find in a coursebook? (Wednesday Question)
How do you include differentiation in your classes? (Wednesday Question)
What's the most memorable CPD session you've attended? (Wednesday Question)
Becoming an inclusive teacher - with Michelle Worgan (webinar)
How important is context? (Wednesday Question)
When has tech let you down in a lesson? (Wednesday Question)
Tips for obtaining a PhD scholarship - with Cecilia Nobre (webinar)

Wowsers, it’s the last day of August today! It’s been a little quieter in the Hub tis month and we didn’t have our Thursday coffee breaks as I was doing some extra work on the Trinity DipTESOL. But we have had two fantastic webinars: Cecilia Nobre joined us to share her top tips for obtaining a PhD scholarship and then towards the end of the month, Michelle Worgan came along to talk about being an inclusive teacher.

This month’s Wednesday Questions were:

There were some interesting questions in the Hub too, with Annette asking about Seesaw, Helen looking for VYL resources and Charlie asking whether Google could offer the best LMS. And there were some great shares from Hubsters:

Hub digest – 28th July, 2022

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Including dyslexic language learners - with Anne Margaret Smith (webinar)
How can ELT be a force for good? (Wednesday Question)
What do you think are the pros and cons of summer schools? (Wednesday Question)
Time to Mouth Fitness: Quick Pronunciation Activities for Business/ESP Students - with Olga Preopodobnaya (webinar)
Do you use translation in the classroom? (Wednesday Question)
How do you deal with bullying? (Wednesday Question)

Another month done and dusted in the Hub, with two fantastic webinars from Anne Margaret Smith (Including dyslexic language learners) and Olga Prepodobnaya (Time to Mouth Fitness: quick pronunication activities for Business / ESP students) and four new Wednesday Questions:

Fiona Hunter was looking for resources on primary-aged learners’ developmental stages and earlier in the month she was also doing some research into the challenges YL teachers face. If you’re looking for ideas on using puppets in the classroom, check out Fiona’s post on that topic too.

There was a new lesson plan from Silvina Mascitti on tattoos and ageing and another from Bhavna Gupta on flight attendants’ uniforms and shattering stereotypes.

We continued the discussion around grammar McNuggets with a post from Everything EFL Podcast, who also shared a post on Krashen’s approach to reading, and some ideas on dealing with quieter students. Erin also posted about working on writing in the classroom.

There was a link to an article with practical ideas for dealing with L1 interference in pronunciation from The University Grapevine.

Charlie’s Lessons shared a video about Zoom’s new whiteboard feature and a day-one activity for all ages and levels.

We also had a post from TGSC – Erasmus+ who’ll be joining us later in the year to talk about their project on teaching grammar for spontaneous communication – looking forward to hearing more about it!

And at the very end of last month, we had a couple of interesting questions from Hubsters: Bianca Moody asked about using WhatsApp to deliver lessons and Karen Greaney was looking for ideas around project-based learning.

Hub digest – 30th June, 2022

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The end of another month in the Hub and it’s been a wonderfully inspiring month with webinars to engage our young learners with writing from Katherine Reilly and a session on emotional intelligence with Claire Martine Moloney. Don’t forget that if you missed either of these, they’re available to view in the Facebook group.

There have been some interestng Wednesday Questions this month which you can add to at any point:

Charlie shared another fabulous video with tips on how to easily create multiple choice quizzes on Google docs.

Hugh Donagher shared an interesting article about how English language learners navigate the world of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ English.

Silvina shared more of her wonderful lesson plans, this time on the topics of inspiration and burnout.

For World Environment Day, Bhavna Gupta shared a lesson plan to create awareness of climate action. She also shared a resource on the topic of talking to our learners about war.

Damien Mackay asked about inspiring adolescent learners to read, particularly those who are preparing for exams.

Bianca Moody was looking for coursebook suggestions for a general English course.

Robert Stroud of The University Grapevine posted links to some articles on giving learners more confidence when speaking and how to get them to listen to each other more. There is also a call for articles if you’re interested in publishing your own teaching idea or research.

Erin O’Byrne of the Everything EFL Podcast posted tips on using breating in class, asked whether content or confidence is more important, and what you take into account when planning a lesson. She has also recently done an epiisode on the Lexical Approach if you’re interested in learning more.

Alan Bray of ESLmooc shared an activity with questions to get students speaking.

Paola Dell Acqua shared an idea for some summer reading for young learners.

Diana Joyce shared a link to some upcoming professional development webinars from Awesome ESL.

Hub Digest – 20th May, 2022

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Oh boy, it’s been a long time since the last Digest as I had a busy month in April and then went to the UK at the start of May. So lots to catch up on here. You may also notice that the text looks slightly different onscreen – I’ve just discovered Bionic Reading which highlights the key letters at the start of the word enabling you to read more quickly (apparently!). However, it also seems to mess up the spacing a little… 🙄

Wednesday Questions
How do you foster the home-school connection?
What are your favourite writing activities?
Do you block-plan?
Canva: how do you and your students use it?
Do you offer a free first lesson?
Do you get conference FOMO?

Classroom resources
Using fruit and vegetables to teach the digestive system from Sowjana
A lesson plan based around Ruby’s Worry for young learners from Paola
Lesson plans from Silvina: Are you a foodie? and Why I love airports
And a joint collaboration from Harry and Silvina on edible tableware
A lesson plan from Peter on pronouns including non-binary they/them
Ideas from Charlie’s Lessons to use Virtual Vacation, Blooket for listening and pronunciaton practice and iSpring to improve Powerpoint presentations

Other fabulous bits and bobs from Hubsters
A question from Kamila on ICQs and CCQs
Johanna posted about her experiences teaching reading to higher-level learners
There was also a question from Melissa about writing fiction
Robert posted links to The University Grapevine newsletter in mid-April and at the end of April
Rozalia asked for hints and tips on writing video scripts
Erin of Everything English Podcast posted a couple of questions about pre-teaching chunks of language, how to promote autonomy and asking ICQs and CCQs
Melissa posted a Call for Papers for MEXTESOL’s annual convention – open until 31st May

Beyond ableism and inspiration porn: representing disability in ELT materials - with Lottie Galpin (webinar)
Behind the scenes of Business English materials - with Silvina Mascitti (webinar)
Autonomy Development in Writing Classes - with Gizem Genç (webinar)