Hub Digests

Hub digest – 9th July, 2021

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There was a positive flurry of activity this week, with some fabulous crowdsourcing from Hubsters around how we teach and review phrasal verbs, some great tools for creating flashcards, voice recognition software and hybrid learning. There were also questions around what a digital poster presentation might look like for a conference and we were introduced to hope spots – “a collection of aqua bijoux scattered around the world that are so ecologically distinct they have the potential to heal the planet—if we protect them.”

There was also plenty of chat in our live events too, with our monthly Trainer Talking Time focussing on how we can develop our skills and knowledge in this area and our regular Thursday coffee breaks filled with thoughts on a variety of topics. There was also a question in the Hub about developing a framework for sessions with experienced teachers and our Wednesday Question on niche markets generated some interesting comments too.

Coming up next week, we’ll be joined by Rachael Roberts of Life Resourceful for a special Q&A on using social media for business purposes. That’s on Tuesday morning so feel free to add any questions to the thread in advance of the session (or come armed with questions!). And on Thursday, Zhenya Polosatova will be sharing her thoughts on reflective practice in the webinar.

Hub digest – 2nd July, 2021

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Happy Friday as we start July – this year is absolutely flying by! As always, it’s been a chatty week in the Hub and there have been some great threads in the Facebook group around recommendations for Business English courses, crowdsourcing ideas for reading texts and thinking about how we share resources with colleagues in our own context and further afield.

In our Focused Forum on Tuesday, we discussed coaching as this is a topic which had come up in a number of Hub chats. You can find the link to the notes here. The Wednesday Question generated lots of interesting responses this week as we talked about our favourite aspects of phonology. Some people liked individual sounds, others features of connected speech or working with rhyme.

And then on Thursday we had an awesome chat with Ixchell Reyes and Brent Warner of The DIESOL Podcast. We talked about their favourite tech tools, how they develop an episode of their podcast, the likelihood of tech replacing teachers in the future and much more. The notes for that will be coming shortly in the webinars section.

At the end of the webinar, we also announced another new feature coming this month in the Hub: Speaker’s Corner. It’s an idea Simon and I had been thinking about for a while, but a recent thread about getting into conference speaking spurred us into action! We’ll be replacing one of the Tuesday Focused Forums with this new event and the idea is for there to be three speakers who present a five-minute talk/idea/practical tip and a question followed by a ten-minute chat in groups to discuss. We’ll be posting a call for speakers in the Hub in the next few days.

Finally, coming up next week we have Trainer Talking Time on Tuesday and our fabulous Coffee Breaks on Thursday. Have a great weekend and see you all soon 😃

Hub digest – 25th June, 2021

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Another Friday, another Hub digest and it’s been a busy week in the Facebook group, with questions around collaborative lesson planning, our favourite conferences, digital coursebooks which are appropriate for pre-service training courses and a quick look at coaching. The Wednesday Question also got people thinking, as we shared how we’ve stepped out of comfort zone in ELT: the move online was mentioned by some people, as well as trying new methodologies and delivering training in other languages or on topics we’re less familiar with.

There was plenty of chat in the live events too, with the Monthly Management Meet Up and Coffee Breaks to keep us engaged.

Next week, we have a Focused Forum on Tuesday and then on Thursday we’ll be joined by Ixchell Reyes and Brent Warner of The DIESOL Podcast in our webinar. 

We’ve also added a new feature on the Calendar page – a padlet so that Hubbers can add details of any CPD events happening.

Hub digest – 18th June, 2021

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What a week it’s been in the Hub! There was some great chat on Tuesday in our Focused Forum as we chatted about how to plan conversation classes. The discussion ranged from what exactly we think of as a conversation class, where to find resources and how to measure progress. You can find the notes for the session on the blog.

Then our Wednesday Question was a little different this week as it was an answer rather than a question. The inspiration came from seeing the activity shared on LinkedIn: give your learners an answer and encourage them to write as many questions as possible. There were some great ideas in the Facebook group, including

  • What colour was Prince’s rain?
  • What should I wear when I am an old woman, with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me?
  • What colour is the tastiest fruit pastille?

Next up, on Thursday, we had a fabulous webinar with Elen Evans of STEM Ginger Education. She talked us through some key concepts in CLIL, shared a folder where she’s set up a space to share resources and introduced us to some of the amazing projects she’s done with students from around the world. The notes will be coming shortly but in the menatime, you can watch the webinar on #catchup if you missed it.

And, finally, we announced that the website is now live! What an exciting way to end the week!

Coming up next week, we have a Monthly Management Meet Up on Tuesday and then the Coffee Breaks on Thursday. Hope to see you there!

Hub digest – 11th June, 2021

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What’s been happening in the Hub this week? Well, we had an interesting chat on Tuesday about digital literacy and assumptions/expectations during the monthly Trainer Talking Time live chat.

On Wednesday, there were lots of interesting responses in a discussion on the Facebook group about the place reading aloud has in the classroom. Interestingly, many people have become more pro-reading aloud through their careers, although it was also highlighted that it’s not something many people do in their day-to-day lives.

And as always, the chats continued in the Coffee Breaks on Thursday as we discussed our approaches to introducing more diverse and inclusive topics into the lesson as well as potential difficulties teachers may face.

Next week, it’s time for another Focused Forum on Tuesday and on Thursday we’ll be joined by Elen Evans of STEM Ginger Education who will be demystifying CLIL for us.

Hub digest – 4th June, 2021

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Oh, what a fun week it’s been in the Hub! There was some great chat in our Focused Forum on Tuesday as we discussed how we can better prepare learners to listen, rather than just testing them each time there’s an audio in class. Ideas included working with the tapescript, teaching them how to better interrupt to support them in interactive listening situations and more on bottom-up processing.

Then on Wednesday there were some interesting comments around making exam prep more relevant. We talked a little about how to engage them more in the process and for them to prepare their own exam questions to get an idea of what the exam is testing. 

And Thursday – which will now be known as THUBsday – saw the fabulous Harry Waters back with us talking about his project, Renewable English. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should as there are live lessons on a Thursday – which can also be watched afterwards – and lots of resources on the site to bring an eco-twist to your lessons.

Next week we have Trainer Talking Time on Tuesday and then our fortnightly coffee breaks on Thubsday. Hope to see you there!