Posted in Atomic Classroom Habits, Teacher Development

Atomic Classroom Habits: Retrieval Placemat

This is hopefully the first in a series of posts that accompany my recent talk, “Atomic Classroom Habits”, that I gave at Innovate ELT. Follow this link to access the slides from my talk.

One of the ideas I talked about was a using a retrieval placemat that students find on their desks when they enter the class. The aim is to stimulate retrieval of content from the previous class. They should work in pairs to answer the various questions on the mat without looking at their notes. The idea is to push them to retrieve the information from their long-term memory.

I got the idea from Kate Jones’s wonderful book “Retrieval Practice”, which you can find by following this link. Most of her retrieval activities are aimed at teachers of other subjects such as history or politics, so I’ve tweaked her idea for the ESL classroom.

You can download the mat by right-clicking on the image in the post, or by following this link. If you want to edit the placemat, I made it using a simple template on Canva. Follow this link to use my version as an editable template.

Simply print out the placemat in nice bright colours and put it on your students’ desks for when they arrive. Alternatively, you could just project it onto the board at the beginning of each class. Let me know how you get on!

Posted in Teacher Training

Atomic Classroom Habits: Conference Slides

Image credit: Oxford House Barcelona

I had the pleasure of speaking at the Innovate ELT conference at Oxford House Barcelona this past weekend. It was great to connect with so many other ELT professionals and see so many inspiring talks.

My talk was entitled “Atomic Classroom Habits” and its aim was to try to adapt the framework for habit formation outlined in James Clear’s Atomic Habits to language learning.

Below you will find a PDF of my slides from the talk. Over the next few days I will be posting more of the materials I mentioned during the session.

As I mentioned during the talk, I feel like I’m only just beginning to explore the potential for applying habit formation techniques to the world of ELT and I’m keen to receive feedback or collaborate with likeminded people. So feel free to get in touch either through the comments or via Linkedin.

Posted in Teacher Training

Innovate ELT 2023 – May 20th & 21st

Come to Innovate ELT at Oxford House in Barcelona! It’s always one of the best ELT conferences because of the combination of inspiring talks, a beautiful setting and a commitment to fostering a welcoming and supportive atmosphere for networking.

I’ll be giving a talk on Saturday May 20th from 18:30-19:15 entitled “Atomic Classroom Habits”. The aim of the talk is to examine how we can apply theories of habit formation from James Clear’s bestselling book “Atomic Habits” to the ESL classroom.

There are loads of other great talks by a range of inspiring speakers such as Scott Thornbury, Teresa Bestwick, Geoff Jordan and many more!

Follow this link to find out more information about the conference and this one to buy your tickets!

You can also follow Oxford House and the Innovate ELT conference on all the socials. Have a click around to check out lots of videos about the theme of the conference and the various speakers:

InnovateELT Facebook

InnovateELT Instagram

InnovateELT Twitter

Oxford TEFL Facebook

Oxford TEFL Instagram

OxfordTEFL Twitter

Oxford TEFL LinkedIn

Hopefully see you in the beautiful Oxford House garden!

Posted in Teacher Training

Exams Catalunya Online Conference 2022

There’s just one week to go before the Exams Catalunya Conference takes place. Check the link above for information on all the webinars that make up the programme. The theme of this year’s conference is “Navigating the ‘new normality’ of the ELT classroom” and there’s a range of great webinars and online plenaries.

I will be giving a session on Pragmatics and natural English on Friday 18th February at 10:00 Spanish time. Check out the link for details and I hope to see you there!

Posted in Teacher Training

APAC Summer Training Courses: Update

There are still places left on APACs summer training courses. The four courses will run from July 5th-15th 100% online. They will consist of a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous learning. I’ll be running a course on teaching methodologies and lesson frameworks. You’ll learn about a range of approaches and techniques and put them into practice while working on a portfolio of lesson plans and materials that you can use straightaway.

Follow the link below for more information about my course and the three other fantastic courses on offer. A great opportunity for professional development!

https://www.apac365.org/campaign-3

Posted in Teacher Training

APAC Online Teacher Development Courses July 2021

APAC (Associació de Professorat d’Anglès de Catalunya) are running four 100% online teacher development courses this July. They will cover a range of topics and one of them will be presented by me! I will be running a 30-hour course from 5th-9th July entitled “Exploring Methodologies and Lesson Frameworks”, here’s my blurb:

“This course will compare and contrast a range of different methodologies and approaches including task-based learning, the lexical approach and many more practical and applicable tools and techniques. Trainees will develop their understanding of several lesson frameworks that can be adapted for use in their own teaching contexts. They will put their knowledge into practice by developing their own lesson plans and materials throughout the course.”

