Hub Digests

Hub digest – 7th April, 2022

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It’s been a busy month and my apologies as I’m a little behind with writing up the notes from the webinars. We had a couple of great sessions in March, with Daniel Becker joining us to talk about mental health in ELT materials and Romina Muse coming back for a second webinar, this time on transmedia.

There have also been some great Wednesday Questions. Ahead of Daniel’s talk, we asked what signs tell you you’re overworked; we also asked about ELT buzzwords, volunteering in ELT and the aspects of our profession which are often over-simplified on pre-service qualifications.

Some other interesting questions from Hubsters came in as well: is your pron work proactive or reactive? How learner-centred is your teaching approach? 

And Hubsters shared some great resources too. There were lesson plans from Silvina Mascitti on identity (with Peter J Fullagar) and business meetings as well as one from Bhavna Gupta on Earth Hour. Charlie’s lessons shared great guides to using Baamboozle in class and top tips for teaching young learners and Kelly Aslanidou shared a link to a webinar on using tech to teach pron. Silvina popped up again in one of SpongeELT chats about writing materials and Robert Stroud shared a link to his ELT newsletter The University Grapevine.

Hub digest – 11th March, 2022

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The Wednesday Question this week has had more comments than any other, I believe (except perhaps the one about purple). It would be wonderful for more people to add what they’re doing to combat native speakerism so keep those comments coming! 

We’ve also had questions this fortnight around time management, giving feedback in training and AI bias. Rachel Roberts shared a link to her Festival of Freelancing, coming up next week, along with a question about where freelancers need most support. Plus there were questions around repurposing flashcards and how you approach first lessons with one-to-one learners.

We also had a fabulous webinar with Paulina Woźniak on flipping the classroom and our regular coffee breaks.

Hub digest – 25th February, 2022

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Two months of the year gone now here in the Hub! It’s been a great couple of weeks with another Wonder-ful coffee break as well as a fabulous session from Fiona Mauchline on teaching through the senses.

We had some interesting questions popping up in the Facebook group too. Our Wednesday Questions focussed on self-esteem and backchannelling, and there were also questions around structuring 1-to-1 classes and standardization and bias in oral exams. There was also another fabulous lesson plan from Silvina Mascitti together with Bhavna Gupta on World Englishes, a query around using have or have got and a call for volunteers for the Candles of Hope for Afghanistan project.

Hub digest – 11th February, 2022

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Hello Hubbers! It’s been a fabulous couple of weeks in the Hub, although unfortunately our webinar with Elena Soboleva had to be rescheduled…details of the new date coming soon!

We had some interesting Wednesday Questions, one inspired by Emily Bryson and the fabulous #drawingELT fortnightly challenge on what CPD means to you, and the other coming from another of our top Hubbers, Charlotte Giller, on how people are bringing fun into their classes this February.

There was some interesting chat as well around the future of coursebooks, teaching visually-impaired learners and a lesson plan on Fleetwood Mac’s song about perseverance, Don’t Stop.

We also used Wonder for our coffee breaks this fortnight and we’ll try the same format again for a few more sessions and then see which people prefer.

Hub digest – 28th January, 2022

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There’s been lots of interesting chat in the Hub this past fortnight. In the run-up to Nergiz Kern’s Conversation about the Metaverse and Virtual Reality Language Learning, we asked what different environments people had experienced as a teacher or student in a Wednesday Question. And the following week, we asked about delegating – both as a teacher and in management roles. 

Hubbers have also been sharing some great content: there was a post with an IPA version of Wordle and ideas for low-prep online activities for young learners.

Speaking of young learners, this week we’ll be joined by Elena Soboleva to talk about early years literacy. See you there!

Hub digest – 14th January, 2022

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It’s been a while since the last Hub digest as we took a bit of a break over the festive season. However, there was a calendar of ELT content to keep everyone busy, as well as our Wednesday questions around thunk questions, laughter, ELT goals for 2022 and ELT highlights of 2021.

Then we kicked off the year with a fabulous webinar on graphic facilitation with Emily Bryson and chatted about bringing nature into the classroom in this week’s Wednesday Question. There have also been tips for using Wordwall in the classroom and a thought-provoking chat hosted by Simon Pearlman on whether our classroom can ever really be inclusive.

Coming up next week, Nergiz Kern will be joining us for a conversation about the metaverse and virtual reality language learning…can’t wait!