Active Language online staffroom

Development in Action

Getting together three times a term to share ideas and experiences is one of the great things about working in an academy that takes professional development seriously. A big part of development is action, feedback, reflection and then new action. I love that through the process of peer observation I´ve had the opportunity to put this into effect.

Talking to our teachers during appraisals what has come out is that peer observations has been both a rewarding and reassuring experience. Teachers do things differently. Teaching styles vary.  It´s okay to be serious and quiet. It´s okay to get close in with your students. Getting fresh insights into our own practice- and keeping feedback focused and constructive- helps to professionalize what we do in what can sometimes be perceived as an a isolated environment.

Here are some of the practical tips and activities we shared in groups last term. Don´t forget to ask the person if you wanted to know more!

 

 

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Use Pop Songs to Learn Connected Speech and Sound more Fluent in English

Colm Boyd, a materials writer and British Council teacher in Barcelona shows how attention to connected speech in pop music can help improve fluency in spoken English. A nice re-cap of what connected speech consists of including clear examples for each different type.

 

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Planning with the Teacher´s Book- as easy as ABC

You can travel without a list of course but you will avoid a few problems if you spend a bit of time planning – not a whole week though. That would be silly. A few minutes should be enough. Pre-empting problems will bring peace of mind and when it comes to teaching, this is a major defence against burnout and work stress. Wise words from Katherine Bilsborough´s British Council article on writing lesson plans using the Teacher´s book.

 

 

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The Introversion Valley

Introversion: the hidden strength in language learning? (guest post)

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Bank of online observable lessons

Hi, thanks Daniel Barber for fb sharing Sandy Millin´s bank of observable lessons from her blog designed to help time-short teachers observe and learn from other teachers’ lessons.

Sandy has divided the videos into loose categories, with a sentence or two to help us decide which are the most relevant to us. Within the categories, they’re just in the order she´s found them!  If you find any broken links she´s happy to hear from you to fix them.

Feel free to comment on any real gems or any particular focus that interests you.

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Carmen´s Growth Mindset Talk at ACEIA 2017

Here is a link to my presentation at ACEIA 2017 : an introduction to growth mindsets. Although it might not make much sense on its own there are live links to videos that explain the basics and how they affect our student´s learning. Any questions, just ask!

Image result for growth mindsets images

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Tefl del Sur Saturday 28th October!

 

Here´s Steve O´s very stylish poster for the upcoming Tefl del Sur event.

Fabulous sessions, good fun: a great local Conference.

Only a week to go until Tefl del Sur! Here is some information about our sessions next Saturday:

Chris Johnson from St James Language Center in Seville will be talking about Creating and Exploiting Learning Opportunities in a workshop that is relevant to teachers to students of all ages.

Kasia Kepka will be doing a session called “Now, this is interesting! – giving teenagers a reason to read” which looks at ways of engaging teenagers – always a tricky task!

For more details about these talks, visit the event page.

Finally, our third session will be a bit of a surprise… to find out more, come along!

We hope to see all our old members and lots of new faces

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Welcome!

Here you’ll find links to teaching blogs, professional development resources, the Active Language Calendar, masses of teaching tips and lots, lots more! Click on a Category on the left to get started.

If you’re looking for information about teacher training courses or English classes, please visit our website.

You can also follow us on facebook.

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Classroom management

Hi everyone,

Just a quick word to say that we’ve sorted out the glitches and the online staffroom is back up and running. Apologies for the delay.

New additions include:

Notes on the PDM sessions by T (Expectations) and Kate (Discipline and Classroom Management).   Both on the PDMs page.

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who shared a takeaway from Kate’s session.  I’d like to share them all with you here:

Takeaways from Kate’s session

Victoria:

It’s sometimes such a relief to hear how other peoples classes are going and issues that they have because you realise that your daily challenges are not just ones that you are dealing with but ones that other people are too! I think sitting down and sharing them and asking the consensus for advice in a supportive atmosphere is great!

I really liked discussing the nitty gritty issues in the classroom with everyday examples of annoyances/problems and how to handle them. The issues that come with different age groups are exactly the ones that I’ve have witnessed in my classes e.g. teens – lateness, no homework, no interest! Also I have tried some of the suggestions mentioned so it’s good to hear I am on the right track.

