Hub Digests

Hub digest – 20th August, 2021

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Another relatively quiet week in the Hub, but there was some great chat in Tuesday’s Monthly Management Meet Up on the benefits and drawbacks of being your own boss – a topic we’re sure to come back to again. There were also some interesting comments in response to this week’s Wednesday Question, thinking about parsnips and controversial topics for the ELT classroom. We also touched on the topic in one of the Coffee Breaks on Thursday – notes coming soon!

Next week we’re back on Tuesday with Speakers’ Corner – the chance to come along and share something that’s on your mind. And on Thursday, Riccardo Chiappini will be joining us to talk about mediation.

Hub digest – 13th August, 2021

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It was a slightly quieter week in the Hub and we didn’t get any attendees for Tuesday’s Focused Forum, so we’ll keep it as a topic option for next month! There was some action on the Facebook group this, with interesting responses to our Wednesday Question on using the phonemic chart and on error correction techniques in the online environment.

On Thursday, we had a wonderful webinar with Claire Thom on using poetry to promote creativity in the classroom, looking at using haiku in particular. Don’t forget, there are follow-up notes for all our webinars and other live events on the blog – at the top of the page you can choose the notes from specific events and there’s also a search bar if you’ve looking for something in particular.

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

Hub digest – 6th August, 2021

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Another week of engaging chat in the Hub, with our monthly Trainer Talking Time event on Tuesday looking at how we can set new teachers up to continue developing after an initial qualification. Then on Thursday we met up for a fortnightly coffee break – notes will be coming soon on what we chatted about in each session.

Following on from a topic which came up in our last coffee break, the Wednesday Question this week looked at mono- and multilingual classes. There have been some interesting comments so far, such as how people enjoy being able to use the learners’ L1 effectively more in a monolingual class as well as some wonderful stories of cross-cultural learning in multilingual classes.

Coming up next week, we have a Focused Foum on Tuesday; as always, there’s currently a poll in the Facebook group to see what the topic will be. And on Thursday, we’ll be joined by Claire Thom, teacher and author of Ever Forward, to talk about using poetry in the classroom.

Hub digest – 30th July, 2021

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Happy Friday everyone! This week we launched a new feature in the Hub: Speakers’ Corner. It was great fun with three topics to get us thinking – you can read the notes here. Simon chatted about inclusivity in his five-minute slot, and the following day a Hub member shared a link to an upcoming webinar on the topic. There was also an interesting question from another Hubber about how everyone shares materials with their learners or with other teachers. And the Wednesday Question also generated some thought-provoking comments – such a big question that it’s hard to know where to start! 

Stories were a recurring theme as well this week. Not only were we joined by Romina Muse with her incredible webinar on stories to transform challening behaviour, but there was also a question about stories told with yoga poses.

Coming up next week, we have our monthly live chat focussed on teacher training on Tuesday and our regular coffee breaks on Thursday. Hope to see you there!

Hub digest – 23rd July, 2021

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It’s Friday and time for our weekly Hub digest and there have been lots of excellent questions coming up in the Hub over the previous week. We shared thoughts on what a good teacher might look for in a school and if you’re involved in ELT management and hiring, it’s well worth checking out what some of the suggestions are. There were also discussions around alternatives to the n-word, a question about selling editable resources and a link to a podcast episode of teachers talking about working with learners who are neurodivergent or who have dyslexia or other first language difficulties.

Our Wednesday Question this week was a follow-up to a great webinar about developments in ELT over the next five years. In the Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday, we chatted about what the more immediate future holds, thinking about COVID and the problems we might continue to face moving forward. And we rounded off the week with our fortnightly coffee breaks, with interesting chat including working in multilingual classes and how we imagine materials might become more inclusive and representative in the future.

Coming up next week, we have our inaugural Speakers’ Corner event on Tuesday – three speakers sharing their thoughts in a five-minute presentation followed by time to discuss their topics in groups. And on Thursday, we’ll be joined by the amazing Romina Muse in a webinar on stories to transform challenging behaviour. See you there!

Hub digest – 16th July, 2021

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Did you know that the phrase ‘spill the beans’ comes from Ancient Greece? That’s something I learnt this week and which became the theme of our Wednesday Question, with Hubsters sharing their favourite idioms as well as talking about their attitude towards teaching idioms in class. Do you make a mountain out of a molehill when faced with a question about an idiom in class? Some learners request to learn them and some others don’t find them useful; whatever floats your boat, I guess!

In our live events this week we were joined by two amazing ELT professionals: on Tuesday, Rachael Roberts joined us to share her knowledge and expertise as a business coach and gave us some hints and tips on using social media. There are notes on the session on the blog. Then in Thursday’s webinar, Zhenya Polosatova came along to talk about reflective practice, sharing different cycles of how reflection can happen with some incredibly practical formats, including mindmaps, journalling and working with a critical friend.

Coming up next week, we have a Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday and Coffee Breaks on Thursday.