It’s been an incredibly busy couple of months, so I’m way behind with the digests…last one was 1st March! So get ready for a long post…
There were webinars with Alex Popovski on graphic novels, Bhavna Gupta on storytelling, Nicola Prentis on investing and Jo Gakonga on video production. We had a couple of chats in Trainer Talking Time on engaging colleagues in CPD and incorporating different approaches into our input. And lots of Wednesday Questions!
- Have you ever taught using Telegram?
- How useful is the CEFR?
- Could you teach without tech?
- What are your top tips for young learner materials?
- What’s your favourite bit of stationery?
- What are your top tips for getting the most out of a conference?
- What’s the most important factor in a person’s ability to learn a language?
- When and how do you teach punctuation?
- What are your thoughts on phonics programmes?
- Do you prefer teaching familiar content or tackling a new topic?
Some courses and resources for you:
Bhavna shared a link to a Gender in language education course and her latest lesson plans on Stage fright and adopting stray animals. Jo asked whether ChatGPT might replace teachers, shared some tips on getting around research paywalls and ideas on how to adapt your coursebook. On the topic of AI, Charlie shared a video with some tips to incorporate it into your lessons.
Silvina had a lesson plan on the Sounds or Nature, and another on project management. Quick and Easy English shared a lesson plan on Crisis in the Workplace, another on the second conditional. ESL Job Center shared ideas for games with young learners, vocabulary activities, reading activities and speaking activities.
Jane started a thread with some ideas on how to use Canva, following on from Clare Hayward’s webinar on the topic and Greg shared a link to a podcast on teaching literacy to young learners. Nicola shared information on National Insurance contributions for UK nationals or anyone who has worked in the UK for three or more years. Issues 12, 14, and 15 of the University Grapevine came out and there were some great questions from Hubsters…
An anonymous member asked an important question about conditions working with online companies and there was a handy question from Michelle on top tips for using Zoom with young learners. Valentina asked about our reasons for becoming a teacher, the types of students you don’t enjoy working with and what to do if students don’t pay. She also shared a link with the most recent episodes of her podcast, The Edupreneur’s Journey. Erin asked about times when you’ve forgotten something during class and looked for ideas on activities for learners to do with their phones. Rozalia asked about recording learners during online classes and Rachael asked whether working for free is ever a good idea. Practice English with News asked about using foul language in the classroom and using a CRM (and I learnt that CRM stands for customer relationship management). Mike got us chatting about modernising coursebooks and Melissa asked about using sites like Teachers Pay Teachers.
Events that have happened over the past couple of months:
Bhavna shared a link to a British Council session on Equity in the Classroom, Valentina ran a session called PROTECT to chat about terms and conditions and pricing for classes and another on Lead Magnets. Leo shared an event on The Generative Power of Lexical Chunks, Meri has recently set up a membership to her site The Native Speaker Teacher (and she’ll be joining us later this month for a webinar!) and Jo shared a link to the Momentum summit on setting up an online ELT business.