I know I need to work on L1/L2 control, giving clear instructions and handing over some control to my students.

 

T:

terrible as it may sound, my takeaway was that I enjoyed hearing about the problems other people are having with their groups as we can often feel a little isolated in our classes and like problems we’re having are only happening to us. No matter how long you’ve been teaching, you can still be faced with difficult situations and so it always feels ‘nice’ to hear that colleagues don’t have perfect classes all the time too!

Kasia:

The ideas that I liked were:

  1. giving 3 points to SS who finish first, to encourage them to do an activity they were reluctant to do.
  2. writing a list of stages of the lesson on the board so that SS know what’s coming up.

 

Andy:

I’ll remember for the future that if I have particularly difficult teens or adults in class, I can be quite straightforward about discussing their reasons for being in class. Should the problem persist I could even invite them to leave. Hopefully this would get them to reassess the situation.

Dani:

My takeaway..a steal from Ceri on there being support around for those problem classes. ,I noticed that people felt comfortable to share experiences on those classes-not always easy to do. Loved the fact that the room`s brimming with ideas on how to deal with those issues.Great brains! 🙂

Nick:

AL support was my takeaway.

Always good to meet up as, by choice, I’m in SFN.

 

Kate:

My main takeaway as a co-ordinator is that I’ve become aware of some problems which teachers are having with students.  I knew about 97% of them but a couple came to light which were new to me!  Hopefully, some of the teachers’ takeaway will be to share their problems with co-ords and colleagues.

Simon B:

My takeaway…it’s helpful for the new teachers that there are sessions like this and they can use all the ideas in their classes. It backs up what co-ords say and you can see confidence growing in them.

Carmen:

I enjoyed the whole session for its usefulness and timeliness. Some of the questions raised are exactly what I am facing in my classroom right now, from bored teens to a particular 8 year old I have who doesn’t see the point in doing any written work. It was good to share ideas with my little group and with the wider room. My favourite bit was when Kate went round the room and we each had our idea (classroom management solution) put up on the board. I wish I’d taken a photo now!

[Ceri: here’s the list from my notes, may be missing one or two:  L1/L2 control, instructions, monitoring, routines, variety, flexibility, adaptability, groupings, consistency, teacher energy, mood, attitude, handing over control, learning about the students’ motivations, realistic expectations, positive approach, resources, rapport, support, groove, reward system implementation ]

Jill:

my takeaway was the moment near the beginning when we had 20+ factors up on the board that determine/affect classroom management. ugh sooooo many. struck me that it’s quite awesome that we are sometimes able to get all (or enough of) these factors right at the same time and actually achieve a well-managed classroom, and it therefore shouldnt be at all surprising or disappointing (demoralising…heartbreaking…sigh) when we don’t quite manage it! a little emotional detachment in that sense is a good, important thing. as is reminding ourselves of all those things that we ARE doing right while still struggling to find that magic combo of factors that will make for a smooth, effective and happy class.

Edel:

One of my takeaways was I was going to email you about what you said you’ve done in the past with teen classes about the homework excuse I’d love to use it with a teen group who can’t seem to arrive on time.

The dog ate it

JG

My takeaway was definitely the affirmation that I’m lucky to be surrounded with so many brains to pick. Every problem / challenge that was raised was offered a practical solution. Thanks to T and Amy for my sentence lengthening technique for the teens

Lucy G

Points that stuck with me is that there is support for classes that are a bit more challenging and also to bear in mind the difficult/challenging days that the students may be having themselves.

 

Ceri:

I think my main takeaway was the reminder that if we do have challenging (or puzzling) classes, students, levels etc, we should remember that there is always someone who’ll be happy and interested to talk about them, and that the academic coordinators at all the centres are there to offer help and support.

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Third Term Tutorials

With the third term tutorials coming up soon, you might like to read this article on how we can effectively counsel learners.  The tutorial forms which Amy and Simon provide a good focus for our chats and also allow the learners to consider their own progress from one term to the next.

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