Hub Digests

Hub digest – 1st October, 2021

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We’re into October now and it was a fabulous week to see off September. On Tuesday, we got together to exchange ideas on freelance teacher training and we had another chatty moment in the coffee break on Thursday. There were lots of interesting responses to this week’s question as well, looking at first-lesson ideas – this seemed a more popular term than ice-breakers.

Coming up next week in the Hub, we have a Focused Forum on Tuesday and then on Thursday, Michelle Worgan will be joining us for the webinar to share her wishlist for the primary classroom.

Hub digest – 24th September, 2021

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It’s been an awesome week in the Hub with lots of fabulous sharing. On Tuesday, we got to gether for Speakers’ Corner and chatted about the restrictive nature of wordlists, enabling learners to have the conversations they want, solarpunk and -isms. Then on Wednesday there were lots of responses to our weekly question. This week, we asked about ELT blogs worth reading – click here to see the comments and check out the blogs for yourself.

Then on Thursday, we had an inspiring webinar with Chris Walklett sharing ideas on using songs in the classroom. He came with lots of practical ideas as well as some golden rules to exploit the materials to the max. Also this week, there were crowdsourcing questions about how to make the most of language assistants, which social media platform to use with learners and which book to use with older primary students.

Coming up next week, we’ve got Trainer Talking Time on Tuesday and an early coffee break on Thursday (unfortunately we won’t be doing a 5pm coffee break next week). Have a great weekend!

Hub digest – 17th September, 2021

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Happy Friday everyone! Hope you’ve had a good week and it’s been a bit busier in the Hub this week. There was some interesting chat in Tuesday’s Monthly Management Meet Up about the pros and cons of freelancing and that led on to a Wednesday Question about when you’re most productive. There was a question about storytelling along with a wonderful lesson plan from one Hubster and Thursday’s coffee breaks were a catch-up with friends from around the world.

We also set up a new page on the website for those who would like to support the Hub and help to cover the costs of maintaining the site and using vidoconferencing for our live events and webinars.

Coming up next week, we’ve got Speakers’ Corner on Tuesday and a webinar with Chris Walklett of Teaching Tracks on Thursday.

Hub digest – 10th September, 2021

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It’s been a webinar-filled week in the Hub, with Riccardo Chiappini joining us on Tuesday to talk about mediation and Elizabeth Coleman coming along on Thursday to give an introduction to transformative education – which has nothing to do with butterflies!

There was also a request for ELT professionals to join a weekly show on Teachers Talk Radio and a query for tips and advice for working with 3-year-olds in a socially-distanced or online classroom.

In this week’s Wednesday Question, we took a moment to imagine back to pre-Covid times and talk about our favourite classroom layouts and there was also a question about creating courses with an inductive approach.

Coming up next week, we have a Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday and our regular coffee breaks on Thursday. See you there!

 

Hub digest – 3rd September, 2021

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Happy Friday and happy September! July and August seem to have flown by in the Hub – though August was definitely quieter so our last event of the month, Tuesday’s Trainer Talking Time, has been rescheduled for next month when everyone’s more in the mood to talk TEFL.

Talk around DEI has continued in the Hub, with a wonderful video to get us thinking about making our classes more inclusive; we also had a video on an eco-friendly oceans project. The Wednesday Question on exit tickets sparked some conversation and there were also posts on mindfulness and networking.

Finally, on Thursday we were back with our regular coffee breaks and with conversations on Aptis, accentism and authenticity.

Hub digest – 27th August, 2021

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August is definitely a quiet month for the Hub and as yet we’ve had no comments on the Wednesday Question this week…or is it because nobody really knows how we can effectively deal with fossilized errors? There was also a question from a teacher looking to work in Italy and wondering about the sort of paperwork involved and an interesting query about schools requesting a particular level in the learners’ L1, in this case in Spain.

We also held our second Speakers’ Corner event this week and the webinar with Riccardo Chiappini has been rescheduled for Tuesday 7th September as we were having some technical issues.