Time for another catch-up on all the fabulous things that have been happening in the Hub 🤩 Over the past couple of months, we’ve had more interesting live sessions with Meri Maroutian talking to us about native speaker bias, Katherine Reilly sharing tips on making materials more inclusive, Jennifer Murray guiding us into the world of copywriting and Ramy Rashad Abdelreheem with the nuts and bolts of error correction.
Every Wednesday there’s a question to get you thinking and reflecting on different aspects of ELT. Here’s what we’ve discussed over the past couple of months:
- Do you prefer working in-person or online?
- How do you manage your energy levels at work?
- What would be your ELT superpower?
- What is your core belief as an educator?
- What tips do you have to help learners with lexis?
- How do you feel about teaching the alphabet?
- What would you write in a motivation letter?
- What questions will you hear in an interview for a teaching position?
- How do you feel about substituting classes?
There were lots of interesting questions and comments from Hubsters too. Michelle asked if anyone had used the WhatsApp ‘Communities’ feature, Jane was looking for some fun lesson suggestions to help a stressed out learner and Pati asked about posters and display material for the classroom. Eszter was looking for tips on LGBTQIA+ materials for adult learners (Peter shared materials for Pride earlier in the month as well), Bianca asked about teaching young learners online.and Dani asked about online materials for trainee teachers working with adult learners.
For ELT professionals based in Spain, Alan and the ACEIA team were asking for opinions about how the profession has developed in recent years and open to all, but aimed at UK residents past and present, Nicola hosted a Q&A on National Insurance contributions.
There were also some excellent resources: Silvina had lesson plans on time management and career development, Bhavna had a story called Chuchu Manthu’s Jar of Toffees, Un Viaje en Libro shared two posts with tips for summer reading and Jane shared an idea for talking about disastrous holidays. Robert shared the link to Issue 16 of the University Grapevine, We had links to fabulous content from Erin at Better English / Everything EFL podcast on noticing, remembering that our learners are humans first, fixed phrases and chunks and building trust. She also shared details of her new series, Cornerstones of Learning.
Hubsters also shared links to other interesting events: Leo from Learn Your English shared a webinar with Dylan Gates (who you can also see in action in the Hub with his session, Speaking Unplugged: doing more with less) and Cecilia shared details of the BrazTESOL International Conference. Valentina shared details of her upcoming training sessions for edupreneurs and her five-day challenge. Rachael posted about the Second Festival of Freelancing and Nicola was back to share more financial know-how in her Pension Perfect session.