If that topic doesn’t float your boat, there are 3 more courses on offer:

A Hands-On Introduction to Project-Based Learning, with Cèlia Esquerra

In this hands on course you will learn about the fundamentals of project based learning: origin, elements and characteristics. At the same time, you will learn how to design, implement and assess a project while creating your own project.

Aimed at: Secondary School and Language School teachers

Dates: 12-16 July 2021

Tackling Troubles in the ELT Classroom, with Colin Young

The course empowers English teachers to become language facilitators by providing real solutions to working in a diverse classroom.  

Hands-on practice of differentiated learning, pronunciation improvement tools, and questioning techniques will allow language facilitators to create a supportive learning environment where students and teachers develop the confidence to communicate clearly.

Additionally, teachers will make progress in their own personal language skills by gaining awareness, practice and a solid understanding of their ‘language gaps’.

Aimed at: Primary and Secondary School, and Language School teachers

Dates: 12-16 July 2021

Emotional Intelligence: Mindfulness for teachers and students, with Emma Reynolds

This course will bring together the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course for adults with practices for students that teachers can use in the classroom. We will learn experientially about how to become more focused with our attention, work with difficult thoughts and emotions through meditations, mindful movement and more.

Aimed at: Primary and Secondary School, and Language School teachers

Dates: 5-9 July 2021

Visit the APAC website by clicking the link below for more information or to enrol on the courses, there are special discounts for APAC members. Maybe see you on Zoom in July!

https://www.apac365.org/campaign-3

Posted in Recommended Websites

Podcast Recommendation: What on Earth is a Noun Phrase?

Image

If you’re an English teacher or linguist, check out the great new podcast What on Earth is a Noun Phrase? by Oxford Language Performance. In each episode they speak to a different practitioner in the field of EFL or linguistics and interview them about their area/passion. The episodes are short, insightful, and full of great tips and tools for teachers. You can find them wherever you normally get your podcasts or sign up through their website below:

https://oxfordlp.org/podcast/

You can also follow them on Twitter @whatonearthisa

Posted in Teacher Training

Teacher Development Workshops: The Menu

Josh and Tim are experienced teacher trainers with a variety of different teacher development talks and workshops under their belts. If you’re interested in booking either of them to give a session at your school or institution, below you’ll find a menu of the different sessions they offer.

Contact details:

Tim Warre: tim_rd_warre@hotmail.com

Josh Widdows: joshwiddows@hotmail.com

Josh: Teacher Development Workshops

Josh Widdows delivers a range of workshops for teachers to brush up on their teaching with practical ideas that bring the classroom to life, to enhance our students’ learning experience.

 

These sessions have been delivered in various academies around Barcelona throughout 2018. Tailor-made workshops can be developed on request. Sessions are 90 minutes, but can be adapted to 1 hour if necessary.

 

Pre-developed workshops:         100 euros

Tailor-made workshops:            130 euros

 

Practical Pronunciation

Some teachers shy away from integrating pronunciation into their teaching due to lack of knowledge or lack of confidence in demonstration and drilling.

A practical session on ways of using phonemic script both as a teaching tool in the classroom and as a resource for students to use themselves at home.

For all levels and age groups.

 

Revitalise Revision

Revision is often left to the last minute, when really it should be central to our syllabus.

A session of practical ideas to help teachers provide their students with more effective ways to revise and feel better prepared for exams.

For all levels and age groups.

 

The Key to Teaching Transformations

Key Word Transformations can be taxing for our students, so we should give them much more practice, not only with the techniques employed, but also with the grammatical structures used.

A practical session of activities to help learners unscramble the puzzle of Key Word Transformations more effectively. The workshop gives our students multiple opportunities to discover, analyse and practise the embedded grammatical structures in some surprisingly dynamic ways.

Suitable for all main suite exam level teachers, but open to all.

 

Making your board work

What do students spend most their time looking at in the classroom? The board.

A practical session in ways of using colour, layering, planning and visual aids so that boardwork is more effective and enhances the student’s learning experience.

For all levels and age groups.

Tim: Teacher Development Workshops

Tim delivers a range of different 90-minute teacher development sessions, the titles of which are listed below, email me for further details. Bespoke sessions are also available.

Off-the-peg workshops:         100 euros

Bespoke workshops:            130 euros

  • An introduction to pronunciation: Phonemic script & connected speech
  • Making exam classes more engaging
  • Grammar Refresher – Fresh ideas for teaching typical grammar structures
  • Skills Refresher – Fresh ideas for developing receptive & productive skills
  • Using podcasts in the classroom
  • Using authentic materials in the classroom
  • Classroom lifesavers: warmers & games
  • A crash course in young learners
  • A project-based syllabus for young learners
  • An introduction to Cambridge exams
  • Teaching very young learners (3-6 years old)
  • Teaching proficiency & beyond
  • Blogging & developing your own materials